Tag Archives: Victimhood

White Racialism, Identity Politics, and Crippling DEI

09 Thursday Nov 2023

Posted by in DEI, Identity Politics

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I’ve taken an extended hiatus from blogging while moving to a different part of the country. I haven’t posted here in over 10 weeks, but a new post appears below. I’m still tying-up loose ends from the move, but I’ll be trying to get back to posting more regularly … trying!

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Absurd ideas about race and identity politics come from extreme elements on both the Left and the Right. Some leftists insist that race has no natural basis — that it’s simply a “social construct”. On the Right, a “racialist” contingent is promoting the “celebration of whiteness” and embracing racial preferences for whites. Treated as alternative pathways, I’d take “social construct”. It’s nonsense, of course, but the beautiful irony is that it provides a basis for stripping away from our institutions the entire diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) straightjacket. It’s almost as if those promoting race as a social construct wish to build a “colorblind” society. On the other hand, I suppose some think they can have their DEI cake along with a side of free choice to identify as anything they want: black, white, or furry.

Who Are the Racists?

People of good faith don’t harbor or act on racist tendencies. The mere recognition of racial/ethnic/cultural differences is not evidence of racism and does not preclude the treatment of all with fairness and due respect. It’s possible to respect, value, or fall in love with someone outside one’s own racial, ethnic, or cultural group of origin, even while holding a general affinity for one’s own group, as nearly everyone does.

But a few real racists are sprinkled across all races, ethnicities, cultures, and the full political spectrum. The “popular” racist stereotype as white male has been kept alive by the lingering echos of slavery in America, which ended nearly 16 decades ago, and the long hangover that included Jim Crow laws and segregation. Today, however, “white society” or “whiteness” is hardly the sole domain of prejudice.

Is Racialism Different?

Now, a few whites are promoting the celebration of “white identity” as a counterbalance to identity politics among non-whites. Ostensibly, this “white racialism” might be similar to celebrations of identity often practiced by minorities, which are also forms of racialism. Should white racialism be viewed as less savory than racialism practiced by racial minorities?

For most Caucasians, “being white” does not have much salience relative to other affiliations defining identity. That’s why white racialism seems odd to me. Sure, when forced to check a box, whites will check “Caucasian”, but “white identity” seems overly broad. There are too many distinct cultures and subcultures that dominate self-identity, such as national ancestry, religion, and cultural membership.

The same could be said for many other racial categories, but minority status and historical events (e.g., American slavery) help explain why broad categories often form cohesive identity groups. And, as Christopher Rufo notes in his great discussion of the racialist viewpoint, broad categories tend to be the most closely associated with racialism:

“Yes, left-wing racialism is indeed now deeply embedded in America’s institutions, and the demographic balance of the country has shifted in recent decades. And yes, the basic racial classification system in the United States broadly delineates continental origin—Europe, Africa, Latin America, Asia—in a way that is not arbitrary or meaningless. Terms such as ‘white,’ ‘black,’ ‘Latino,’ and ‘Asian,’ while often obscuring important variations within such groupings, have become the lingua franca and are useful shorthand descriptors for many purposes.”

There are individuals from all groups or “classes”, including whites, who react critically to aggressive expressions of identity by members of other classes. Perhaps that’s excusable, depending on the degree of zealotry on either part. The line between pride in race/ancestry/culture and fractious racialism might be hard to discern in some cases, but the chief distinction is rooted in explicit, demeaning and/or envious comparisons to “out-groups”. This might be damaging enough, but from there it can be a very short step into outright racism.

A preoccupation with the historic disadvantages of one’s race can be disempowering to an individual and destructive in a social sense. I believe the white racialist phenomenon belongs in that category. The presumed “disadvantages” of whiteness are very contemporary, however, rooted in policies dating back only to the widespread adoption of racial preferences for non-white “protected classes” and DEI.

Preferences For All

Imagine the racialist policies now practiced widely in government, industry, and academia — particularly racial preferences on behalf of protected classes — but now applied on behalf of heretofore unprotected classes as well. For example, what if some proportion of jobs, admissions, or other coveted placements were set aside for whites? If whites represent 50% of the population, then 50% of hires or admissions would be reserved for whites.

