Categories
Blog

What “Racial Equity” Does and Doesn’t Mean

An article I wrote responding to UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh’s Washington Post editorial, “How the Asians Became White ” ended up creating a bit of a flap. There was a flood of angry comment, most of which was deleted.

Note to readers: comments that begin with “you f**king Nazi,” or that refer to me as a “genocidal maniac” don’t ever make the queue because, well, comparing racial equity in employment to the Holocaust is not something I support. Genocide, as well, is not something to be trivialized. If you want to do something to stop genocide, I suggest … Read more “What “Racial Equity” Does and Doesn’t Mean”

Categories
Blog

In Defense of Affirmative Action

In Slate today, author and journalist, Tanner Colby, wrote the second in a series of articles concerning what he calls The Massive Liberal Failure on Race. In it, he expounds on the failure of affirmative action to correct the problem of structural racism in the U.S., especially as it affects black people. Because of these failures, he suggests liberals eliminate affirmative action in favor of something else.

The article begins with some historical context, and then goes on to list affirmative action’s weaknesses, including these:

1) affirmative action was conceived of as a bribe offered by the Nixon administration … Read more “In Defense of Affirmative Action”

Categories
Blog

What We Talk About When We Talk About Racism

Ever notice that when we talk about racism, those of us who are racial justice advocates are often really mostly talking about ourselves? We speak out to demonstrate our knowledge. We signal that we get it, building community among like-minded people by using the right words and being in command of the right facts. We make the case for opposing racism with descriptions of how people of color suffer, often even to the extent to ranking oppressions and making suffering into a virtue.

At our best we don’t appeal to guilt as much as to compassion. But we don’t … Read more “What We Talk About When We Talk About Racism”