This week, John and I sit down with Wall Street Journal columnist and Manhattan Institute senior fellow Jason Riley on the show to discuss his new book, The Affirmative Action Myth: Why Blacks Don’t Need Racial Preferences to Succeed. For many years, Jason has been both a tenacious critic of affirmative action and a fervent believer in the capacity of black people to succeed and prosper on their own merits. In a post-
[Time 31:00]; On personal behavior resulting from systemic oppression vs. individual choice. Riley mentioned historical data during an era of greater oppression that coincided with a lower level of deviant behavior. I’m confident that ethical behavioral scientists could contribute in this realm. I want to add that in this social media era, there is an entire dimension of behavioral influence that comes from people who are not 10 feet away, nor a mile away, but much farther. I still think that 50 should be the minimum age requirement for smartphones. Or perhaps 45 yrs of age.
There is no such thing as a competent hhs director. At least Kennedy knows how to question the medical witch doctor to pharma cabal. That is what endangers lives. Tell me how did the CDC miss the fentenyl epidemic for at least ten years following the NAFTA treaty signing by Clinton. More than a million people died of overdose during this time and the government and the NIH did zippo.
Most Black people have never depended on or received benefits from Affirmative Action Programs. Affirmative Action is nor has it predominately been about racial preferences.
I was discriminated by a public transit agency whose drivers were mostly black males. I am a white woman with a commercial drivers license. Refused job by a black woman who likely did not want a white woman in a mostly black person depot. She found a dubious reason not to hire me. Took it to the county human rights commission---a waste---social justice bona fides always rules against white in a black vs white. I was eventually hired after a stint as a school bus driver, by an African woman who did not have the biases against white women that my earlier interviewer had. But I lost out a year of seniority and 401 k benefits. It is now well known that in person interviews have dubious merit. My county HR NOW hires without in-person interviews.
You realize many infantilize Black people. They feel every white person is better than every Black person. They have no insight. 23 important government positions have been filled by Fox News personnel. Conservatives do not care about competence or morals.
1. There was very low Black unemployment when Black people were enslaved. Let’s bring back slavery. We don’t need due process or habeas corpus
2. Black families were more united when lynching was common and the Klan ran rampant. Let the Proud Boys run free. Let’s put J6 in ICE.
3. Let morality reign. Conmen can be President.
Black Republicans used to argue Blacks were on the Democratic Plantation. The only politically subservient Blacks I see are Republicans. Herschel Walker, Diamond & Silk, Kanye West, the two Bronx rappers invited on stage by Donald Trump, etc.
Black Democrats came off the plantation long enough to reject Bernie Sanders. Byron Donald’s calls Trump “Daddy”.
Blacks realized affirmative action was over. They knew the real beneficiaries were white women. Conservatives need something to distract from the installation of an authoritarian government, so we get another book on the failure of affirmative action.
Nicole Hanna-Jones and Ibrim X Kendi thrive because they live in the heads of Conservatives. Those outside the Conservative bubble read Jones and Kendi to gather material that will irritate Conservatives.
I’ll take the stumbling, bumbling Democrats, Thank you.
Glen and John have had considerable influence in altering my view of race issues in the US. I appreciate the early dialogue in this podcast and find it very thought provoking. But as it proceeds I think it deteriorates considerably. This notion that blacks were better off in the 1950’s than they are now ignores realities of the black community that the author doesn’t speak of. He presents one reality. There were others. The banter about lynchings and police being in the KKK was repulsive to me. The tendency to ignore the racism that continues to exist such as the racism behavior of the Ferguson police force, the number of confederate flags that are present in many places, or those who admitted they wouldn’t vote for Harris or Obama simply because of race, leaves out an important part of the conversation. While I appreciate the problems affirmative action programs may have caused, I think the narrative John and Glen embrace fails to acknowledge the reasons affirmative action was embraced in the first place, regardless of how wrong it may be now.
Thanks for pointing out the nonsense. The biggest beneficiaries of affirmative action were white women. Watching Riley laugh about Klansmen police officer was disgusting.
Conservatives tell Blacks to straighten up and fly Right. Malcolm X imparted the same message. Martin Luther King Jr was the ultimate Perfect Negro and was still assassinated.
The take home message I receive from Conservatives is that they will never come up with solutions on issues involving race.
We can let white South Africans enter the country, but hardworking Haitians are pet eaters.
They let a white conman pick their pockets, but fire the Librarian of Congress for being DEI. Conservatives represent the vampires depicted in the movie sinners. The vampires were of all ethnic groups.
Edit to add:
The dismissal of lynching and the Klan makes it easy to understand why Hannah-Jones and Kendi would appeal to more Blacks than Jason Riley.