Some might assume that this treatment is already implied by existing racial preferences, but that’s not the case. In the wake of George Floyd’s death, just 6% of new hires among S&P companies were white, according to Bloomberg News.

Nevertheless, such a white racialist turnabout would be a colossal mistake. Adding strict limits to the application of existing preferences might be a good thing, but white racial preferences would buttress the entire system of racial preferences as an institution and add more rigidity to the operation of labor markets. From an economic viewpoint, it would be just as pernicious as racial preferences generally.

Racial preferences of any kind freeze labor markets and impair the allocation of human resources to their most-valued uses. In fact, placing one individual into a position on any basis other than their qualifications implies that two individuals must be placed into positions in which they lack comparative advantage relative to each other. Little by little, that means lost output and upward price pressure. It is a mechanism that short circuits gains from trade, shriveling the benefits that the most and least talented confer on society at large. Extending preferences to whites would only serve to further institutionalize this damaging practice.

Adherence to numerical preferences is to pretend that people can be treated less as individuals and more like interchangeable parts… except with respect to their value as “class members”. Racial preferences are presumed to be a remedy for so-called structural racism, as opposed to racism by individuals. But they involve classification and favor the so-called “oppressed” at the expense of designated “oppressors”. The latter, almost without exception, had no role oppressive regimes of the past. Favoritism of this kind necessarily means reverse discrimination and fails to match individuals to roles in an optimal fashion.

Whether publicly or privately imposed, racial preferences often undermine those they are purported to help by placing individuals into positions for which they may not be competitive. This can sabotage an individual’s long-term success. It goes without saying that preferences build resentment among the “unprotected”, which goes to the impetus for “white racialism”. Indeed, preferences are not always popular with protected classes either. That’s because they interfere with merit-based decision-making and are perceived to stigmatize those presumed to benefit.

The Fixed Pie Is a Lie

Racialism reflects zero-sum thinking, a hallmark of DEI initiatives. Tyler Cowen quoted the abstract of a recent NBER working paper that found:

“… a more zero-sum mindset is strongly associated with more support for government redistribution, race- and gender-based affirmative action, and more restrictive immigration policies.”

Zero-sum thinking is fundamental to rent-seeking behavior, which is motivated by either malevolent greed or perceptions of victimhood. Victimhood and rent seeking is at the heart of calls for DEI, to say nothing of more radical proposals like reparation payments. White racialism attempts to get in on the action by positing that whites are oppressed under the current institutional dominance of DEI. But the misguided presumption that every identity group should have their own preferences or quotas broadens the emphasis on redressing perceived harms and redistributing rewards — zero-sum activities.

These zero-sum efforts waste energy and resources, harming our ability to produce things that enhance well being. Ultimately, they are actually negative-sum activities, and they also breed hatred.

Race is obviously determined by genetics, but I’d be happy to pretend it’s a mere social construct if that would help get us to a “colorblind” society.

Conclusion

There’s a huge irony in the racialism exercised by both traditional and “white racialist” DEI advocates: it neglects the most fundamental and just application of diversity: equality of opportunity. This principle incorporates the concept of diversity without sacrificing economic efficiency. We’ve largely abandoned it in favor of equality of outcomes via racial preferences, even at a time when society has become enlightened with respect to racial differences. In doing so, we’ve unintentionally chosen another form of explicit racial victimization.

To close, here’s a good summary of the dangers of racialism and identity politics offered by Victor Davis Hanson:

“Anytime one ethnic, racial, or religious group refuses to surrender its prime identity in exchange for a shared sense of self, other tribes for their own survival will do the same.

All then rebrand their superficial appearance as essential not incidental to whom they are.

And like nuclear proliferation that sees other nations go nuclear once a neighboring power gains the bomb, so too the tribalism of one group inevitably leads only to more tribalism of others. The result is endless Hobbesian strife.”

And that’s how white racialism fits right in with the pernicious politics of identity. When you can, vote for the elimination, or at least reform, of DEI policies and practices, not for a reinforcement of identity politics.

