"Steve, "systemic racism" came up in this convo. Have you written about that?"

No, I've never written specifically about it. I think people who are arguing in good faith use terms like "systemic racism," to describe the complex interactions of racism-like things that impact black people or perceptions of black people. Racism that isn't attributable to overt anti-black sentiment or even individual actions, but kind of underlying societal norms.

One of my favourite examples of this is the music and film industry. Black people are overwhelmingly more likely to be portrayed as criminals and thugs and gangsters in the films and on TV. The only music where it's appropriate to talk about drug abuse and crime and murder is "black" music. Advertisers and corporate sponsors don't put their money behind this kind of rhetoric for people of any other skin colour. But it ingrains those stereotypes about black people ever more deeply into the public psyche. It's hard to measure that effect statistically, but anybody who claims it doesn't have an effect isn't a serious person.

But yeah, I don't use the term unless the person I'm talking to uses it, and especially not in my writing, because it's almost uselessly vague. And the people who *aren't* arguing in good faith use it precisely because of that vagueness. It allows them to complain without being specific.