Progressive Equality

One could say the seeds of our modern idea of equality — treating people with, rather than without, regard to their race, gender, ethnicity, etc. — are beginning to sprout. And one could also say, with equal truth and more moral force, that they are weeds in the American garden. The fact that the garden was not weedless before does nothing to mitigate the unpleasantness of this latest excrescence.

I am thinking of two particular examples, both of which have been written about so well elsewhere that fortunately all I have to do is insert pointers. One is the demand by some black parents in Oberlin, Ohio, supported by an associate professor at Oberlin College, that only blacks should be allowed to teach black history in the high school. See the excellent comments by Joanne Jacobs and David Bernstein, among many others. Oberlin has a long and honorable history promoting racial equality, from the early abolitionists through the civil rights movement. How sad to see that history dishonored by today’s racist silliness.

The second current example is the move to establish a segregated high school in New York City for gay and lesbian students. AsMayor Bloomberg put it:

I think everybody feels that it’s a good idea because some of the kids who are gays and lesbians have been constantly harassed and beaten in other schools,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday. “It lets them get an education without having to worry.

As Fritz Schranck points out, it apparently never occurred to hizzoner that simply enforcing rules against violence and intimidation would have been preferable. If the mayor’s sensibilities had prevailed back in the civil rights era, the attacks on the Freedom Riders would have been met with … separate black buses and bus stations.

Say What? (1)

  1. StuartT July 29, 2003 at 11:50 am | | Reply

    I thought the term “excrescence” was quite apt, though I would go a bit further to call it excrement. And so on the subject, I would challenge any coprophagic Kool-Aid drinkers to solve (or merely explain) the diversity paradox.

    To wit: How does a corporation (or government) manage to be an “equal opportunity employer” while also practicing affirmative action (i.e. racial preferences)? So which is it? I can only speculate that the key must lie in the concept of “doublethink,” the ability to believe two conflicting ideas simultaneously.

    If there are any diversiphiles reading today who would like to respond, I’d be eager to get your feedback. 1) Do you believe that equal opportunity and racial preferences can exist simultaneously? If so, do you believe that a hedgehog can at once be also an ostrich? 2) If you do not subscribe to the theory of point 1 above, then which concept, equal opportunity or racial preferences, should be stricken from corporate (or public) policy?

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