Critical Gender Theory and Trends in Gender Identity

21 Thursday Apr 2022

Posted by in Gender, Wokeness

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The growing influence of critical gender theory (CGT) in schools is unacceptable to many parents, especially at early grade levels. In fact, it’s been coming from certain areas of pediatric medicine for some time. Like critical race theory, CGT is another branch of critical theory, which was developed by a set of European social thinkers in the 1930s. CT is fundamentally a Marxist construct, and it lies at the heart of nearly all appeals to “social justice”. C. Bradley Thompson offers this concise perspective on critical theory:

“The principal aim of Critical Theory was and is, first, to deconstruct the forms of domination and hierarchy (i.e., the power relations) found in traditional or bourgeois societies, and, second, to reconstruct society toward what it calls ‘real’ or ‘true’ democracy, which is a neologism for socialism. Critical theory seeks to liberate any and all ‘victim’ groups based on their inferior and subjugated social status in capitalist societies (e.g., non-whites, women, and LGBTQ+ persons, etc.).”

LGBTQ+ Numbers

It’s fair to ask whether exposure to CGT in schools has any influence on the sexual orientation and preferences of students as they mature. That can be true only to the extent that these preferences reflect socialization, rather than other environmental factors or heredity. Apparently, most LGBTQ+ individuals are disposed to claim that their sexual preference is genetic. However, the claim that sexual preference is heritable to the exclusion of social influences is dubious. And there are other non-genetic, environmental influences that play a strong role as well.

Bryan Caplan discusses some fascinating generational differences in sexual orientation / identification revealed by a recent Gallup survey. Here, I reproduce the table shown in Caplan’s post. The sum of these categories (not shown) is taken as the LGBTQ+ share of each generation.

Taken at face value, those are extremely large increases over five generations… or even over two generations from millennials to GenZs, the gay proportion being the only category in which millennials and GenZs are reasonably close in 2022.

Another important wrinkle is that the share of older generations identifying as LGBTQ+ has been stable since the last survey conducted by Gallup in 2017, as shown by the Gallup chart below:

Millennials have increased by more than a third, and the LGBTQ+ share among Gen Zs has roughly doubled to 20.8%. Gen Zs surveyed in 2017 ranged from roughly 18 – 20 years of age, but that range was roughly 18 – 24 years of age in the latest survey. Therefore, the 2022 survey might capture a greater share of GenZs having “matured” into acceptance of specific sexual identities. Nevertheless, the levels and changes in these two generations are striking.

Causal Quandary

Caplan wonders how these increases would be possible if sexual orientation was predominantly heritable, especially given that these groups are unlikely to produce offspring at the same rate as the general population. The shrinking genotype / expanding phenotype paradox leads him to conclude that heightened LGBTQ+ socialization is generally responsible for the dramatic increases.

A number of Caplan’s commenters questioned his conclusions for one or several of these categories. At the risk of missing some of the nuance in the comments, I’ll attempt to summarize a few common threads: First, as Caplan himself notes, closeting is much less common than in the past. Therefore, increases in the reported shares of these categories might be illusory. Less closeting has brought little change in the responses of the older generations, however, and perhaps that’s because they tend to associate primarily within their own age cohorts.

Second, there could be environmental influences that have led to a smaller share of cis-gender males and females, as well as more “mis-genders” at birth. For example, anything that changes the flow of testosterone to a fetus in the womb might change a child’s sexual orientation, but whether some force has induced systematic changes in those flows over time, and across the population, is another matter.

Finally, the bulk of those claiming status as LGBTQ+ among millennials and Gen Zs are bisexual. For those who are otherwise heterosexual, identification as bisexual might be fairly “costless”. That suggests a possibility that the bisexual share may be influenced by status-seeking among GenZs, especially females. One joke goes “How can you tell if a girl is bi-sexual? … Don’t worry, she’ll tell you!” Thus, some commenters viewed the large increase in reported bisexuality as inflated by status seeking among what amounts to a kind of “larper” set. There might be so much emphasis on being open-minded about sexual experimentation among younger cohorts that minor incidents from childhood or adolescence are subsequently exaggerated into claims of bisexuality.

