There’s a litmus test I’ve always used to gauge society’s level of racial equality: If I could be born again today, would it matter to me if I was born with “white” skin, or with “black” skin?
If my answer was “yes, I’d really want to have white skin again”, then we had not stopped the ridiculous, abhorrent and brutal hierarchical categorization of people by skin color.
Sadly, over the last 40 years, my answer to this test has always been “yes, I’d really want to have white skin again”. Yet I’ve recently come to think this binary black/white racial paradigm is making our efforts to combat inequality and injustice much more difficult.
Because honestly, if the choice were:
“white” skin, but unattractive, with below-average intelligence, no talents, a bad temperament and to uneducated parents living in generational poverty
versus
“black skin”, but attractive, with above-average intelligence, many talents, a winning personality and to educated parents from generations of wealth
…I would choose (b) without hesitation.
Now this is likely a provocative observation in today’s climate. So hear me out in full before lashing out.
First, this is in no way meant to suggest that racism isn’t virulently alive and kicking, or broadly despicable. Even CEOs, celebrities and superstar athletes have been its victims.
But maybe it does mean that viewing inequality and privilege only through the lens of race - in isolation of all the other luck-of-the-draw factors that give some humans giant and important advantages over others - may create a cognitive dissonance among many whites, especially those who don’t feel very privileged otherwise.
Race intersects with a complex set of other heritable genetic factors that includes our ethnicity, intelligence, personality and talents, as well as with external factors like when and where we were born, and our family’s status, religion, level of education and wealth (or lack thereof).
Which all adds up to a stubborn, troubling question about inequality in general. How can we make any comparative outcomes equal for humans who are inherently and objectively never going to be equal?
Of course, it’s commonly acknowledged that equal outcomes cannot be achieved, and those who have tried before (Marxists, communists, socialists) all failed miserably. When this argument is made by those on the right, many on the left seem to figuratively thump their foreheads like they’ve just realized they could’ve had a V8.
No, no they exclaim...we’re seeking equality in opportunity not outcomes.
Yes, that’s it! Equal opportunity for all. Delivering on the American dream: anyone who works hard can rise up to the middle class and beyond to live a prosperous and secure life.
We just need to even the playing field for people of color, right?
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Equal opportunity is nothing but a dream. It has never, ever been a reality - and will never be. Because humans arrive here inherently and objectively unequal. In fact, claiming that we only need to establish an “even playing field” for equality to blossom is a deliberate falsehood advocated to affirm an underlying, highly destructive belief that helps sustain the real inequality status quo:
Those who have money and power (winners!) do so because they are worthy. They are hard-working and industrious. Make wise choices. Exhibit good character. Come from superior bloodlines.
Those who don't have any money or power (losers!) are almost always unworthy. They are lazy and self-indulgent. Make stupid choices. Exhibit bad character. Engage in crime. Come from tainted blood.
In his recent book, Arguing With Zombies, Paul Krugman summarized how the conservative and liberal ideological camps view inequality like this:
Liberals view extreme inequality from a perspective of “except by the grace of God, go I” - and believe it reflects a societal moral failing.
In other words, they believe that having wealth, power and privilege in today’s world is mostly luck (or maybe divine blessing). Sure, it’s possible to be born with an abundance of genetic, geographic, ethnic and ancestral advantages and still end up in poverty. Or vice versa.
But it’s not likely.
Conservatives instead view inequality as the natural consequence of unequal effort and smart (or dumb) personal choices.
They believe taking from the winners (usually white) to give to the losers (usually non-white) is the moral failing. They strongly believe people earn what they have, and If you aren’t able to work your way out of poverty here in America, then you just aren’t willing to work.
This false inequality rationalization hurts many, but it has been exquisitely weaponized to help maintain institutional racism:
If people of color are worthy - willing to work hard, stay in their place and do the right thing - they eventually gain wealth, power and privilege equal to white people.
People of color who are seen as “winners” - wealthy, powerful, privileged - are then the proof points. After all, we had a black president, didn’t we?
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
If you examine the actual history of racial prejudice in America, it quickly becomes obvious that those who originally became wealthy by trafficking in slavery intentially crafted a narrative that could excuse their abominable actions.
