Listen now | At Columbia University's freshman orientation, Coleman Hughes and his classmates were separated into groups by skin color to discuss the effects of racism, with minorities portrayed as victims and white students as beneficiaries. Why have exercises like this become commonplace in elite institutions? How did this neo-racism take hold? And what are the counter-arguments and better approaches to race and diversity?
I remember going through this in the late 70s. Eye of the Storm, Brown Eyes v. Blue Eyes. We were all rolling our eyes because it was so trite OVER FIFTY YEARS AGO!
The destination available to mankind when we move beyond race is merit. This is not new we just ignored the truth of it.
In a meritocracy, the results of one's hard work, efforts, and grit determine outcomes. Outcomes are not engineered before the competition begins. Winnings are not forcibly taken from the winners and given to the losers.
This will be very difficult to create in our T-ball, everybody-gets-a-trophy-charade of a society, but it can be done.
I went to a military school at which all public artifice was literally shorn and what lay on the cutting room floor was a meritocracy and a vicious, but fair, competition. We went to school six days a week, so the work ethic was imposed upon us. It was structural.
When I served in the combat engineers there was an equally fierce meritocracy and all of us bled red regardless of the colors of our skin. We related as equals because we took equal chances.
This is attainable, but not until we take the pruning shears to the false victim -- oppressor mythology.
I remember going through this in the late 70s. Eye of the Storm, Brown Eyes v. Blue Eyes. We were all rolling our eyes because it was so trite OVER FIFTY YEARS AGO!
The destination available to mankind when we move beyond race is merit. This is not new we just ignored the truth of it.
In a meritocracy, the results of one's hard work, efforts, and grit determine outcomes. Outcomes are not engineered before the competition begins. Winnings are not forcibly taken from the winners and given to the losers.
This will be very difficult to create in our T-ball, everybody-gets-a-trophy-charade of a society, but it can be done.
I went to a military school at which all public artifice was literally shorn and what lay on the cutting room floor was a meritocracy and a vicious, but fair, competition. We went to school six days a week, so the work ethic was imposed upon us. It was structural.
When I served in the combat engineers there was an equally fierce meritocracy and all of us bled red regardless of the colors of our skin. We related as equals because we took equal chances.
This is attainable, but not until we take the pruning shears to the false victim -- oppressor mythology.
JLM
www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com