Socialization

Obviously the reduction in closeting leads to greater social exposure of non-traditional sexual preferences, including exposure to the nation’s youth. That’s a powerful social change, and it creates an atmosphere increasingly conducive to further socialization of these preferences, if not recruitment. Like many trends, this one feeds on itself: this 2021 study found a positive association between men “coming out” as gay and state legalization of same-sex marriage, the presence of gay communities, and positive attitudes toward gays. Moreover, there are definite signs of social contagion, as demonstrated by this clique of teenagers who, one and all, suddenly decided they were trans!

What forces led to the cascade in LGBTQ+ identification among more recent age cohorts? As a group, the full LGBTQ+ coalition has greater visibility, political power in asserting “victimhood”, and potential for socializing the general population to alternative lifestyles. However, there might not be any single trigger spanning LGBTQ+ identities that can explain the trend’s genesis. Perhaps the trends were set in motion by the sexual liberation of the 1960s and 70s which, as a libertarian, is not otherwise something I find objectionable.

The rise of radical feminism might have provided a basis for some females to reject males as a source of sexual gratification (and companionship), or as an exclusive source thereof, at any rate. There’s a likelihood that this contributed to the rise in lesbianism as well as female bisexuality. Feminism also served as a pretext for identity politics, which relies on claims of victimhood and is therefore fertile ground for critical theorists.

Critical theory first gained significant ground in the U.S. at universities along dimensions of race, but gender and sexual preference weren’t far behind. This “social justice” perspective filtered its way into departments of education, where academic standards are exceptionally forgiving. This, in turn, led to more fertile ground for critical theory in elementary and high school education.

CGT promotes the idea that gender is a social construct. If an individual feels that he or she is not well-suited to their biological sex, then CGT holds that they should identify as members of the opposite sex and pursue any medical paths to transition as might be available. This view has increasingly been applied to younger individuals.

Medical Experts

Paul W. Hruz, Laurence S. Mayer, and Paul R. McHugh (HMM) discuss the 1980s development of certain pharmaceuticals prescribed today to many children suffering from gender dysphoria. One might suspect that these drugs helped to set some of these trends in motion, together with so-called “gender-affirming” therapies that are now widely practiced. The latter involve therapists who accept and support the gender identity with which a patient feels most comfortable. Needless to say, this approach is likely to encourage a gender dysphoric youth to continue their exploration of a change in gender.

Synthetic hormonal “puberty blockers” became available in the early 1990s as a treatment for early puberty (so-called “precocious puberty”). At about the same time, the treatment was tested to stop production of sex hormones in adult males identifying as females. In the 1990s, the treatment was first used to suppress puberty in children with gender dysphoria, but the effects are supposedly reversible. Advancing to a full “transition” protocol involves the subsequent use of cross-sex ­hormones ­and ultimately surgical­ reassignment. Today, puberty suppression techniques are widely used on children with gender dysphoria because it is viewed as a safe choice that might “buy time” while other forms of maturation proceed. Here are HMM on this point:

“The­ use­ of­ puberty­ suppression­ and ­cross-sex hormones ­for­ minors­ is­ a­ radical­ step­ that­ presumes ­a­ great­ deal ­of­ knowledge­ and­ competence­ on­ the­ part ­of­ the­ children­ assenting to­ these­ procedures,­ on­ the­ part ­of­ the­ parents­ or­ guardians­ being­ asked­ to­ give­ legal­ consent­ to­ them,­ and­ on­ the­ part­ of­ the­ scientists­ and­ physicians­ who­ are­ developing­ and­ administering­ them.­ We­ frequently­ hear­ from­ neuroscientists­ that­ the ­adolescent­ brain­ is­ too­ immature­ to­ make­ reliably­ rational­ decisions,­ but­ we­ are­ supposed­ to­ expect­ emotionally­ troubled­ adolescents­ to­ make­ decisions­ about­ their­ gender­ identities ­and­ about­ serious­ medical ­treatments ­at­ the­ age ­of­ 12­ or­ younger.­ And­ we­ are­ supposed ­to­ expect­ parents­ and­ physicIans ­to­ evaluate ­the risks­ and­ benefits ­of­ puberty ­suppression,­ despite­ the­ state­ of­ ignorance ­in­ the­ scientific ­community­ about­ the­ nature­ of­ gender­ identity.”

