America Has Got to Get Out of the Weeds on Race

The Left’s obsession with pitting Americans against each other based on their race is deeply unhealthy.

If we went back to the fifties, there wouldn't be a lot of confusion about who was racist and who wasn't. The white people who hated black Americans would tell you that black Americans were inferior. They were comfortable dropping the N-word. They didn't want to drink out of the same water fountains because they thought black Americans were dirty. They didn't want to share lunch space counters or schools with them. They were willing to ride the same buses, but they wanted black Americans sitting at the back because they believed that, as superior white people, they deserved the better seats upfront. Granted, there were an awful lot of white Americans who didn't act that way or see the world that way, but there were enough that did to shape how the world worked.

Picking out racists from that era wasn’t very hard.

Today, we’ve gotten to the point where white people who have black friends, have black Americans they admire, have black Americans they’d vote for, that believe in a colorblind world, and that honestly, genuinely don’t believe they’re bigoted, are being called “racists” incessantly. In fact, unless you want to be a mindless drone who vacantly agrees with and nods along with every single thing that black liberals say, you can’t avoid being labeled racist – and even those people are going to be treated as bigots now and again.

There are reasons for this, none of which necessarily have much of anything to do with real racism.

For example, there are majority-black cities and counties that have been run by Democrats for decades where people are poor, schools are bad, and crime is scary. So, how do those Democrats convince black Americans not to vote for Republicans who would almost certainly do a much better job of governing? Simple. They claim that Republicans are racist. This allows them to disqualify the competition. “We may be terrible, but you can’t vote for those guys! They hate you!” It’s also a good way to drum up black turnout. “You’ve got to turn out and vote for us because those people want to get you! They want to put you back in chains!” This is a transparently dishonest tactic and increasing numbers of black Americans seem to be slowly, but surely seeing through it, but overall, it’s still effective enough to be the backbone of the Democratic pitch to black Americans.

In addition, there are a lot of people of every race, ethnicity, nationality, and gender who simply cannot take responsibility for their own failures. They’ll tell you they’re not having a bad life because they quit high school at 15, have a rap sheet, can’t hold a job, and have no skills… they’re having a bad life because of an “ism.” If those racists weren’t holding them back, they’d be doing great! Racism is a great excuse for these people and if they weren’t black, they’d just be using some other “ism” as an excuse for their failures.

Those are bad enough, but what has really damaged race relations in America over the last decade are the people obsessed with race for no other reason than they believe that picking at that particular scab will help get them clout. Their goal isn’t to make life better for anyone or change anything, it’s to exacerbate tensions and make people hate each other so they can benefit from portraying themselves as heroes who are standing up against injustice. People like this have always been around, but the social media era has greatly increased their influence.