You need a transcript I see lemme get you one - feel free to check for errors:
Sam Harris - S
Interviewer - I
Start: 0:23
I: You have spoken out against BLM, you seem to regard it as a form of identity politics. Which you say, is a poison, a poison in America today, why do you say that?
S: Well, first let me say, that I-I acknowledge that racism is still a tremendous problem in certain parts of American society, and globally, uh, and that racism is - is something that we absolutely have to oppose and criticize. I mean you know it is a problem for which there is a remedy, and we have been pursuing this remedy for many many decades in the US but we've made a lot of progress, and we're now living in a moment where we are having a kind of moral panic advertised to us. Black lives matter is one of the names of this movement. You know the group's you know it's a very loose group but it's one of the groups that is making the most noise on this topic at the movement and it's as though we have made no progress. It's as though this moment in American history exemplified the worst symptoms of racism and that's quite delusional. I mean obviously, we've made a tremendous amount of progress, obviously, this is one of the least racist moments in human history, uh generally, globally, and in American history-
(interrupted by interviewer)
I: But, but, but, but may I stop you just to point out that the obvious that you sit with me- is that we're both, you know let's be honest, white, uh middle-class, comfortable educated people who represent, perhaps, the dominant grouping in our respective societies, and who are you, in the end, to- tell black Americans how they should feel right now? Because, so many look around the reality of their own lives, their children's lives and see a system that is systemically racist. Not least when it comes to the police, and they feel it is their and their duty to express a level of anger, frustration, and an unwillingness to accept that- which is surely understandable.
S: Well, it's in part understandable, what is really understandable that there is a lot of misinformation, and misunderstanding being amplified. so so if you're going to be outraged over the uh racist behavior of racist cops or the racist consequences of systems that promulgate racism whether there are actual living racists around to-to implement those systems-
I: Well-its, not a choice is it? We are surely duty-bound to be outraged-
S: No of course, now I'm as concerned and outraged as anyone is about those things but I'm doubly or additionally concerned that we not find racists where they don't exist, right? That, if we find racists everywhere then you'll find the real racists nowhere, and you're gonna do immense-immense harm in the process. So to take the variable of police violence is really important if your gonna worry about the consequences of racism and the way it's causing black men preferentially to be shot and killed in America, you have to find where in fact that's happening. Whether, in fact, black men are being shot in greater numbers, right, in proportion to, the numbers of encounters they have with the police officers, and whether they're whether they're having more enocounters with police officers per capita - If here's any explanaton other than racissm but my concern currently in Amerca is that any disparty whther that be polce violence, or employment, or wealth, or any varaible of interest, and of great socal importance ,currently on the left ,anywhere you go left of center poltcally - the only explanaton that is acceptable and this really does have the ind qualti of a kind of a blasphemy test ni a religoin, the only explanaton that si acceptable si that whtie rasm or systemci racsm. Now on the pont of polce voplence ,that s just so happens that the only data we have suggest that while while African Americans have more encounters with the policie ,uh, and there's you know thin are obvous reasons for that ,um, and they're actually n facr roughted by the polce more than white amercans are, um, they're not killed more in fact the're killed less than white americans per encounter, which s to say, if you come under the attention of the police in America, and, uh, they draw their guns on you your chances are being shot appear to be slghtly higher if you're whtie. And that breas everyobdes expectations.
I: But but, hang on - this is facinating cause it gets to the heart of your ntellectual appraoch to lots of thngs you now you are a thn a self proclamed ratonalst you say that you re determned that you determned to be drven by the evdence ,by the data ,y the scence and not by emoton and still less by things like relgious or any other faith based system. So evidence matters but fi youlook across the piece, you've related on once piece of evidence, but surely theirs an overhwelming tract of evidence about incarceration rates, what happens to black kids in schools, swhat happens to black people in employment ,how mayn jobless how black people there are- there is clearly a story in America of systemic discrimination which black people are saying right now they wll no longer tolerate wthout expressng ther anger. And when you mae the pont you've just made it does sound to some like you're lacking a level of compasson or even emotonal intelligence, or ablitiy to empathize with the situation of the other.