You represent your argument very well. I don't agree with Hannah Jones and Kendi, but I understand why blacks gravitate towards their work. Remember that blacks do not think the same because they have different life experiences. As I stated in my post, there will always be an audience for Kendi and Jones, because there has been one for decades.
I pointed out that Nell Irvin Painter was among the first to criticize 1619. Blacks are capable of reading Jones and Kendi without becoming followers. The main benefit is watching Conservatives lose it when Jones and Kendi are mentioned
Black Republicans fully drink the Conservative Koolaid. There are few who question the authoritarian actions of the Trump administration. When you pick up the Thomas Sowell Reader, one of the first characters that greets you is a lazy grasshopper named “Lefty”. You roll your eyes. I would note that McWhorter described the Left as identical to a species of grasshopper susceptible to having worms invading their brains and drowning themselves as a result. I immediately think of the worm in RFK Jr’s skull.
The elephant in the room for Conservatives is the white supremacy that pops up when you scratch the surface. In an interview with Glenn Loury, Shermichael Singleton praises Roger Scruton. Scruton comes across as a white supremacist to me.
I find little to admire on the Conservative side. On the Liberal side, I do see people willing to fight. Black South Carolina Democrats ended Bernie Sanders’ Presidential campaign. We note AOC and Bernie have yet to show up in a predominantly Black neighborhood. We also note that David Hogg, a young man who serves in the DNC, plans to primary Jim Clyburn. There will be a move to put him in check.
I summary, given the venom noted from Conservative circles, not many Blacks are going to join those on the Republican plantation, especially given the direct attacks on HBCUs and Black history. Black Conservatives are silent.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that blacks and woke whites did not take to the streets in mass to protest the abandonment of affirmative action. This tells me there is a growing intolerance of the handout mindset. If only the adults would stop passing on victim pablum to the youth, we could stop the perpetual blame game and infantilization of black people. Excellent podcast. Thank you.
A compelling observation, Valencia. While there is significant support for such perspective, a growing and vocal counterforce expresses frustration. I try to diligently read and consider all sides, yet I often arrive at a consistent conclusion: instilling in young children the belief that they are inherently disadvantaged while simultaneously granting preference based on race is profoundly harmful. Instead, we must dedicate ourselves to a message rooted in strength, creativity, and perseverance. The world is full of possibilities, and a child’s attitude and effort will shape their future. Let’s prioritize empowerment over victimhood and work to instill a mindset that fosters confidence, ambition, and resilience in the next generation.
Kendi works because the Right is so pathetic. There is a Right wing grift media. FoxNews had to pay $787 M for lies.
Criticism of 1619 was led by Nell Irwin Painter
Few are relying on affirmative action. Enrollment at HBCUs is increasing.
Edit to add:
The Black community will survive and thrive. We will oppose the trashing of our democracy.
Conservatives watch a conman receive an aircraft from a foreign country and remain silent. Black people have no reason to take advise or morality rules from Conservatives. Conservatives distract from the clear and present danger we face.
Give Riley some grace about the Police force Klan comment. He was trying to make a point about the country being worse back then compared to modern times. That was his argument. I don't think he was laughing at or dismissing the type of discrimination that existed in American history. His point was black social mobility under the worse circumstances.
But I do understand why it would be interpreted in a negative way.
He laughed. He is no different who praised Jim Crow. Times change. There is no magic wand that is going to transform marriage rates in the short term. Other solutions are needed and Conservatives have no plan.
Can you do me a favor and recommend some black historians for me to read. And this is regardless of their ideology. I am interested because I am a student working on a research project. In another reply, you named Nell Irvin Painter. I am aware of Manning Marable, Robin DG Kelley, and a few others like Peniel Joseph.
At the end [34:25] of this conversation Glenn wonders "how the Democratic Party elites are going to respond" to the 2023 Supreme Court decision against Harvard and UNC and all the other in-progress shifts, including Trump's, away from race-based preferences and affirmative action.
If they responded by returning, now, to their long-forgotten strong support for the letter and spirit of the 1964 Civil Rights Act their stanidng with the electorate would be greatly improved. If in addition the Dem elites also reversed course to support the strong, fair and consistent enforcement of immigration laws, the Dems would easily take both the House and the Senate in the midterm elections. Impeach or fire the warmongering Rubio and make Jeffrey Sachs the new Secretary of State, and we could shackle the paranoid military-industrial complex at the same time.
Your mission, Glenn, should you choose to accept it......
I love Jason Riley's work. I remember the episode he was on during 2021 regarding Maverick, a biography on Thomas Sowell.
