Thanks, Chris. A lot of articles today are long on complaining, but short on solutions. It's nice to hear an actual vision statement with a concrete, actionable agenda.
Your solutions make obvious sense. But the DEI profession is so vast and entrenched throughout our society, and the ideology is so essential to the political power of the Democrat party, that they will say and do anything to preserve it. I was so discouraged to hear the new head coach of the New England Patriots, who is Black and a former star linebacker, proclaim at his inaugural press conference that he “does see race,” and believes people must see it in order to recognize and prevent racism. In other words, the opposite of a colorblind society, which we were well on our way to becoming prior to the disastrous summer of 2020.
Excellent work. The key to success in politics is simple; make people physically safe and economically secure. Some people need to go look back at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It’s an old idea that needs to be refreshed in new light.
Eloquently stated and equally enlightening & refreshing writing, Chris. These concepts should be enshrined into the Republican and Libertarian platforms.
Common sense is brilliant and its virtuous application is the glue that holds together the tenets of our Constitution.
If conservatives would make colorblindness, a priority issue in their platform, and talk about it often, it would put the left in a precarious position. They would have to either admit they’re against colorblindness, or lie, and pretend they’re for colorblindness.
DEI is discrimination. Discrimination is illegal. We have seen the Supreme Court strike down affirmative action. Why are lawsuits not being filed against every corporation and institutions practicing DEI?
“Embracing the philosophy of the American Founding—with its emphasis on natural rights and liberties—will suffice.” Yes, and many libertarians agree. So are we cool?
"If a re-invigorated GOP ever did really get its act together about re-invigorating America's traditional values (and the votes to back it), it would need both an unashamedly sledgehammer legislative approach plus a Machiavellian administrative sleight of hand. To the DEI abolition/Colour Blindness measures in Chris's excellent proposal it might seek to:
- end the decades-long absurdity of academic 'woke studies'-type courses and other left wing proselytising NGOs being actually funded by the taxpayer.
- some mechanism to fire academics who have cravenly caved in to spoilt-brat ‘radicalism’.
- a complete overhaul of teacher training that has long been allowed to become a training ground in progressive ideology.
- an end to all public sector security-of-tenure unrelated to performance."
Excellent action steps about all of the bureaucracies that need to be abolished. Thomas Sowell has clearly shown that disparate impacts are completely normal and do not provide any evidence, by themselves, of discrimination. I suggest reading "Discrimination & Disparities" by Thomas Sowell.
This is just my experience and I know this is anecdotal and may have nothing to do with the article. I live in north Alabama... I was born and raised here. Black and white people have interacted together since I can remember....I didn't know any different. From elementary to high school, we(black and white people)were friends. I only remember us interacting together...the girls were cheerleaders together, on the dance team together, guys in sports together. Yes, in Alabama. Currently, I live in a planned community and there are people from all over the world that live here. We all get along and have each other's back. A few years ago, we had a neighbor who was very sick with cancer. One evening, many of us gathered outside her home to pray for her...black and white people. Maybe much of this racial animus and division occurs in the mainstream, leftist media and doesn't represent many of the people? Maybe I'm wrong but this has been my experience. I bet many of you have not heard of the movie Woodlawn. It's based on a true story about a football team at a high school in Birmingham in the early 70's. Look it up because it showed how one man had a profound impact on the players(black and white) and bridged the racial divide. I guess I wanted to share all of this to show that it is possible to have racial harmony and that it probably happens more often that we think 😊
I love the idea of colorblindness. I've been following Coleman Hughes and find myself agreeing with him and as we've discussed, MLK never wanted race to be a proxy for class. Things like the census need reform. Race is a social construct because obviously there is only one race, human. Same with public schools that break down achievement by ethnicity and skin color. That is for sure using race as a proxy for class. The terms BIPOC, people of color, brown people, etc. are repulsive in that way, too. Half of my family are Mexican immigrants and not once have I ever heard them refer to themselves as brown people. Yikes. Worse yet, Latinx. Ugh. I've been thinking of starting to testify at Seattle City Council, King County Council, and WA state legislature about the problematic nature of their use of these racist proxies for class. Here in the Washington State the highest incomes are the Asians including East Indian immigrants and others. That's what makes it convenient to consider Asians white-adjacent in woke terminology. I always ask: which people are you talking about? If it's BLM, I ask which ones matter because I can easily name black lives that do not matter to me. Could say the same about "white" people. Which ones? I can easily name white lives that do not matter to me. Not all BIPOC people are poor or disadvantaged. Not all white people are advantaged. It's all so stupid. I really look forward to the DEI bureaucracies going away. Could not come soon enough for me.
Simple version of our situation: The left says that failure to achieve equal outcomes justifies racism. Thus, if blacks are deficient in some area (education, income, etcetera), the whites must be punished until the outcome is equal. The basic solution to much of it is to fix our education system, not easy, but possible. When major school districts have dropout rates near 50%, the system is seriously flawed and throwing money at it is not the fix.
Unfortunately, the legal system has been created to protect this reverse Robinhood, reverse racism method because the practitioners make a lot of noise and get wealthy.
As Chris says, the real solution is a colorblind system.
Thanks, Chris. A lot of articles today are long on complaining, but short on solutions. It's nice to hear an actual vision statement with a concrete, actionable agenda.
I agree absolutely. I don't know why we don't hear this more from Republicans. It seems like an obvious winning position.
