Racism is clearly stupid. By definition, racists form predisposed attitudes towards others based upon the color of the other person’s skin without any consideration for individual background, knowledge, or life experiences. A racist cares about skin color and will make assumptions about you based upon the color of yours. Anyone outside of a racists’ own race-group is not to be trusted and has no relevant opinion because they simply don’t understand the racist’s world-view. The racist sees race relations as a primary underlying explanation and root cause of many problems and prefers to stick to their own race-group in social situations.
Racists are clearly wrong
In my working experience, some of the best-performing teams in the workplace I have ever been involved in were made up of very diverse people who work together for a common goal or purpose. Each person brings their own set of diverse skills, unique background, and perspectives which contributes to the overall knowledge and capabilities of the team. A team that is not diverse is prone to group-think, a condition where everyone on the team comes from a similar background and thus cannot understand or is not willing to understand certain socioeconomic considerations that may torpedo an important project or creates unnecessary risk. A flexible, dedicated, and diverse team will almost always be stronger than a homogeneous, inflexible team.
Race and economic inequality
If only people weren’t racist then the blacks would be better off economically right? Look at the continent of Africa, the European empires established colonies and forced Africans into servitude. They built re-creations of European homes and mansions across Africa along with European-style schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure on the backs of local native labor. South Africa, one of the richest of the African colonies was ruled by the British. If the South Africa threw off the yolk of colonial rule then the sky is the limit with such a large, educated population with plenty of natural resources and established infrastructure. South Africa could be come the shining jewel of Africa. However, when South Africa gained independence from Britain and elections were held, the all-white National Party in 1948 immediately began its policy of “apartheid” which segregated blacks to non-white areas and took away their right to vote. It wasn’t until 1990 when F.W de Klerk released Nelson Mandela from prison and the first free elections held in 1994 did black Africans take control of their own destiny. For a 21 year period and reaching its height in 2011, South Africa did grow as both whites and blacks embraced each other with newfound optimism for the future of the country and its fledgling democracy. However, as the ANC (a socialist party) in 2011 began embracing ideas of confiscating non-black owned businesses and farms, there has been a flight of indigenous whites and Indians out of the country and the economy has been shrinking in the past eight years with the outlook dim. Record-high crime and corruption has ground business to a crawl in many cities and the ANC has been embroiled in endless political scandals while the average citizen grows poorer.
Zimbabwe, a neighboring country of South Africa had implemented a confiscation scheme of white-owned farms and businesses. The result was out-of-control inflation and food shortages as the confiscated farms were given to political cronies of the government who could not successfully farm the land. Zimbabwe has since reversed its decision to confiscate white-owned farms and asked the white farmers back, but in many cases, the former farmers have refused to return to the country and problems continue. Despite this experience in Zimbabwe, South Africa and the ANC intends to carry out the land confiscation scheme. If history is any judge, this will be disastrous for the country should they actually go through with this plan.
Race and Law
Here in America, let’s consider a city like Baltimore. Baltimore county is roughly 67% black with black Americans serving as mayors, police chiefs, district attorneys, and fire chiefs for the past 53 years under one political party, the Democrats. The city of Baltimore has a picturesque harbor and downtown that once attracted many businesses and corporations. However when Freddy Gray, a 25 year-old black died mysteriously in the back of a police transport van, the city erupted into riots which blamed “racism” as for the cause of his death, never-mind that 4 of the 6 officers charged, the police chief, district attorney and mayor for Baltimore were black along with 9 of the 14 (64%) district council members. Baltimore has had 53 years of Democratic and black majority rule but somehow systemic racism was claimed against Republicans and whites who don’t run Baltimore. President Obama called for an investigation of the Baltimore police department after which all charges were dropped against the police officers involved by the black district attorney. Baltimore has had one of the highest crime and murder rates in the country and the statistics have only gotten worse since the Freddy Gray case and businesses are fleeing Baltimore city and there are even less opportunities for the citizens. Given the facts, it is hard to make the case that racism was at work and yet that was exactly what happened.
Many claim that blacks are targeted by the police. I have personally been told by some African Americans that they feel the police are just out looking to shoot black men during traffic stops and in any other interaction. That is simply not true when you look at the facts and FBI data. The rates of police shootings show that whites are shot and killed on average double the rate of blacks. Truth is, on average black people are murdered by other black people 93% of the time while at the same time commit 52% of all homicides while making up only 13% of the population. While that basic fact is staggering, it gets lost in the claims of systemic racism and imagined police brutality. In the aftermath of Freddy Gray, murder in Baltimore city shot up 200% as the police pulled back enforcement activities in certain neighborhoods in the months after the riots. The unintended consequences of race-baiting. Are there bad cops? Sure there are but, in Baltimore it’s not a race issue.
Racism is like ketchup
In the words of the great Thomas Sowell, an African-American economist and social observer, “Racism is like ketchup, it can be put on practically anything and demanding evidence makes you a racist”. He points out that after five decades of government intervention in the form of money, regulations, and social programs which are directed at helping African American communities, blacks in America are no better off on average despite having all the systemic advantages that non-blacks don’t have. Advantages that no other race-group (with the exception in some cases for American Indians) has includes preferences in college acceptance/education, hiring preferences and programs meant to advantage blacks. The real racist attitudes Thomas contends, is the soft-racism of low-expectations of black Americans being able to work for and take care of themselves on par with other races without cavalier hand-outs from the political and academic elites. The unintended consequences of such hand-outs are that of encouraging the break-down of black families and reinforcing low-performance and melancholy attitudes towards work and success. Not content with the break-down of the basic family unit, the political establishment is now working on institutionalizing and encouraging social acceptance of counter-productive social norms and behaviors.
Does institutional racism exist? Depends on your definition. You hire the best and brightest candidates to work as part of your team. Any candidate that comes to interview who doesn’t have the requisite educational or experiential background or doesn’t demonstrate the appropriate willingness to work cooperatively with the team will be rejected. Some may view that as institutional racism, but others view it as picking the right person for the job.
