The War on Inequality didn’t begin with Obama but he gave it a big push. This war includes state-led efforts to eliminate or mitigate “systemic racism”.
I vehemently deny that “systemic racism” exists in America to any significant degree. The vast majority of Americans are not racists. Yet we have a problem, which is the perpetuation of the false idea that we are racists. There is also the problem of the false idea that racism causes or has caused people of color, mainly people of African heritage and genetic composition, to be so disadvantaged that non-black Americans have to turn themselves inside out in all sorts of ways, including money payoffs, in order to rectify the situation.
I deny that racism is anything worth getting riled up about, much less legislating about. I think that all such efforts to conjure up the specter of racism are scams, con games and rackets designed to favor certain specific beneficiaries. Race hustlers like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have kept alive the racism myths, and they’ve succeeded in passing them on to a new generation of both black and white people. Along side of them and adding fuel to the fake fire blazing in people’s heads are Barack Obama and other socialists and progressives like him who see racism as a way for them to seize government power.
If “systemic racism” is a joke, an imaginary construct, a farce and a fraud visited upon non-racist Americans for various darker reasons that are kept hidden by the race hustlers and fraudsters, then such “racism” cannot be the cause of systemic inequalities. What inequalities we may observe or that can be documented have other causes than racism.
While the war against “systemic racism” is unnecessary, wrong-headed, costly, unjust, racist itself, causing opposite results, and injurious to many, nonetheless it is a fact. While it is not even a fact that inequalities of various kinds need to be mitigated, the war against them is still a fact. While it is not even a fact that inequalities are due to systemic or non-systemic racism, still the battles against “systemic racism” remain facts.
Vermont provides a recent example of the reality of this fraud, showing it to be perpetrated by government, among others. For nuts and bolts detailed arguments relevant specifically to Vermont, see here.
Vermont’s governor is a Republican. Its House is 95 Democrat and 43 Republican. Its Senate is 22-6 in favor of Democrats. The legislature passed a bill to “promote racial justice” and to “combat” “systemic racism” in Vermont. The governor vetoed it because he thought it had an unconstitutional provision that made the legislated racism board too independent. He then issued an executive order that accomplished everything else in the legislative bill.
Vermont’s government will now have “…within the Executive Branch a Chief Racial Equity and Diversity Officer (‘Officer’) and a Racial, Ethnic and Cultural Equity Advisory Panel (‘Panel’) to identify and work to eradicate systemic racism and racial, ethnic and other cultural disparities within State government.”
It’s an affirmative action or quota kind of operation whereby color of skin will become a criterion for hiring people. People of color, as opposed to white people (who actually have a range of hues like pinkish, bluish-white, yellowish, olive, etc.), will get cushy jobs within the various government bureaus, and they will hire other people of color by some quota system. They will run “training” programs and workshops or hire outside consultants to do so. All the apparatus of creating “diversity” will ensue. Merit and opportunity to advance will be accorded lower priorities. Other effects will follow as the new appointees and hired help gain power over making and administering government’s rules. Their advice and reports to the legislators will impact the government’s policies. A race-based culture will be instituted. Racism may well become systemic as a consequence.
Non-racist Americans don’t need to enforce measures against non-existent “systemic racism”. They don’t need to ensure the absence of inequalities falsely attributed to racism. People of color do not need to force white Americans to hire them or take their children into white-dominated schools, or provide them with houses in richer neighborhoods.
All Americans of any color can improve their money-making power by means of better education for themselves and their children. This includes building up skills on the job.
Imagining that there is “systemic racism” that must be removed in order for people to get ahead is a path built upon complete falsity and misdirection of effort. It is only common sense that education, including work training, is the sole way open to most of us to build up our capacity to make money.
This is not an endorsement of our current educational system. It’s the opposite. What government should be doing is limiting its activities in education and other areas so that people will have higher after-tax income and can pay more easily for higher-quality education for their children. If government were to get out of education and let freedom reign in this sector, higher-quality education would come on stream at much lower cost than what we have today.
12:04 pm on July 10, 2019
