Michael Mitchell: Archive

Before I get too deep in this, government racism in the form of Jim Crow laws and Affirmative Action laws needs to be dropped from the context. All government intervention is a social problem. The government has a monopoly on coercive power over everyone. The focus here must be on social relationships between private individuals, businesses and organizations. Like usual, including government in moral issues only distorts our perception of them. So let's leave the government out of this, like it should be.

I'm a 40-year-old white guy. I'm not a racist, but let's pretend I am. Let's pretend I'm a very strict racist, too. I don't believe in beating or killing non-white people, but I do believe in full segregation. If you're not white, I don't even want to see you with my superior-than-thou eyes, much less interact with you or -- God forbid -- do business with you. I don't want to accidentally brush against your non-white shoulder standing in line somewhere. I don't want to hear your non-white voice beating against my ear drums. I don't want your non-white friendship complicating my narrow world view. I don't even want your non-white money, regardless of how much you try to bribe me with. I'm not a moderate racist. I'm racist on principle, without compromise...

Given all of the above, how does my racism harm non-white individuals? A social problem is some form of physical conflict between at least two individuals. If I hate you or if I merely want nothing to do with you, for whatever reason, then how can that be a social problem? How does my hatred of you harm you? It might hurt your feelings. You might believe it's unjustified and unfair and wish against the facts that the world you live in were a better place and the people in it were less irrational, but it's not a social problem. My racism is my problem and your war with reality is your problem.

I think most people understand that personal beliefs are personal and are no one's business but the person who possesses them, so I won't dwell on this part. How come, then, do we make it our business when people who share different views decide to interact or to abstain from interacting?

For instance, what if I, a racist, own a business, a restaurant, and decide to ban non-white individuals from my property? How does this harm you? Sure, you're hungry and you want to eat and you're standing in front of my cash register showing me you have the money to pay for it. So what? You have to leave. Didn't you read the sign on the door? It's my food and I don't have to sell it to you if I don't want to. I don't have a problem with that. Why do you? Why can't you simply find another restaurant? Or, even if I owned the only restaurant in the galaxy, why can't you go find your own damned food?

Your hunger is not a social problem; it's a personal one. Your problem is your hunger, not my racism. My racism isn't starving you. It's not my responsibility to feed you. You don't have a right to my food. Your need to eat is none of my business. My racism is none of yours.

Racism is not a social problem. It is simply not harmful to others. Even if I start beating or killing non-white people simply because they're not white, racism still isn't the problem. It doesn't matter what my motivation is for harming people, it's a social problem because I'm harming people. My racism is wrong, and it can lead to harming others, but it can also lead to nothing at all. All racists are not criminals and all criminals are not racists. Racism is a belief, a view, a perspective, merely a thought in a mind. It is socially harmless and, rightfully, protected by the First Amendment. In the free world, I must not physically harm others, but I may believe whatever I wish.

People who actually commit crimes, people who defraud, steal from, assault and murder other people are a special kind of evil. Racism is only the scapegoat in such cases, and a pathetic one at that. It's merely a weak excuse for violent tendencies that really stem from a hatred for life in general, especially one's own. The motive behind criminal actions is irrelevant, however. After committing my "hate" crimes, for instance, I can't plead for clemency on the grounds I was helpless against my hatred. If I can't use racism as an excuse, then you can't blame racism for my actions. You have to blame me. Moreover, you can stop me from assaulting or killing someone, but you can't stop me from being racist.

Unfortunately, the desire to stop racism often leads to another kind of racism. Let's call it anti-racism. Some people are so bothered by other people's racism or feel so guilty for their "own people's" racism that they think it's right to use racism in retaliation. Anti-racists don't hate different races because they're inferior to the anti-racists' supreme race. Anti-racists hate a particular race because they think "its people" have benefited from such hatred. They think white people, for instance, deserve to be punished because they're all racists. Anti-racists think they're justified in hating racists, but they're just as guilty of racism as the racists they hate. Hating white people because they're racist is the same as hating black people because they're inferior.

Anti-racists think racism is a social problem. They think racists deserve to be treated unfairly, physically harmed and even criminally punished. They think alleged victims of racism deserve to be rewarded, to be paid back, to be privileged. Racism isn't a personal belief to anti-racists. It's a cultural divide, an imbalance between the races that must be corrected. Only a racist could see it this way. Only a racist is adding up opportunities and privileges for each race and then comparing the results.

I'm an individualist. I judge every individual based on his or her own actions. I am not a racist. I'm against racism and I even try to persuade others to reject it as I do. However, I can't take a public stand and label myself an anti-racist because the term is meaningless in the political discourse of today. There is no battle in our society between pro-racists and anti-racists for a very simple reason: Anti-racists are racists, too.

Ultimately, the real problem is we don't understand racism. We don't even know what it is, much less how to fight it. We think it's a social phenomena rather than a personal belief. And, tragically, we'll never beat it or understand it if we keep seeing it as a quality belonging to groups of people rather than a choice made by individuals. Ironically, as long as we think racism is a social problem, then it will be. That's why we have racist laws and "diversity" codes and "warriors" for "social justice" (allegedly) attempting in vain to "even the score" but only succeeding at driving people deeper into the comfort of their associated racial or anti-racial group. Both sides are all about race.

If you really want to beat racism, just stop being racist. Let other racists be racist. Racism only harms racists. It's a moral problem, not a social one. Racism is your problem. Other racists are not.