All of these men are right. But they, and all of us, have to remember how subjective black identity is. So there will always be an audience for what Kendi and Hannah Jones are selling. Certain blacks like or love the product. Even though it's a mythology to others, there are those who see it as a gospel or objective truth. And there are also whites who seek an indulgence for America's past sins.
Eliminate governmental racial categorization schemes and the social construct of "black identity" will wither on the vine. Glenn and John should revisit their past weak, incoherent support for continuing with officially approved "race boxes."
Here's my write-up in another unpublished document:
Thomas, Sowell, Ward Connerly and Shelby Steele should be honored for their path-breaking championing of the deracialization of society. Over a dinner in the early 2000s they came up with the idea of prohibiting government from racially categorizing people or demanding individuals do it themselves by checking one of several ‘race boxes.’ This has been a divisive, absurd, and unscientific activity of the U.S. government dating from the days of slavery. It ignores that Americans of different races have been intermarrying for so long that most Americans are bi- or multiracial to one degree or another. Yet some people think these racial categories were invented by the civil rights movement!
An action plan was hatched. Professors Sowell and Steele encouraged businessman, strategist and University of California regent Ward Connerly to execute. In March 2001 Connerly announced the California Racial Privacy [Ballot] Initiative (RPI), his supporters in the American Civil Rights Coalition gathered the necessary signatures, and lively public debates were held. Its key proposition read: The State shall not classify any individual by race, ethnicity, color, or national origin in the operation of public education, public contracting, or public employment.
In early September 2003 a scientific, California-wide poll of voters found the RPI to be supported by 58% of Hispanics, 55% of Blacks, 55% of Whites and 51% of Asians who had an opinion on it. With about $5,000,000 in funding, opponents of the RPI then got into high gear and saturated TV networks with misleading ads. On October 7, 2003 the RPI was put to the voters. Unhappily, it got only 36% of the vote. Connerly recounted this effort at the end of his 2007 book (#4, "Creating Equal").
This issue remains very much alive. The inappropriateness of the ‘race boxes’ can be understood even by primary school students. The manifold downstream effects of racial categorization abound as themes in all the books offered.*** Two recent ones, Coleman Hughes (2024, #12) and David Bernstein (2023, #21), do especially good jobs of summarizing all the anti-categorization arguments put forward during the RPI campaign. It is a puzzle, however, that neither mentions either Ward Connerly or the RPI !
________________
***I and my wife had tried to offer gratis to each of 400 staff members in our retirement community their choice of one book from the following list. Higher powers forbid this. Sometimes all you can do is cause a ruckus and leave the coup de grace to youngsters.
1. Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell, Jason Riley, 2021, 290pp
2. The Quest for Cosmic Justice, Thomas Sowell, 2002, 214pp
3. A Personal Odyssey, Thomas Sowell, 2002, 308pp
4. Creating Equal: My Fight Against Race Preferences (rev. edn), Ward Connerly, 2007, 298pp
5. Lessons from My Uncle James: Beyond Skin Color to the Content of Our Character, Ward Connerly, 2008, 93pp
6. Shame: How America's Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country, Shelby Steele, 2015, 198pp
7. White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era, Shelby Steele, 2007, 181pp
8. The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America, Shelby Steele, 1991, 175pp
9. The Adversity of Diversity, Carol M. Swain & Mike Towle, 2023, 174pp
10. Black Eye for America, Carol M. Swain & Christopher J. Schorr, 2021, 153pp
11. From Rage to Responsibility: Black Conservative Jesse Lee Peterson and America Today, Jesse Lee Peterson w/ Brad Stetson, 2019, 132pp
12. The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America, Coleman Hughes, 2024, 235pp
13. A Dubious Expediency: How Race Preferences Damage Higher Education, Gail Heriot & Maimon Schwarzschild, editors, 2021, 321pp [essays by 10 authors]
14. Diversity: The Invention of a Concept, Peter Wood, 2003, 351pp
15. School of Woke: How Critical Race Theory Infiltrated American Schools and Why We Must Reclaim Them, Kenny Xu, 2023, 238pp
16. Red, White, and Black: Rescuing American History from Revisionists and Race Hustlers,
Robert L. Woodson Sr., editor, 2021, 213pp [essays by 20 black authors]
17. Getting Under the Skin of "Diversity": Searching for the Color-Blind Ideal, Larry Purdy, 2008, 255pp
18. The End of Racism: Principles for a Multiracial Society, Dinesh D’Souza, 1995, 724pp
19. Beyond the Color Line: New Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity in America, Abigail Thernstrom & Stephan Thernstrom, editors, 2002, 438pp [essays by 25 authors]
20. The Diversity Delusion, Heather Mac Donald, 2020, 288pp
21. Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America, David E. Bernstein, 2023, 186pp
22. Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin, J.H. Franklin, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, November 2005, 416 pp,
23. The Racialization of America, Yehudi O. Webster, St. Martin’s Griffin, December 1993, 320pp
I have read many of these books. The Quest for Cosmic Justice is the third book of Sowell's trilogy. The first two are A Conflict of Visions and The Vision of the Anointed. I have used them in my work as a current student.