After all, slaves were such big “losers” relative to everyone else, they simply had to deserve their unworthy status. Nothing less would be palatable or permitted by a just God.
Thus African slaves were kept from education so they could be called “unintelligent”’; raped so they could be called “lascivious”; brutally terrorized and demoralized so they could be called “passive and lazy” if they didn’t revolt, and “violent and aggressive” if they did.
Similar tactics were employed to justify treatment of native Americans and other indigenous people by white colonials worldwide. But because African slaves in particular had darker skin and distinctive features, dark skin and African features became literal disadvantages in western culture for any human, even many decades after slavery was legally ended.
Ultimately this prejudice against dark skin encompassed all skin colors beyond the pale skin of Northern European descendants. At the same time, global national and ethnic differences in military power and advanced technology also became viewed through this racist lens, further fostering the false concept of superior and inferior “races”.
These lies were intentionally repeated over and over and over. Published in academia. Adopted by legislators. Embraced by white nationalists. Across generations. For centuries.
Today, any credible biologist will tell you that “race” is not a real thing. Skin color is like hair color, height or other random human feature that varies genetically along a continuum in all human populations.
It most definitely is not correlated in any causal way with other heritable traits that are considered by society to be “superior” or “inferior” in humans - say intelligence or physical attractiveness.
But centuries of racist beliefs and behaviors have made dark skin - in and of itself - a literal disadvantage, helping keep the myths surrounding race alive and well. Adding to the problem, being born with darker skin does make you also more likely to have less educated parents and families that have struggled against poverty over those same centuries.
Even though all the other heritable factors that bestow societal advantages and disadvantages (intelligence, talent, parental wealth) are randomly distributed across humanity, the disadvantages caused by racism continue to tip the scales most heavily.
I can already hear some of the push back: What about all those folks with numerous disadvantages who still go on to amass great wealth by working really, really hard and living morally-correct lives?
What about all those folks with demonstrable intelligence and talent, but who waste these gifts by being lazy or violating moral codes?
Yeah, sorry, these are all myths too. Few people who draw a terribly disadvantaged hand at birth go on to live comfortable, dignified lives.
Few people born with numerous advantages fall into crime and poverty.
We don’t have a meritocratic playing field that can be leveled. We have a probability game of dice that bestows luck unequally. But it’s a game that can be further manipulated by the lucky and made way more vicious, unfair and cruel.
Skin color should not matter. It isn’t a legitimate indicator of anything and no one should receive unfair treatment because of it.
But here are the questions I think we all have to ask ourselves honestly as well:
Are those humans lucky enough to be born with any considerable advantages really more worthy than the rest of us?
Are there any humans who deserve to be systematically denied safe, dignified lives because they are not worthy enough?
Highly intelligent, talented and “born wealthy” people of any skin color will always be more likely to have wealth, privilege and power. Even black people born with unappealing character traits or into abusive, yet wealthy and powerful, families will likely go on to live in luxury and privilege.
So if race is just one of many random factors that cause inequality in human society, is it so urgently important to try and end racism?
Yes. Yes. Absolutely yes.
Yet we won’t solve racism by trying to talk people out of believing racist lies that have been promoted for centuries. Or by trying to level the playing field so all humans “fairly” battle each other for necessary resources like food, shelter, healthcare and education - or for economic and legal justice.
These all should be basic human rights. For everyone. Along with freedom, liberty, legal equality and equal representation in government.
Thankfully the same agenda that can provide the above is also the best approach to ending racism:
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Criminal justice reform - especially policing
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Publicly-funded political campaigns
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Tax reform - corporate tax increases, tax capital gains higher than labor, wealth tax, etc.
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Term limits for all government offices
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Basic income
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Free healthcare
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Free higher education
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Increased investment in community services
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Required public service for all
We can’t stop advantages and disadvantages from being distributed unequally across humans. And it may be in our complex human nature to create hierarchies of status and privilege, and to deem certain differences as more or less advantageous and “privileged” in our culture.
But if we can stop mistaking luck for worthiness, I believe the myth of race will fade away and “racism” will be revealed to all as the ugly, deliberate, greed-driven lie it’s always been.
We can’t make all humans equal. But we can make sure no one is unworthy.
In a world like that, I honestly would not care what color my skin was.
Kathryn Miller