IS STRUCTURAL RACISM THE "DARK MATTER" OF POLITICS?

THE PURPORTED UNSEEN FORCE THAT EXERTS INFLUENCE BEYOND INDIVIDUAL AWARENESS OR CONTROL.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal….”  If we believe that All Men Are Created Equal (AMACE) is a self-evident truth, then we underestimate the imagination and revolutionary, creative genius of the philosophers who inspired Thomas Jefferson to write those words. (Assume that Women are included with Men for purposes of this essay.)

Likewise, we cannot over-estimate the importance that AMACE has for making the United States function as a healthy, multi-racial society. It is the core myth of American citizenship that binds our nation together.

When those words were written in 1776, the vast differences in economic, scientific and cultural achievements of 18th century England, France, Netherlands, and Germany compared to the rest of Europe, the Ottoman Empire, China, India, the New World, and Sub-Saharan Africa provided no evidence that AMACE.  This is why AMACE was such an amazing intellectual innovation that went against the grain of prevailing wisdom.

Whether it was the Chinese, Romans, Greeks, Ottomans, Persians, Egyptians or the English, throughout history, conquerors assumed that their dominance was evidence of the exact opposite idea – All Men and Nations Are Not Created Equal.  If you were an adherent of rationalism and empirical evidence in 1776, then AMACE should be classified as a religious hallucination along with Transubstantiation and the Holy Trinity.

The Intangible Concept In Search of Concrete Evidence

Yet this religious hallucination, or Meme, (as the atheist and scientist, Richard Dawkins would label it) would spawn a political and cultural transformation, as real and enduring as the discovery of steam power, electricity, atomic power, concrete, DNA, steel, and computers.  It’s status as a Meme that is beyond the realm of the physical universe of things subject to verification by the scientific method does not diminish its importance or power to transform.  Rather, like any other Meme, AMACE’s continued propagation over time depends, like words, music, or ideas, upon individuals finding it compelling enough to repeat and transmit to other individuals willing to listen, read, and act on its message.  Understanding the origin and nature of AMACE will help us grapple with the ideas that are fueling the combustible energy behind the Anti-Racism movement in the United States.

Despite decades of legislation to tear down legal barriers, gaps in socioeconomic measurements by racial groups continue to persist in the United States.  Many Americans are frustrated and want to find answers.  Like the physicists who hypothesized that an invisible, “dark” matter’s gravitational pull could explain the constant speed of stars in spiral galaxies, Ibram X. Kendi argues that we know that the hidden force of Structural Racism must exist to explain the persistent inequality of socioeconomic measures between races.

Quoting from his NY Times interview (July 16, 2021 Ezra Klein Show transcript), Ibram X. Kendi said

“To be anti-racist is to say racial groups, not individuals, are equal, that there’s no group that is inferior or superior. Therefore, the cause of a disparity or an inequity must be policies or practices that we see or don’t see. And to be anti-racist is to identify those and challenge them and try to rebuild a nation with policies and practices that create equity and justice for all people.”

In The Origin of Species, Darwin proposed a deeply counterintuitive theory of  natural selection, a mechanism without a mind, could explain the varieties and complexities of life on planet earth without a conscious, intelligent designer, or God.  After Darwin demonstrated the irrelevance of God for science, intellectuals sought a scientific basis and empirical evidence to support their political and ethical philosophy that could dispense with references to natural rights rooted in the existence of a deity.

The demise of the religious beliefs that supported the notions of natural rights as the original foundation of AMACE, leave rationalists like Ibram Kendi on shaky ground with the challenge to replace those beliefs that AMACE with an alternative rooted in data with theories. 

Lacking the equality of socioeconomic measurements by race to support AMACE, Kendi creates the theory of Structural Racism to explain why we don’t observe the evidence that should exist to prove that AMACE.  This is the Dark Matter of the Social Sciences.

For Kendi, the absence of Structural Racism would be incompatible with AMACE.  Kendi’s rationalist explanation for AMACE must be supported by evidence, and scientific theory, and not by religious convictions or Memes.  Kendi cannot claim that “in God’s eyes we are all equal regardless of the color of our skin or the amount of money in our bank accounts” because that wouldn’t be a respectable argument for AMACE in the Rationalist community. 