S: Well, no, the- first of all, there shouldn't be if I'm concerned about the real suffering r the real people, but we have to acnowlede that we compound that suffering, when we give false notions about ts actual causes so f you're gong to loo at agan and I'm you know I'm on record every tme I touch ths topic, acknowledng that we still need criminal justce reform, and the war on drugs n the S n partcular has been a dsaster and ts especally been a disater for the blac communty ,all of those thngs should go without sayng and there are changes that need to be made there. But, if you're going to ascribe the status quo actoss teh board, the fact, that ,um, that there's a kind of wealth inequalty, and inequality when respect to crme and volence in Maerican socey that breask along racal lnes ,if you gong to ascrbe that to whte racism ,or polcies that whte , ,that white people are not changng because they advantage them, rght you will contnually stumble upon errors of great consequence smply not the case that there are white racsts with ther racsm producng the level of violence we see in the black community in the inner in a place like chicago.
I: The point that many black Amercans are making right now, and 'm gong to quote you the words of just one sincere carabo who works as the social justice coordinator of the American humanists association- who's- he's addressed your podcasts on ths issue, your ntervews with other people and he say's: "Sam Harrs's defintion of racism places an underlyng emphasis on intention", and he says "that's how Sam Harris defines the number of white people who are racsit as a tiny minority; however," Says Mr. Carabo, "when discussing racsim, it is important to remember is isn't about intent, its about impact, and in that sense it involves a far greater proporton of the whte communty."
S: Well as stated i wouldn't neccessarly dsagree with that ntentoni sn't the only thng that mattes obvously if there are polices that, in effect, create racists outcomes-whether anybody ntends it or not- we shouldn't figure out what those polces are and we should change them, and thats what people tend to mean by systemc racsm or institutional racism, and I'm completely on board with the project of dscoverng that and correctng for it ,,but what we have now in American socety, are allegatoins of racism or uh the expeirence that people are having-mllions of people are having simoutanously watching a video let's say a polce shootng and you know, in the prototypcal case of having a white cop shoot a black cop. -
I: You don't have to imagine it Sam, we see it right now we're watching over and all Jacob Blake being shot in Wisconsin, we don't have to use our imagination.
S: I would tell you that that video is not evidence, in it of itself, that video is not evidence of racism. You can see vdeos of white people beng shot in precisely the same circumstances, and, um, mean we have a massve problem of guns in our society, and a massive problem of poorly trained cops, I mean that video in particular events several of these problems. One is that when somebody rushes to ther car in defnaince of polce command and opens the door and reaches in, in American society unlke in the UK, it is only ratonal for the cops to assume that that person s retrevng a gun so he can turna round and start shootng a cops in the face, which happens, and every cops knows this.
And goes doesn't object whenever the interviewer says he goes by evdence and not by emotion or relgon, and correctly identifies that police traing is a problem in America, and that guns are a problem... he doesn't seem to care whether the police are right in their assessment of someone searching through their car is for a gun- because there is a gun control problem here- but you see black people, are on average, profled as a crminal whenever they really aren't- so the fact that cops shoot anyone they feel is a crmnal just highlights the implicit racism here.
I detest the notion that i "wave away parts of the ntervew that don't fit my narratve" you ddn't even apparently watch it all the way through, or actually have a think about what he was saying! He said-paraphrasng here: "well most people would say that systemc racsm is polces that have racst outcomes, regardless of intent, ,and I would be happy to help FIND those polces, but the incarceraton rate and polce brutalty just arne't caused by racsm" Is an attempt to throw off people who are only sort of care about racism, evdently like yourself, but a more critical eye would lead you to hearng- oh "finding" these polces? As if we ddn't already know of house red-districting, or profiling, etc- he pretends as if we're still in the dark. He further mischaracterizes the movement as only havng evdence from these videos - and yes- it is what the interviewer brings up, but it is not brought up by Sam that "oh, and there are other more vald arguments" instead he only responds to the weakest form of it, out of context - as the interviewer only brought up vdeos because Sam was pretendng as if we don't have videos of black people beng shot by white cops.
As for if you are racist? I'd say its likely, more so that you are implicitely than explicitely racist yes