The Supreme Court has ruled that affirmative action as it’s currently practiced discriminates on the basis of race and therefore runs afoul of the 14th Amendment. My guest this week, political scientist Carol Swain, argues that some DEI policies implemented by private businesses do the same. I’m not so sure, though. In the following clip, we debate the issue.
This is a clip from the episode that went out to paying subscribers on Monday. To get access to the full episode, as well as an ad-free podcast feed, Q&As, and other exclusive content and benefits, click below.
Bigotry? How many blacks did you break bread with this past year? We have people of different races and ethnic groups regularly in and out of our homes and in our lives. My late grandfather was half Scot-Irish. I've visited over 150 countries around the world, including Ireland and African countries (my ancestory). My daughter-in-law, an educator, is white with 2 biracial children. I'm currently preparing for an upcoming trip to Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Oman, Jordan, Egypt, and Abu Dhabi. I enjoy different cultures and their histories.
Zero-sum outlook? You're probably more comfortable with the likes of Clarence Thomas, a black conservative meritorious manumission negro grifter? New revelations just came out about his relationship with the ultra-right Koch brothers. Meritorious manumission has always been a significant obstacle for true group black progress.
Racism is a competitive relationship between groups for ownership and control of wealth and resources. Europeans got the headstart with black chattel slavery, a racist constitution, 2 billion acres of free Indian land, and Jim Crow. The Black group's wealth of less than 2% hasn't changed since the American Civil War when there were 400 thousand semi-freed blacks and 4 million black slaves. Lots of time and opportunities were lost in accumulating wealth in this unforgiving capitalistic system historically rigged by the white dominant group. Resources are very limited, and whites mostly own the boot and loot. Scraps? Lol!!! Black slaves lived off of massa's scraps (i.e., hog guts). Some still eat hog guts (Chitterings). Do you eat hog intestines? Lol!!!!
You're projecting.
In his book, "Powermomics," Dr. Claud Anderson states, racism is a wealth and power-base competitive relationship between Blacks and non-Blacks. The sole purpose of racism is to support and ensure that the White majority and it's ethnic subgroups continue to dominate and use Blacks as a means to produce wealth and power. Centuries of Black enslavement and Jim Crow semi-slavery resulted in the majority of society becoming 99-foot giants and Blacks one-foot midgets. This massive inequality in wealth and resources made Blacks non-competitive and totally dependent upon Whites for the necessities of life. True racism exists only when one group holds a disproportionate share of the wealth and power over another group and then uses those resources to marginalize, exploit, and subordinate the weaker group. In America, it is Whites who use wealth and power to marginalize, exploit, and subordinate Blacks. Whites can deny Blacks employment, educational opportunities, business resources, and a place to live or the right to vote. Therefore, according to this definition, Black people can not be racist. No group of Blacks has the power or exclusive control of resources to the degree that they can educationally, politically, economically ĺand socially exploit and marginalize the White race. Blacks can only react to racism and try to alter the conditions that racism creates. Despite the realities, there are numerous conservative Blacks who act as apologists for White racism and confuse the issue. A conservative Black radio talk show host in Los Angeles, for example, charges that Blacks are racist as Whites. His desire for white approval, as well as his ignorance of history, impedes him from understanding that White racism and Black prejudice are not the same thing. Blacks have a reason for their feelings about Whites based on how they have been treated by Whites. The White race, on the other hand, has never been marginalized by the Black race. Racism reinforces the legacies of slavery and Jim Crow semi-slavery. Blacks have been unable to escape from those legacies because the majority of society acknowledges the operation of racism in the distant past but minimizes its present significance."