HMM also discuss the strong influence that activists have had on the medical establishment. This is summarized nicely by Emilie Kao:

“… the largest LGBT lobbying organization, the Human Rights Campaign and World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) influenced medical organizations like the Endocrine Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics to embrace gender affirmation over the last two decades. Jason Pierceson, author of Sexual Minorities and Politics, explains that ‘political activism and consciousness raising has also changed the way in which the medical community views transgender persons.’ He describes how this activism led the American Psychiatric Association to “abandon the mental illness paradigm of transgenderism” by changing the description in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) to treat only the stress associated with gender dysphoria as a mental disorder. No breakthroughs in science or medicine led to the change, which was accomplished just by political activism.”

HMM do not claim that puberty blockers and gender-affirming therapy are at the root of increasing transgenderism. However, they express strong reservations about widespread use of puberty blockers among gender dysphoric adolescents.

We know that gender dysphoric youths have high rates of anxiety, depression, and even suicide. Unfortunately, transition doesn’t seem to alleviate those problems as a general rule. Furthermore, it’s important to remember that unhappy adolescents are nothing new. It can be an unhappy time for many kids who are full of self-doubt. Most of them get over it, however, and many with dysphoria get over it as well. One has to ask: does helping dysphoric children along the path to transition so early have any real gains in the aggregate?

Educational Experts

What role have the schools played in the gender confusion? The answer is just as horrifying as the role of the therapists and medical doctors encouraging and overseeing the early encouragement of transitions discussed above.

“As early as 2007, for instance, California’s education code stated that gender pertains not to anything biological but to ‘a person’s gender-related appearance and behavior.’[3] Gender is, in other words, a choice and has no relation to biology. This means that children have a smorgasbord of gender identities to choose from.”

So this is not new and could well have played a role in the Gallup survey results, especially for GenZs. Read at the last link about such things as “Gender Support Plans” in the schools, teacher training in dealing with gender issues, a “children’s garden” where five-year olds can learn the difference between biological sex and “gender”, a kindergarten book called My Princess Boy, the GayBCs for ages 4 – 8, the provision of a “transition closet” in which kids change their clothing once they arrive at school, school nurses who provide puberty blockers to kids they evaluate as dysphoric, pronoun lessons, of course, and many other examples. Also see this article for further information about CGT in schools, including the “Gender Unicorn” first introduced in 2016 and now used nationwide, starting as early as pre-K and kindergarten. And for a running catalog of the outrageous lessons taking place in our schools, check out Libs of Tik Tok.

Other Causal Forces

There are other vaguely plausible explanations for the trend toward more common identification as LGBTQ+ among millennials and GenZs. The internet and especially social media come to mind. Small and large social contagions are frequent on these platforms. Pre-social media, members of certain sub-cultures, and dare I say outcasts, had more difficulty finding, communicating and sharing information with one another. Today there is much less friction in that regard. Social media is also a hotbed of misery for many individuals, afflicted all too often with feelings of inadequacy or a feeling that they are outcasts. Among unhappy youths, the suggestion to try something different, to join a new “tribe”, may be very tempting. The internet serves as a guide.

A phenomenon that might be related to trends in gender identity is an increase in celibacy and decline of “partner sex”, especially among younger individuals and men. While so-called partner sex includes gay sex, the trend in sexual identity is not about any decline in sexual activity per se, but about representations of sexual identity. The uptrend in celibacy is consistent with the hypothesis that some cisgenders, frustrated by a lack of sexual partners (as distinct from the small, mostly male and angry “incel” community), might seek out a broader array of prospects. However, I know of no actual evidence to suggest such a connection.

The entertainment world is certainly no newcomer to controversies surrounding sexual identity. Gayness has long been celebrated in the theatre community, to a fault. I love theatre, but the near ubiquity of the theme in recent years has grown tiresome. There have always been gay stars of the screen, television, and musical entertainment, though it was often closeted in the past. Gay and gender identity themes have become much more common in film, but it was only recently that Disney began to emphasize gender issues explicitly with the children’s audience in mind. Some adults and even adolescents must grapple with gender dysphoria as they always have, with varying degrees of success and failure. However, to subject an audience of young children to themes that are beyond their ability to comprehend, and for whom the early exposure is completely unnecessary, is not acceptable.

