Anti-Racist Ideology
Discussion
The post-modern foundation of anti-racist ideology
Charles McKelvey:
"As I have pointed out in previous commentaries, there emerged in the aftermath of the economic crisis of 2008 an anti-racist ideology, which put forth the empirically false notions of “systemic racism” and “white privilege,” denying the significant change in racial attitudes and practices in white society in the aftermath of the civil rights reforms of 1954-1965. The anti-racist ideology emerged from an alliance of the corporate elite and the black professional/administrative class, demanding preferential treatment in employment for the latter in order to rectify existing inequalities. The ideology was also supported by middle-class and upper-middle-class whites who were in a relatively secure employment position and who suffered from unresolved guilt with respect to the nation’s historical social sins of slavery and racism. (See “Racism, Ideology, Elite Interests, and the Nation,” May 7, 2021; “From institutional to systemic racism: The notion of systemic racism is a historic error,” January 7, 2022).
The influential (at the time) black scholar Ibram Kendi, for example, defended affirmative action on the grounds that it is morally acceptable to discriminate against a person on the basis of race, if the intention is to create equity. If discrimination creates equity, it is not racist, but anti-racist. (See “How to be an antiracist, by Ibram Kendi: A critique,” May 4, 2021; “The causes of racial inequality in USA: A look at historic, economic, and cultural factors,” January 14, 2022.
The foundation for anti-empirical formulations like “systemic racism” was established by post-modern epistemological assumptions. As Abigal Favale expresses well, postmodernism is “a worldview that sees reality in terms of narratives that are created by human beings, rather than an order of objective truths that can be discovered by human beings.” This epistemological premise makes possible a discourse that obscures the actual and significant gains with respect to race in U.S. society since 1965. It has enabled the creation of a myth that whites continue to be racist, just as they were in slavery times.
Black conservative scholars have pointed out that the myth of perpetual white racism is in the interests of the black middle class in the context of an American economy that has passed its historical stage of expansion, because it ensures continued preferential treatment in the competition for admission to exclusive universities and in employment. “Race hustlers” among politician, activists, and academics have emerged, whose careers feed upon racial injustices, real or not; creating new opportunities for black professionals and the black middle class, especially in an expanding diversity sensitivity industry. (See “The abolition of racism in the USA, 1954-1965: The epistemological sleight of hand of the notion of ‘systemic racism’”, October 28, 2022; “Postmodern wokism destroys the foundations: Provoking confusion and division among the people, to the benefit of a few,” September 5. 2023; “Exaggerating racism: The failure of the Western intellectual, black and white,” March 19, 2024).
I have maintained that no nation can be constructed on a foundation of post-modern assumptions. “Natural law and revolution: No nation can be constructed on a post-modern foundation,” March 13, 2026."
(https://charlesmckelvey.substack.com/p/anti-black-bias-in-the-usa-today?)