Roger Clegg writes today that “[a] realistic goal” for our race relations “would be for being black to be roughly analogous to being Irish.”
Now, if I didn’t know and admire Roger I would worry about that prescription. I would worry that he meant that Irish-Americans (and, by extension, Luso-Americans, Jews, Catholics, etc.) should be given all the preferences now extended to blacks and Hispanics in education, hiring, etc.
But not to worry. He doesn’t mean that. What he means is that
we don’t expect people to be literally colorblind … , we don’t demand that people ignore their Irish or African American roots. It’s perfectly fine to celebrate that heritage, but the celebration ought to be a relatively minor part of one’s makeup, no one should be discriminated against on account of this ethnicity, and of course any formal legal distinction on this basis ought to be forbidden….
Classifying people according to skin color and what country their ancestors came from, and treating some better and others worse depending on which box they check, is obviously discrimination and obviously undesirable for the long-term harmony of an increasingly multiracial and multiethnic country. Racial preferences don’t diminish bigotry. Rather, they encourage it, by fostering resentment. What’s more, they paper over the real problems—like illegitimacy—and thus make it less likely that they will be addressed.
So, in the famous words of one of President Obama’s former mentor’s ideological forebears, What Is To Be Done? Well, we can at least hope (or, if you’re a Democrat, HOPE!):
Americans have elected an African American president. Partly on that account, there is hope regarding the remaining impediments to progress. The president has already encouraged African Americans to follow the Obamas’ lead when it comes to family and child-rearing. It would also be heartening if he would follow the logic of something he once said, to the effect that his daughters probably shouldn’t get preferences, and that poor non-minorities probably should. He could scrap the counterproductive system of racial preferences, and transform it into programs that help disadvantaged individuals of all colors.
Yes, that would be heartening indeed — as heartening, in fact, as it would be surprising.