Finally, the decline of religiosity might play a role in the trend toward LGBT+ identities. For one thing, church-goers have one more place to meet potential mates. More importantly, traditional religion has nearly always frowned on homosexuality, at least officially, and the LGBT+ coalition is largely areligious. Therefore, it seems likely that the negative trend in religiosity might be related to the positive trend in the LGBTQ+ population.

Conclusion

There is no question that identification as any of various forms of LGBTQ+ has increased dramatically among millennials and GenZs, with the largest increase in the bisexual category. Bryan Caplan hypothesizes that the trend is one of socialization, if not recruitment. It seems likely that this is the case, though much of the LGBTQ+ community’s internal, personal recruitment is probably of the passive variety. In addition, it seems likely that some of the gap relative to older generations is due to a reduction in closeting as well as “costless” status-seeking among individuals who wish to be perceived as enlightened or woke.

It’s also evident that the portion of the medical establishment concerned with issues of gender identity, as well as schools and certain entertainment institutions, have adopted the extreme views espoused by critical gender theory. They are actively encouraging children to learn about and explore various gender identities. This may encourage gender dysphoria, and when children show signs of dysphoria they are encouraged to move to the next stage, which involves affirmative therapy and puberty blockers, A bit later, teenagers might move on to other hormonal treatments and later-still, sex-change surgery. Our major medical, educational, and entertainment institutions appear to be real sources of non-passive recruitment, and indeed, the grooming of children for lives as LGBTQ+ adults.

Credit for the image at the top of this post goes to the Babylon Bee.

The Critical Race Dialectic

07 Sunday Feb 2021

Posted by in Critical Race Theory, Social Justice

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The very notion of impartiality requires decisions that are independent of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual preference, gender identity, or any other component of identity. The great irony of identity politics is its insistence on using characteristics of identity as the key drivers in a broad range of human decisions. It does so in an effort to redress injustices, often in the distant past. This necessarily penalizes individuals bearing no responsibility for the original injustices, and of course those penalties are also assessed on the basis of identity.

That would seem to limit the political viability of reparations for injustices of the distant past, but identity politics seeks to foster a sense of contemporary and immediate relevance to claims of compensable injustice. That’s one way to rationalize the kind of massive redistribution contemplated by this movement. Those who would stand to benefit must be convinced of their ongoing victimhood, and those who would pay must be convinced of their guilt: despite all good intentions, they practice unconscious bias in all of their actions, words, and thoughts. If successful, the possibilities for transfers of wealth and power in all matters are limited only by the negative-sum reality of this scam.

The kind of propaganda referenced above is the province of Critical Race Theory (CRT). S.G.Cheah explains:

“Critical Theory originated from Immanuel Kant’s Critical Philosophy. Critical Philosophy states that ‘proper inquiry is not about what is out there in reality, but rather about the character and foundations of experience itself.’”

For a more detailed analysis of Kant’s “Critiques” of pure reason, practical reason, and judgement, see here. His primary focus was theology, but the adherents obviously found much broader application. The brief explanation quoted above is pretty accurate, and probably offers all the intellectual underpinnings critical race theorists require to push their agenda.

If one’s “experience” is the only evidence that matters, then the ravings of any lunatic must be taken at face value, and as truth. A concession to objective reality is tolerated only when and if it confirms an individual’s mood affiliation. And what defines one’s experience if not one’s inner feelings about events? Thus, regardless of facts, CRT would have us bow to mere feelings, perceptions, and assertions of harm said to be inflicted by the so-called “privileged”.

If I believe I’ve experienced racism, then CRT supports the conclusion that I have experienced racism. It is not confined to situations of overt discrimination. It goes for any conflict I might have with someone of a different race; any transaction in which I might feel disadvantaged; any life circumstance that I experience as “unfair”; or any judgement against me in a court of law. Racism is reality if I “experience” the world as racist (or sexist or homophobic or transphobic, for that matter.) These charges are conveniently leveled against those who have enjoyed any differential success in the world, irrespective of race, but primarily against whites and often Asians regardless of success.

