The folly of Critical Race Theory

Wealth, not race is the prime determinant of inequality in the West

By Tunde Obadina

Much has been said and written in recent months about racial inequality. The loudest voices have been those who say western societies are endemically racist. They contend that centuries of white privilege and institutional racism have solidified race inequality, maintaining the structural subordination of black people to whites. This controversial view implies that blacks are socially and economically inferior to whites.

For centuries proponents of racial ideology can be divided into two schools. Firstly, those who argue that Africans and their descendants are naturally inferior because of biology or the curse of God. And secondly, those who maintain that black inferiority is the consequence of material conditions — though born equal blacks have been rendered lesser beings by their environment and upbring.

Whiteness is a dangerous fallacy

 Anti-racists who define the values of hard work and productivity as exclusively “white” are doing us no favours.

By Tunde Obadina

The Smithsonian National Museum for African American History and Culture in the United State created a stir after it published in March 2020 a chart depicting the features and assumptions of whiteness. The diagram displayed the museum’s rendering of the attributes of “white dominate culture, or whiteness.” It included “hard work is key to success”, “cause and effect relationships”, “self-reliance”, “heavy value on ownership of goods”, “work before play,” and “objective, rational linear thinking”.

The chart was supposed to be an anti-racism guideline for talking about race. But in declaring hard work, delayed gratification, rugged individualism, and emphasis on the scientific method as white values the museum displayed racism that is as obnoxious and damaging as anything professed by white supremacists. In July 2020, after criticism, the mainly black run and partly public-funded museum removed the chart from its website and apologised for publishing it.

The museum’s depiction of whiteness implied that black people are lacking the characteristics needed for wealth creation and material prosperity. Teaching black children that hard work, delayed gratification, self-reliance, and reason are white qualities is to seek to condemn them to failure in a capitalist society. Such sentiments may be applauded by opponents of economic development but do nothing to advance the cause of black people.

The myth of human capital shortage in Africa

 People with knowledge and skills are being wasted

By Tunde Obadina

It is a common belief that the prevalence of extreme poverty in Africa stems from shortages in skilled manpower needed to spearhead rapid economic growth. This notion has led international development institutions to advise African governments to invest more in human capital development. But are African nations impeded by lack of qualified manpower? The answer is no.

Take Nigeria as an example. University educated Nigerians are more likely to be unemployed than the average citizen in the country. According to the Nigerian government employment data, 28% of workers with university first-degree qualifications were unemployed in the second quarter of 2020, compared 15% with only secondary school education and 5% who never attended school. Nearly a fifth of master’s degree holders was jobless, while a quarter of those with a doctorate was underemployed. Overall, more than half of workers with higher education qualifications were jobless or underemployed.

This employment situation suggests Nigeria’s economic underdevelopment does not stem from a deficiency in knowledge and skills in the workforce. What we see is an over-supply of college-educated people, including doctors, engineers, and teachers.

Who’s afraid of China’s loans to Africa?

 By Tunde Obadina

China’s growing economic relationship with African countries has received much negative media coverage in recent years. Critics of the fast-rising Asian economic superpower present the Chinese state as the new imperialist threat to Africa. As did yesterday’s European colonisers, China is today seeking to capture Africa’s vast natural resources and exploit its labour-force for the aggrandisement of the world’s most populous nation, so say the critics.

A strategy purportedly being deviously used by Beijing to capture African resources is debt. Critics see China as offering cheap loans to African governments, hoping they will default on repayment, enabling the Asian giant to gobble up assets used as collateral. China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a global infrastructure development strategy, is described by the critics as a debt-trap diplomacy, part of a campaign for global hegemony.

Concerns over the safety of Nigeria’s struggling economy in the face of the envisaged encroaching dragon led the country’s House of Representatives in May to launch an investigation into all China-Nigeria loan agreements since 2000. The lawmakers want the contracts reviewed and where necessary, cancelled. The legislator who spearheaded the action said there is widespread global concern about the alleged fraudulent, irregular, and underhand characteristics of Chinese loan contracts with African nations, which have resulted in a new form of economic colonialism foisted by China.

Racism, a vile form of collectivism

 What unifies black people is a racial ideology that denies their individuality

By Tunde Obadina

Racism is grouping people according to their genetic origin or physical appearance and assuming that members of each group share common traits, such as behaviour, intelligence, and capacity. Stemming from this is the notion that one group is inferior or superior to other groups. Racism is a way of viewing the world.

Racists are not only individuals who view members of other groups contemptuously, but also those who view them favourably. Declaring that black people are angels is as racist as castigating them as evil. Racism is a variant of collectivism–it is a denial of individuality. As the novelist Ayn Rand observed, “Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism.”

The only two traits blacks have in common are, firstly, the skin complexion that defines blackness and secondly, being subjected to racial ideologies and the actions of others that stem from such beliefs. Racial ideologies are ideas that attribute certain innate characteristic to being a black person. But black people do not share common history, psychology, culture, language, intelligence, behaviour, and any other characteristics associated with individuals. By the same token, there is no such thing as white history, psychology, culture, language, intelligence, behaviour, etc. We are all individuals, each with unique sets of characteristics.

The injustice of state-funded elite prosperity

 Government policies that favour the middle-class and elites, worsen inequality

By Tunde Obadina

In a 1955 report on the Nigerian economy, a World Bank mission to Britain’s west African colony noted that the attitude of the local population to the state could impede the country’ progress. They observed that while Nigerians desired material progress, many did not realise that wealth creation is only achievable through the efforts of the people.

“No progress can be made unless the people themselves are willing to assume the main burden of the development effort. The mission found this not fully appreciated in Nigeria. Nigerians in all walks of life tend to look too much to the government, more specifically to the British colonial officials, for the fulfilment of their aspirations. The heavy reliance on government is frequently coupled with a strong distrust of its actions and motives…”

“The need for self-help is not understood by the African businessman who looks to the government, and the government alone, for financial assistance in the expansion of his business instead of joining with others in a partnership or other form of common enterprise. It is not understood by rural communities and their leaders who demand school and hospital facilities but are not ready to pay for them by increased tax assessments. It is not understood by those who deplore graft and corruption in the hospitals, in the produce inspection service, in the railway and in private business, yet are unwilling to take effective action against these abuses.”

At the time the World Bank made these observations, Nigerians could dismiss them as bigoted rantings of agents of imperialism. Over sixty years later, we know differently. The belief that it is the responsibility of government to provide citizens with the conveniences of modern civilisation remains strong, especially among the elite. The expectation is that the state will deliver free or subsidised education, healthcare, electricity, transport infrastructure, water and sewage system and other items and services that come with economic development. Yet there is aversion to taxation.