Alternatives to Anti-Racism

Kendi’s opponents have done an excellent job of criticizing Structural Racism’s weaknesses, but they haven’t offered a compelling counter-narrative to explain the racial achievement gaps.  Despite its serious flaws, Structural Racism fills a vacuum, and no one else since Thomas Sowell has seriously competed for this space.

Potential rationalist alternatives to Structural Racism would likely be based upon the research into Human Social Evolution by evolutionary biologists, anthropologists, and others that look at human social evolution and the variations in culture throughout history and across the globe.

One example is Jared Diamond’s explanations in Guns, Germs, and Steel.  Another example is developed by Joseph Heinrich in The WEIRDest People in the World where he offers hypotheses to explain why Western Europe surged ahead of Eastern Europe, the Middle East, India, China, the New World, and Sub-Saharan Africa in economic, scientific, and cultural achievements.  Neither of these authors relied upon genetic differences between races to arrive at their conclusions.  Utilizing insights by these authors, Kendi’s opponents could make more sophisticated rationalist arguments to explain the persistence of racial achievement gaps and compete with Structural Racism’s flawed theories.

One easy argument against the Anti-Racist policies Kendi proposes to equalize racial outcomes is the example of Cuba. Even after 60 years in power, and even after eliminating market capitalism, individual property rights, and an independent legal system, the Cuban Communist Party still has not uprooted structural racism.

“Students in Cuban universities today are overwhelmingly white or light-skinned; only 4.8 percent are Black or brown at the University of Havana, for example. The prison population is disproportionately Black. Black neighborhoods are the poorest in Havana. ‘While 58 percent of white Cubans have incomes under $3,000,’ de la Fuente wrote in The New York Times, “among Afro-Cubans that proportion is as much as 95 percent.’” (Black Lives Matter Misses the Point About Cuba, Jorge Felipe Gonzalez, July 17, 2021)

What assurances can Kendi offer that an Anti-Racist USA wouldn’t be as oppressive and economically distressed as Cuba.  Why would Americans succeed where Cuba has already failed?

Conclusion

Critics of Structural Racism must begin by understanding that AMACE is a belief that has survived the natural selection of social systems – so far.  It is not a truth discoverable by biologists.  In fact, it is conceivable that a different Meme could arise that assigns more status and power to groups that reject AMACE.  The competition between the racially-monochrome Chinese Communist-Managed-Market System versus the multi-racial United States could lead to the demise of AMACE and other precepts that we cherish.  In the competition of Memes, the dominance of AMACE must be contested every day.  It is not a constant like the laws of physics.

We must learn to accept that AMACE is a compelling belief because it creates a vibrant, kind, and decent society that dominates other societies whose members don’t accept it.  The evidence for AMACE is not found in socioeconomic measurements divided according to race.  The “evidence” for AMACE is its practice by individuals who believe it and who, up until now, have created the most dominant power on the planet.

I believe that most attempts to prove “equality” among races, sexes, nationalities, et. al. presume a materialist explanation of social reality. The proponents and opponents of Anti-Racism accept, by default, that measurements of income, wealth, schooling, housing, are the most important measures of men and women. This is a form of intellectual-cultural imperialism that assumes that the Western Standards of the “good life” should be the goal of every human being. However, many religious and mystical thinkers question this assumption for good reasons.

How many high-achievers in the corporate rat race look longingly upon the super-athletic hunter-gatherers in Papua New Guinea, The Amazon Basin, and the Kalahari Desert who struggle against nature every day to eke out a living? They substitute Crossfit Workouts, and Mudder and Spartan Races to feel the sensations that these living ancestors experience every day. These hunter-gatherers don’t suffer depression, loneliness, career anxiety, cavities, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or concerns about childcare. Even though these “primitives” suffer from snake bites, disease, high child mortality, raids from marauding tribes, attacks from predators, and other maladies, they don’t suffer from obsessions to own frivolous items or waste countless hours being entertained by a video screen.

Whose life is more fulfilling, joyful, and meaningful? Is the deprivation of material goods an indication of their inferiority or of their superiority? Are they oppressed or do they enjoy freedom and achievements that are hard for us to imagine?

David Barulich