Apparently, under CRT, one’s “experience” may extend to perceptions that today’s culture and institutions are evolved from any version of history one might choose to conjure. A prominent case are the lies promoted by the New York Times’ 1619 Project that the Revolutionary War was fought to preserve slavery. Jonah Goldberg’s thoughts on that topic are worth reading.

CRT has spawned some incredibly bad research. Here’s a review of two academic papers on the connection between the use of the “N-word” in LLP Google searches and 1) gun purchases “motivated by white racial animus”, and 2) “anti-black voting patterns”. The authors of those papers drew behavioral conclusions from mere coincidental events, based more upon their personal biases than objective evidence. They undoubtedly were aware of the weaknesses of using Google trends to gauge attitudes, but they willfully ignored that evidence.

CRT is being taught to our children in public schools and probably in some private schools. This is nothing short of an indoctrination campaign. Of course, CRT made much earlier inroads in higher education. A new web site, criticalrace.org, includes a searchable database on CRT training at U.S. universities, as well as links to a variety of articles on CRT. Many private corporations have been eager to jump on board with CRT. Take a look at the instructor’s notes on the poster boards at the racial struggle session shown below. Here is a longer description.

This is literally a propaganda putsch, and it is meeting with far more success than I would have thought possible. I’ve apparently misjudged the ability of my countrymen to think independently, or to think at all. Here are examples of the success of CRT advocates in convincing whites of their individual and collective guilt. There are individuals now so convinced of the guilt of all white people that they can’t help but make complete fools of themselves:

“We will only achieve tolerance and unity once white people accept that they are evil, repugnant, worthless trash whose very existence is a vomit stain on the fabric of society.”

Speak for yourself! I have to conclude that this poor woman recognizes something quite damning within herself, and she feels it necessary to project her innermost racism onto others who happen to share her skin color.

Now here’s a man to admire: Lt. Governor Mark Robinson of North Carolina. He isn’t having any of the CRT crap, and he knows how to give it back to the petty stringers in the media as well as anyone.

CRT is a lie, or many lies. Racists certainly walk among us, but to condemn all whites of racism, or to allege racism by any class with presumed privilege, is a gross violation of ethics. Guilt of recompensable racism cannot be established by mere claims about anyone else’s “experience” without impartial adjudication. The thoughts and actions of decent people are not dominated by racial animus or repugnance, and any presumption to the contrary must be rejected in the absence of objective proof. Everyone matters, and we must insist on equality under the law. That does not mean equality of outcome, and it is not an excuse for blaming negative outcomes on anyone skilled and/or fortunate enough to have enjoyed more positive outcomes. If the fact that blacks have not achieved average economic parity with whites is evidence of “systemic racism”, I would suggest it has more to do with short-sighted public policy efforts to engineer social outcomes than with racism. More on that in a later post.

Note: the graphic at the top is from New Discourses.

Handy Q+A: Policing For Whiffs of Racism/Sexism

25 Saturday Aug 2018

Posted by in Identity Politics

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ααα

Too many folks today are disquieted by the possibility of uttering some erstwhile harmless expression that might conceivably offend peoples of various identity groups. As a service to my readers, I have decided to share a link to this thoughtful guide, actually a quiz, from the Manhattan Contrarian: “How To Identify Racist And Sexist Remarks And Slurs“. It is a short field guide, as it were, but one that may be applied to the “field of the mind” to fend off impurities of thought. In this day and age, one can’t be too careful!

Those who wish to score themselves on the quiz without exposure to spoilers should proceed directly to the link. I hope others, after reading just two of the questions and answers I quote below, will be so moved by the spirit of the exercise that they will go to the link to read the quiz in its entirety. Here are two of the questions and answers:

Q: “You say, ‘I believe the most qualified person should get the job.'”

