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.

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.