How do you end discrimination without ending discrimination?

Jere Krischel
Sep 9, 2018 · 3 min read

We seem to have the ACLU at a moment of cognitive dissonance here. I think we can all agree that people should be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. As a matter of essential fairness, the idea of a black man being refused service at a lunch counter because of his skin color should offend our sensibilities just as much as an asian man being refused service at a lunch counter because of the slant of his eyes, or a white man being refused service at a lunch counter because of the red of his hair.

At the same moment, the ACLU believes firmly, stridently, that we must judge people by the color their skin — that in fact, it is remiss of us not to use skin color as an implication that is more important than say, actual lived experience. We must recognize that in general black men have higher poverty rates than white men, even if the black man applying to college comes from a rich white family. We must recognize that asians in general have a stronger familial commitment to education, even if a particular asian grew up in foster care with no stable family unit. We must recognize that white people, in general, were slave owners almost 200 years ago, even if a particular white person comes from a country where their ethnic group is still enslaved today.

There simply is no way to square this circle. We cannot possibly hope to remedy the sins of the past on the backs of the present without explicitly engaging once again in the sins of the past. The only way forward is to behave differently than we did in prior generations — we must treat people as individuals, not determined by their collective self-identity, or the indentity imposed upon them by others.

There are race-neutral ways to open the halls of academia to people of diverse backgrounds. Simply discriminating on the basis of socioeconomic status, to start. Or on the basis of parental profession. Or on the basis of music preferences, or flavor preferences, or any number of background specifics we might show bring forth a better education.

We may decide that having people who grew up on farms, or worked in butcher shops as teenagers are important additions to the ideal educational mix. We might decide that people who have never seen Monty Python, or know who Lenny Bruce is bring a critical diversity to our universities. We may discover that the goal of a pluralistic society is enhanced when people who believe in a flat earth are part of the mix. All of these things can be distanced, and removed from race or skin color — and by our ideals, they in fact should.

Let us declare, boldly, that just as black women can be ballerinas, white men can be rappers and thugs. Let us recognize that just as asian women can be basketball players, black men can be violinists. Let us once and for all let go of the false stereotypes that assert “if your skin is this color, you must have this life experience, and this political opinion, and this attitude towards life”.

Let’s start treating people as people, and then racism goes away.

    Jere Krischel

    Written by

    Socially liberal, fiscally conservative, born again carnivore, musician, firearms instructor and skeptical civil rights activist.

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