“We don't ever experience having the average characteristics of our group; we experience having whatever level of power we have, as individuals.” – The End of Race Politics
Of all the machinations of today’s woke politics, prioritizing diversity over competence is probably the most disturbing. Putting minorities into colleges and jobs, they may not be qualified for, has hurt their prospects the most. However, such misplaced policies are also detrimental to society at large. After lowering standards to attain a particular diversity of students, half of all UCLA medical students fail basic competence tests. But attempts to reach a more balanced racial composition presume that people of color cannot obtain the required standards on their own, while creating an illusion of equality, without requiring the critical skills and knowledge necessary for the job. Worst of all, it makes people suspicious when they see a cultural minority in a job, they may not be qualified for.
Lowering standards is, of course, a form of reparations, seemingly to equalize minorities based on population percentages. Yet, it is difficult to pass out reparations when 20 percent of blacks have no ties to slavery, and black immigrants regularly outperform American whites in education and income.
In Coleman Hughes's 2024 book, “The End of Race Politics”, Hughes calls for an end to all race-based policies and a return to the colorblind practices of both the Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King, Jr. Dubbed neoracists, Hughes shows how the anti-racist racism of modern elites, is a mirror to the policies of white nationalist, calling both enemies of the dream. Believing that the era of smartphones and social media has exacerbated tribal disunion, Hughes shows how too much stereotyping, too much division and too much racial talk are hurting minorities more than a return to a colorblind society ever could.
Hughes reveals how a myriad of myths is used to prop up the neoracist agenda. The most obvious and easiest to dissemble is that all disparities in outcomes are a result of systemic racism. By ignoring wide gaps in demographics, differences in cultures, skills, and personal initiative, neoracists assign racism without the need for any evidence. The myth that blacks have seen no progress in modern America also attempts to sell the erroneous assumption that no strides have been made. Then to keep the grievances going, the idea of inherited trauma requires that people of color carry a yoke of oppression for those who came before them. Perhaps the most perverse is the myth of black weakness that perceives blacks as always a victim, but never an equal.
A move away from the morality of religion and belief in objective truth allows the anti-intellectual movement of neoracists to demand new discrimination to match the past. Neoracists have not only separated themselves from the goals of the Civil Rights Movement but believe that colorblindness is now an aim of white supremacists. Through the creation of more racism, more stereotypes, and more division, neoracism will go so far as to increase the supply of racism to meet their own demands. Helped by the media to fan the flames of race to reinvigorate the grievance industry, activists exaggerate the crimes of whites while diminishing the wrongs of minorities. While the old racism of the past is rare, new racism is ubiquitous in every DEI policy.
Every movement against racism in American history has advocated for colorblindness and the integration of blacks into society, viewing segregation as a remnant of the past. It was in the early 1970s, following the enactment of the Civil Rights Act, when elites began to make decisions based on racial distinctions. Affirmative action plans allowed colleges, corporations, and governments to ignore merit, and hire based on skin color. Now neoracists are advocating the very policies of white nationalists of the past to segregate by color once again. Using the same hatred and hostility toward whites, modern-day anti-racist racists use ignorant stereotypes as if all blacks and all whites were the same.
In Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous, “I Have a Dream” speech, he called for colorblindness for his own family when he said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” As an antidote to racism, colorblindness looks to processes that are blind to race, gender, and other immutable characteristics. In hiring and college applications, blind screening would reduce bias and allow outcomes based on skills, intelligence, and other meritocratic grounds. It is the fairest and fastest way to not only mitigate discrimination but to counter claims of systemic racism. True anti-racism supports a colorblind system of race neutrality consciously disregarding race as unimportant.
Instead of continuing with race-based politics, Hughes suggests policies based on socioeconomic factors. Rather than whites versus minorities, the delineating features would be the privileged versus the disadvantaged. Since race is no longer the delineating feature of poverty, a return to merit would put an end to racial double standards. To eliminate the problem for future generations, Hughes suggests focusing on skills development in early education.
Slavery was a creation of men that ignored the sentiments of the Constitution which explicitly stated that all men are created equal before the law. It made no references to black or white. If we hope to live in a post-racial society, all forms of racism must be extinguished.
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