Blacks are given preferential admission to selective colleges in order to provide “diversity” to others, but the sort of “diversity” represented by Shelby Steele has absolutely noting in common with the “diversity” represented by columnist Derrick Z. Jackson. (And, for that matter, since the views of both of them are indistinguishable from the views of many whites, Asians, and other members of non-preferred groups who agree with them, it’s not clear what “diversity” either of them would contribute.)
Steele argues that racism is a relic of the past, despite the efforts of those with a vested interest in finding a steady stream of present victims.
Many believe that it is racist for whites to say white supremacy is dead, and that it is Uncle Tomism for blacks to say it. But it is dead nevertheless. Once a legitimate authority with dominion over all the resources and peoples of the world, it is today universally seen as one of history’s greatest evils. It is dead today because it has no authority anywhere in the world and no legitimacy out of which to impose itself…. And even if it survives in some quarters as an idea, as a speculation, it now stigmatizes anyone associated with it to the point of ruin.
….
This does not mean that racist behavior today is somehow benign. It means that today racism swims upstream in an atmosphere of ferocious intolerance. Moreover, today’s racism is no longer in concert with an overt and systematic subjugation of blacks. While racism continues to exist, it no longer stunts the lives of blacks.
Yet a belief in the ongoing power of racism is, today, an article of faith for “good” whites and “truth-telling” blacks. It is heresy for any white or black to say openly that, today, underdevelopment and broken families are vastly greater problems for blacks than racism, even though this is obviously true. The problem is that this truth blames the victim. It suggests that black progress will come more from black effort than from white goodwill — even though white oppression caused the underdevelopment in the first place.
By contract, Derrick Z. Jackson regards even an antipathy to higher taxes as evidence of racism that is still running rampant.
“Taxes” has become a code word for “we got ours, forget the rest of you all.” “Taxes” avoids real discussion of white privilege. “Taxes” avoid s how old-line white families were able to transfer wealth and property during slavery. “Taxes” avoid s recognizing how white families, whether old-line or new immigrants, were able to experience a 20th century of upward mobility through home ownership and quality public education while black people needed, but did not get federal protections from voting, housing, and job discrimination until the 1960s. And after only a brief moment in historical terms, remedies such as affirmative action, even voluntary affirmative action, are about to become history.
I suspect that one of the reasons so many people who are not racists and who support equal rights oppose “affirmative action” is the prevalence of views like Jackson’s among its supporters.
