Why You Should Judge People as Individuals, Not Races

Not everyone sees it this way, but I’ve always thought it was weird to hear people say that they were “proud” of their race. Like really? Why? It’s not like you had anything to do with their successes. George Washington, Steve Jobs, and Aristotle were all white, but even though I’m white, I didn’t make them successful. Additionally, it’s not like Abe Lincoln and Winston Churchill were looking for someone capable of carrying on their legacy and said, “Hey God, draft that guy to the white race! He’d make a great addition to the team!”

My skin color is an accident of birth that I had nothing to do with and can’t change. It’s also not like we’re all on the same team. Russians and Ukrainians are white and fighting each other. It’s a long story that I’m not going into here, but I had a white doctor screw up last year out of pure incompetence and he nearly killed me. I’d love nothing more than to punch that guy in the face. Are we on the same team? I don’t think so.

Some people get hung up on this because, for example, many black Americans love to say they’re, “proud to be black.” Really? How about the black dudes that shoot each other every 5 minutes in Chicago? What about when you hear about some white guy getting mugged or shot by a black guy, which is, let’s face it, an extremely common experience? Are you proud of that? If you are, you’re a terrible person.

That’s the flip side of all this that so many people try to ignore. Are you proud of your race? Do you want credit for all the things your race has done right? Great, then you should also take the blame for all the things your race does wrong. I don’t take any pride in being white, but I also refuse to accept any blame for slave owners, Jeffrey Dahmer and Hitler.

The question really isn’t, “If other races can say they’re ‘proud’ to be their race, why can’t white people say the same?” It’s, “Saying you’re ‘proud’ of your race is usually a sign that you feel inferior and are trying to feel better about yourself by claiming other people’s accomplishments, so why should anyone do that?”

Now some people would respond to that by saying something like, “Well, what are you saying? That we’re all exactly the same? That’s not true.”

That’s right, it’s not true.

Men are different than women. White culture and black culture aren’t the same. Neither is straight culture and gay culture.

Furthermore, there can be a big price to pay if you don’t pay attention to the differences. As even, believe it or not, Jesse Jackson once noted, not acknowledging those differences can even potentially lead to dangerous mistakes:

“There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps... then turn around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”

Of course, that’s not universal. Because if you ask a general question like, “Who would you rather have behind you at an ATM, a black guy or an Asian?” almost everyone, even other black Americans, would say the Asian if they were being honest. But, what if the black guy was middle-aged and wearing a suit while the Asian was dressed ratty, smelled bad, looked like he was on drugs, and had face and neck tattoos? Suddenly, most people’s answer would flip.

This is true in a lot of areas.

When I was in Mexico City for a week last year, I felt very safe the whole time I was there (I walked around a safe part of the city and the tourist district but went everywhere else with local tour guides). However, I probably saw fewer than 20 non-Hispanic people on the whole trip and almost no one spoke English.

If I started wandering around in one of the slums by myself, I would have stood out like a sore thumb and the chances I would have gotten robbed at best and stabbed at worst would have been high. That doesn’t mean Mexicans are bad, Hispanic people are bad, or even that Mexico City isn’t a fun place to vacation. Just that differences exist between groups of people and you need to be aware of them.

Still, the world is full of people that confound your expectations.

For example, at my high school, we had an amazing basketball team. One of the best in the state. If I remember correctly, all 5 of our starters got offered college scholarships on some level. How many of them do you think were black? Since there are roughly 4 ½ times as many black players as white players in the NBA, you might guess “4” or “5.” Actually, the best player was black, but 3 of the starters were white.

I also did Quiz Bowl and Math Counts in high school. Who do you think the best mathematical mind was on those teams? If you’re guessing, “You,” – not even close. I was only good at statistics. If you’re guessing, “Probably some Asian guy,” there just weren’t very many Asians at our school. It was actually a black guy. I think he’s a doctor now.

Along similar lines, a lot of people have ripped “DEI hires” (including black DEI hires) because if they could have made it by merit, they wouldn’t need DEI. However, I’m guessing if most of those people needed brain surgery when Ben Carson was still one of the best-practicing brain surgeons in America, they’d be thrilled to work with him.

Along somewhat similar lines, I would flat-out tell you that it’s a mistake for any Western country to import large numbers of Muslim immigrants because if you do, conflict, unrest, and even sexual assaults soon follow in waves. This is happening in several European countries right now and if we bring in enough Muslim immigrants, it will happen here, too. However, does that mean all Muslims are bad? Absolutely not. I grew up idolizing Muhammad Ali. Furthermore, the only piece of fanboy merch that I bought myself in the last few decades was an MMA glove signed by Khabib Nurmagomedov, who is one of the best ever to do it:

I would not go to Afghanistan if you paid me, but on the other hand, listening to the story of the Afghan villagers who protected Navy Seal Marcus Luttrell from the Taliban because he was their guest was an incredibly inspirational story that changed how I thought about how important it is to be a good host when I have guests in my home:

There are Muslims I follow on Twitter, Muslims I admire, and places in the Muslim world I want to visit.

If you want to take it even further, if you’ve read Culturcidal, you can tell there’s no love for liberalism here. It’s a monstrous philosophy and I dissect the broken way liberals think on a regular basis. Does that mean I hate liberals? No. I have liberal friends. Admittedly, not a lot of them these days, but there are some.

There are liberals I’ve eaten dinner with, that I’ve invited to stay at my house, and have hung out with. I’ve met prominent liberals in person at conferences, and I’ve been polite to them. I don’t want their agenda to succeed, but I’m not rooting for them to get cancer, die or have horrible lives because we disagree.

Now, the point of this isn’t, “Maybe black Americans, liberals, and Muslims are better than you may think” or even, “Mexico City is a great vacation spot (except for the altitude. 7,350 feet above sea level – it’s brutal),” it’s that human beings are individuals and you need to treat them that way.

Judging every individual member of a group like whites, blacks, Hispanics, gays, straights, Muslims, Jews, atheists, Christians, men or women by the way you view the whole group is not good, healthy, or smart. I’m not saying you have to prove how “open-minded” you are by walking through Compton at midnight or by going to a perverted gay parade in San Francisco, but I am saying you should judge people according to the “content of their character” and give them at least a modicum of respect unless they give you a genuine reason not to do it.

For your sake, for their sake, and society’s sake, treat every human being as an individual and judge them by the “content of their character,” not their group.

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