Your solutions make obvious sense. But the DEI profession is so vast and entrenched throughout our society, and the ideology is so essential to the political power of the Democrat party, that they will say and do anything to preserve it. I was so discouraged to hear the new head coach of the New England Patriots, who is Black and a former star linebacker, proclaim at his inaugural press conference that he “does see race,” and believes people must see it in order to recognize and prevent racism. In other words, the opposite of a colorblind society, which we were well on our way to becoming prior to the disastrous summer of 2020.
Excellent work. The key to success in politics is simple; make people physically safe and economically secure. Some people need to go look back at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It’s an old idea that needs to be refreshed in new light.
Eloquently stated and equally enlightening & refreshing writing, Chris. These concepts should be enshrined into the Republican and Libertarian platforms.
Common sense is brilliant and its virtuous application is the glue that holds together the tenets of our Constitution.
I’m so glad you’re forging a way forward.
If conservatives would make colorblindness, a priority issue in their platform, and talk about it often, it would put the left in a precarious position. They would have to either admit they’re against colorblindness, or lie, and pretend they’re for colorblindness.
DEI is discrimination. Discrimination is illegal. We have seen the Supreme Court strike down affirmative action. Why are lawsuits not being filed against every corporation and institutions practicing DEI?
“Embracing the philosophy of the American Founding—with its emphasis on natural rights and liberties—will suffice.” Yes, and many libertarians agree. So are we cool?
"If a re-invigorated GOP ever did really get its act together about re-invigorating America's traditional values (and the votes to back it), it would need both an unashamedly sledgehammer legislative approach plus a Machiavellian administrative sleight of hand. To the DEI abolition/Colour Blindness measures in Chris's excellent proposal it might seek to:
- end the decades-long absurdity of academic 'woke studies'-type courses and other left wing proselytising NGOs being actually funded by the taxpayer.
- some mechanism to fire academics who have cravenly caved in to spoilt-brat ‘radicalism’.
- a complete overhaul of teacher training that has long been allowed to become a training ground in progressive ideology.
- an end to all public sector security-of-tenure unrelated to performance."
https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/invasion-of-the-virtue-signallers
And before you say it....no I don't know exactly HOW all this could be acheived!
"the doctrine that disparate group outcomes are de facto evidence of racial discrimination"
Very good arguments against in the article.
Anyone with any education in math/stats knows that correlation is not causation.
Excellent action steps about all of the bureaucracies that need to be abolished. Thomas Sowell has clearly shown that disparate impacts are completely normal and do not provide any evidence, by themselves, of discrimination. I suggest reading "Discrimination & Disparities" by Thomas Sowell.
Great piece! Griggs v. Duke Power Co. is such an abomination of logic it is depressing.
This is just my experience and I know this is anecdotal and may have nothing to do with the article. I live in north Alabama... I was born and raised here. Black and white people have interacted together since I can remember....I didn't know any different. From elementary to high school, we(black and white people)were friends. I only remember us interacting together...the girls were cheerleaders together, on the dance team together, guys in sports together. Yes, in Alabama. Currently, I live in a planned community and there are people from all over the world that live here. We all get along and have each other's back. A few years ago, we had a neighbor who was very sick with cancer. One evening, many of us gathered outside her home to pray for her...black and white people. Maybe much of this racial animus and division occurs in the mainstream, leftist media and doesn't represent many of the people? Maybe I'm wrong but this has been my experience. I bet many of you have not heard of the movie Woodlawn. It's based on a true story about a football team at a high school in Birmingham in the early 70's. Look it up because it showed how one man had a profound impact on the players(black and white) and bridged the racial divide. I guess I wanted to share all of this to show that it is possible to have racial harmony and that it probably happens more often that we think 😊
I love the idea of colorblindness. I've been following Coleman Hughes and find myself agreeing with him and as we've discussed, MLK never wanted race to be a proxy for class. Things like the census need reform. Race is a social construct because obviously there is only one race, human. Same with public schools that break down achievement by ethnicity and skin color. That is for sure using race as a proxy for class. The terms BIPOC, people of color, brown people, etc. are repulsive in that way, too. Half of my family are Mexican immigrants and not once have I ever heard them refer to themselves as brown people. Yikes. Worse yet, Latinx. Ugh. I've been thinking of starting to testify at Seattle City Council, King County Council, and WA state legislature about the problematic nature of their use of these racist proxies for class. Here in the Washington State the highest incomes are the Asians including East Indian immigrants and others. That's what makes it convenient to consider Asians white-adjacent in woke terminology. I always ask: which people are you talking about? If it's BLM, I ask which ones matter because I can easily name black lives that do not matter to me. Could say the same about "white" people. Which ones? I can easily name white lives that do not matter to me. Not all BIPOC people are poor or disadvantaged. Not all white people are advantaged. It's all so stupid. I really look forward to the DEI bureaucracies going away. Could not come soon enough for me.
Simple version of our situation: The left says that failure to achieve equal outcomes justifies racism. Thus, if blacks are deficient in some area (education, income, etcetera), the whites must be punished until the outcome is equal. The basic solution to much of it is to fix our education system, not easy, but possible. When major school districts have dropout rates near 50%, the system is seriously flawed and throwing money at it is not the fix.
Unfortunately, the legal system has been created to protect this reverse Robinhood, reverse racism method because the practitioners make a lot of noise and get wealthy.
As Chris says, the real solution is a colorblind system.
Yes please. And, though we have a different system, I’d ask the same for England.