I have Shelby Steele's entire four book collection, and I have read Content of Our Character several times. It never gets old. He makes the same arguments in the other books, but uses different language. In his 2015 book, Shame, he uses the term "poetic truth." It describes the postmodern society we live in.
Postmodernism is the reason why black identity is subjective. So there are people who cannot see anything beyond a racial lens. So this war within black culture will continue. It's been going on for generations. It's a fight for moral authority. Who can define and dictate what blackness is?
I heard one black woman say that Martin Luther King jr. and his group were sexist in the sense that they were saying to some black women who wanted to be in leadership roles "not now, not yet"
This has been one of the best Glenn Shows ever. Jason Riley is a very smart cookie and extremely erudite. He explains difficult and unpleasant topics with such intelligent ease and panasche. Glenn resiled from a foreword previously written and they all laughed good naturedly. Glenn is always smart. John McWhorter impressed with his intelligent comments, wonderful smile and infectious laugh. John often looks miserable, not this episode. Gentlemen, I have been very critical of academic privilege and snobbery. This episode was superior in every way. Congratulations.
It's too bad this was short. It should have been 90 minutes to do it some justice. Even the Cornel West, Robert George episode was 75 minutes. When Jason spoke to Glenn and John in 2021 about the Maverick-Thomas Sowell biography, the conversation was 65 minutes. And that still bothers me to this day. These intellectuals left you begging for more. But these men also have busy lives. So I give them some grace.
[Time 31:00]; On personal behavior resulting from systemic oppression vs. individual choice. Riley mentioned historical data during an era of greater oppression that coincided with a lower level of deviant behavior. I’m confident that ethical behavioral scientists could contribute in this realm. I want to add that in this social media era, there is an entire dimension of behavioral influence that comes from people who are not 10 feet away, nor a mile away, but much farther. I still think that 50 should be the minimum age requirement for smartphones. Or perhaps 45 yrs of age.
There is no such thing as a competent hhs director. At least Kennedy knows how to question the medical witch doctor to pharma cabal. That is what endangers lives. Tell me how did the CDC miss the fentenyl epidemic for at least ten years following the NAFTA treaty signing by Clinton. More than a million people died of overdose during this time and the government and the NIH did zippo.
What other ethnic populations need slots reserved for them in the admissions lottery?
Most Black people have never depended on or received benefits from Affirmative Action Programs. Affirmative Action is nor has it predominately been about racial preferences.
I was discriminated by a public transit agency whose drivers were mostly black males. I am a white woman with a commercial drivers license. Refused job by a black woman who likely did not want a white woman in a mostly black person depot. She found a dubious reason not to hire me. Took it to the county human rights commission---a waste---social justice bona fides always rules against white in a black vs white. I was eventually hired after a stint as a school bus driver, by an African woman who did not have the biases against white women that my earlier interviewer had. But I lost out a year of seniority and 401 k benefits. It is now well known that in person interviews have dubious merit. My county HR NOW hires without in-person interviews.
You realize many infantilize Black people. They feel every white person is better than every Black person. They have no insight. 23 important government positions have been filled by Fox News personnel. Conservatives do not care about competence or morals.
If appointees are backstabbing traitors, then the less competent the better.
Unfortunately, an incompetent HHS director puts all our lives at risk.
The Conservative argument
1. There was very low Black unemployment when Black people were enslaved. Let’s bring back slavery. We don’t need due process or habeas corpus
2. Black families were more united when lynching was common and the Klan ran rampant. Let the Proud Boys run free. Let’s put J6 in ICE.
3. Let morality reign. Conmen can be President.
Black Republicans used to argue Blacks were on the Democratic Plantation. The only politically subservient Blacks I see are Republicans. Herschel Walker, Diamond & Silk, Kanye West, the two Bronx rappers invited on stage by Donald Trump, etc.
Black Democrats came off the plantation long enough to reject Bernie Sanders. Byron Donald’s calls Trump “Daddy”.
Blacks realized affirmative action was over. They knew the real beneficiaries were white women. Conservatives need something to distract from the installation of an authoritarian government, so we get another book on the failure of affirmative action.