A: “Obviously, this is racist, and probably sexist as well. … This statement demonstrates the ‘myth of meritocracy‘ and ‘assert[s] that race does not play a role in life successes.‘ It conveys the ‘message‘ that ‘[p]eople of color are given extra unfair benefits because of their race.‘”

Q: “I don’t give a, I don’t give a, I don’t give a fuck. I’m willin’ to die for this shit.  I done cried for this shit, might take a life for this shit. Put the Bible down and go eye to eye for this shit … If I gotta slap a pussy-ass nigga, I’ma make it look sexy.”

A: “Racist? Are you kidding????? These are lyrics from the song “Element,” from the album DAMN, by Kendrick Lamar, that won the Pulitzer Prize for music back in March. Obviously, if you had written this first, you would have won the Pulitzer Prize instead of Lamar.”

You must be attuned to the logic and politics of identity. Do NOT stumble into any implication that a thing matters that could be associated with an identity group, no matter how coincidentally. And do NOT under any circumstances attempt to adopt an element of the culture of another identity group, be it food, dress, music, or language. At the same time, however, do NOT forget that nothing matters more than honoring and paying restitution to each and every identity group that might have a claim to victimhood. Except for Jews, especially Zionists. Hope you like your straightjacket extra-tight.

Privileged White Males May Not Comment

10 Monday Nov 2014

Posted by in Uncategorized

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Patriarchal Society

On Friday, I was called a privileged white male who couldn’t possibly understand issues of race and gender discrimination. This from a “friend,” who was getting a bit off-topic after I rebutted a meme praising President Obama’s economic record. The meme is another topic (heh…), but I have written about the blanket “check your privilege” dismissal before. In this case, I responded to my critic, a woman, that Libertarians like me give women full credit for their strength and ability to compete. And they do compete: the gender pay gap in the U.S. is largely a fiction, though propaganda to the contrary still circulates.

On the issue of gender politics, what bothers me about today’s radical feminists is that they all but encourage a mentality of victimhood: women have been put-upon by privileged white males, made to submit socially, economically, and yes … sexually; forced to accept employment at below-market wages, locked out of many occupations like IT, firefighting or demolition work.

No doubt there has been discrimination against women in the past, before and during their integration into the labor force. Today, there may be vestiges of discrimination, but in a liberal, market economy, men and women are both empowered to seek the kind of education and career they wish to pursue. There is no guarantee that they’ll find employment in a particular field, however. Free individuals, men and women who want to work, participate voluntarily in a labor market with the objective of entering into mutually beneficial employment contracts at market-clearing wages. Yet liberal feminists often advocate for aggressive government intervention on behalf of women — see here and here, for example. From the latter:

“[Anne] Alstott and others argue that the state must ensure that the socially essential work of providing care to dependents does not unreasonably interfere with the personal autonomy of caregivers. Policies proposed to ensure sufficient personal autonomy for caregivers include parental leave, state subsidized, high quality day care, and flexible work schedules. Some recommend financial support for caregivers, others suggest guaranteeing a non-wage-earning spouse one half of her wage-earning spouse’s paycheck.”

Those proposals qualify as a set of highly aggressive state interventions. They would require redistribution of resources on a massive scale and would lead to dislocations and market failures. At a minimum, to accept such a costly platform, one must buy into the narrative of ongoing victimhood promoted by radical feminists, as well state control of economic life rather than individual initiative. Not all women agree, for example, the brilliant Virginia Postrel and Cathy Young.

The victimhood narrative, and the strong preference for relying on state action rather than individual decisions, extends to the recent push for an “affirmative consent” law in California. I leave it to Dr. Helen Smith to destroy this idiotic legal doctrine.

But back to my new designation as a “privileged white male.” As I tried to explain to this mudslinging individual, I find the accusation insulting on (at least) two counts: first, it implies that any success I’ve earned in life is less than fully deserved, but more importantly, it is a transparent attempt to disqualify me from debate. This “friend” hurled more insults, both petty and elitist, in an attempt to denigrate my career (as if she had any clue about what I do for a living, or what I earn). She also called my opinions “scary,” another weak effort to disqualify me. This is what weasels are made of. I told her she needed a good night’s sleep, and I really think she did! She repeated a refrain several times: “Sad,” without elaboration. She also “unfriended” me, which is fairly typical of leftists who engage in on-line debate. And I am sad for her, but I must move on!