Paul Butler is a former federal prosecutor and a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center. He is the author of "Let’s Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice.''

Malcolm X said, “If you stick a knife nine inches into my back, and pull it out three inches that is not progress.”



It’s great that iconic symbols of racial subordination like the Confederate battle flag finally may be removed from official public spaces. That the issue is even up for debate in 2015 illustrates how white supremacy is embedded in our very sense of normalcy.

On a number of issues, liberalization does not account for racial disparity or persistent racism that will obstruct further change.

It gives liberals too much credit -- and conservatives too little -- to think of removing the flag of a group of people who went to war with the United States to maintain slavery as a progressive idea. People who support official public displays of the Confederate flag should not be described as “conservative.” They should be described as “racist.”



It's great that the United States now joins the 21 other countries in the world where same sex marriage is legal. The United States has moved to the left on L.G.B.T. issues, due in part to the visionary leadership of President Obama and the former attorney general Eric Holder.



But most of the credit goes to an incredibly savvy and well-financed campaign by the mainly white male leaders of mainstream gay groups. Their strategy actually demonstrates the dominance of the right-wing narrative. To advance gay rights, they appealed to the most conservative values – military and family – and presented mainly white, middle-class images of who the gay community is.



I’m not hating – it was a brilliant strategy and, of course, L.G.B.T. people of color will benefit from the newly enhanced legal status of sexual orientation. But many of those folks argued that the more pressing issues include that gay African-American men have among the highest rates of H.I.V. in the country, and that transgender women of color suffer from extreme violence and discrimination.



The leaders of the mainstream gay groups must now turn to those issues -- otherwise it will look like their effort was mainly about getting white and male privilege extended to gay white men.



Finally, it's great that some conservatives have come around to the cause of reforming the failed war on drugs. But if no one was locked up for any drug offense, the United States would still be the largest jailer in the world, and our criminal justice system would still have vast race disparities.



Reducing incarceration for the kinds of street crimes that young black men disproportionately commit and are victimized by will take a major financial and social investment in them, as will eliminating the major inequalities faced by African-American women. When the fiscal conservatives and Tea Party crew hear how much it will cost – and how much the government would need to be involved – watch how quickly they jump ship from criminal justice reform.



I regret being Debby Downer at the liberal victory party. I just think President Obama was right when he said racism “is part of our DNA.” The medical science about how to alter literal DNA is in its infancy. Likewise, the project to eradicate white supremacy from our country’s figurative DNA has only just begun.





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