Nicole Hanna-Jones and Ibrim X Kendi thrive because they live in the heads of Conservatives. Those outside the Conservative bubble read Jones and Kendi to gather material that will irritate Conservatives.
I’ll take the stumbling, bumbling Democrats, Thank you.
I don't agree with you, but I like your provocative delivery. Well done!
Glen and John have had considerable influence in altering my view of race issues in the US. I appreciate the early dialogue in this podcast and find it very thought provoking. But as it proceeds I think it deteriorates considerably. This notion that blacks were better off in the 1950’s than they are now ignores realities of the black community that the author doesn’t speak of. He presents one reality. There were others. The banter about lynchings and police being in the KKK was repulsive to me. The tendency to ignore the racism that continues to exist such as the racism behavior of the Ferguson police force, the number of confederate flags that are present in many places, or those who admitted they wouldn’t vote for Harris or Obama simply because of race, leaves out an important part of the conversation. While I appreciate the problems affirmative action programs may have caused, I think the narrative John and Glen embrace fails to acknowledge the reasons affirmative action was embraced in the first place, regardless of how wrong it may be now.
Thanks for pointing out the nonsense. The biggest beneficiaries of affirmative action were white women. Watching Riley laugh about Klansmen police officer was disgusting.
Conservatives tell Blacks to straighten up and fly Right. Malcolm X imparted the same message. Martin Luther King Jr was the ultimate Perfect Negro and was still assassinated.
The take home message I receive from Conservatives is that they will never come up with solutions on issues involving race.
We can let white South Africans enter the country, but hardworking Haitians are pet eaters.
They let a white conman pick their pockets, but fire the Librarian of Congress for being DEI. Conservatives represent the vampires depicted in the movie sinners. The vampires were of all ethnic groups.
Edit to add:
The dismissal of lynching and the Klan makes it easy to understand why Hannah-Jones and Kendi would appeal to more Blacks than Jason Riley.
You represent your argument very well. I don't agree with Hannah Jones and Kendi, but I understand why blacks gravitate towards their work. Remember that blacks do not think the same because they have different life experiences. As I stated in my post, there will always be an audience for Kendi and Jones, because there has been one for decades.
I pointed out that Nell Irvin Painter was among the first to criticize 1619. Blacks are capable of reading Jones and Kendi without becoming followers. The main benefit is watching Conservatives lose it when Jones and Kendi are mentioned
Black Republicans fully drink the Conservative Koolaid. There are few who question the authoritarian actions of the Trump administration. When you pick up the Thomas Sowell Reader, one of the first characters that greets you is a lazy grasshopper named “Lefty”. You roll your eyes. I would note that McWhorter described the Left as identical to a species of grasshopper susceptible to having worms invading their brains and drowning themselves as a result. I immediately think of the worm in RFK Jr’s skull.
The elephant in the room for Conservatives is the white supremacy that pops up when you scratch the surface. In an interview with Glenn Loury, Shermichael Singleton praises Roger Scruton. Scruton comes across as a white supremacist to me.
I find little to admire on the Conservative side. On the Liberal side, I do see people willing to fight. Black South Carolina Democrats ended Bernie Sanders’ Presidential campaign. We note AOC and Bernie have yet to show up in a predominantly Black neighborhood. We also note that David Hogg, a young man who serves in the DNC, plans to primary Jim Clyburn. There will be a move to put him in check.
I summary, given the venom noted from Conservative circles, not many Blacks are going to join those on the Republican plantation, especially given the direct attacks on HBCUs and Black history. Black Conservatives are silent.
Even though I don't agree with you, I like your passion!
I was pleasantly surprised to see that blacks and woke whites did not take to the streets in mass to protest the abandonment of affirmative action. This tells me there is a growing intolerance of the handout mindset. If only the adults would stop passing on victim pablum to the youth, we could stop the perpetual blame game and infantilization of black people. Excellent podcast. Thank you.
A compelling observation, Valencia. While there is significant support for such perspective, a growing and vocal counterforce expresses frustration. I try to diligently read and consider all sides, yet I often arrive at a consistent conclusion: instilling in young children the belief that they are inherently disadvantaged while simultaneously granting preference based on race is profoundly harmful. Instead, we must dedicate ourselves to a message rooted in strength, creativity, and perseverance. The world is full of possibilities, and a child’s attitude and effort will shape their future. Let’s prioritize empowerment over victimhood and work to instill a mindset that fosters confidence, ambition, and resilience in the next generation.
I could not agree with you more.
Do you include Trump’s acceptance of a 13-year old, $400M jet as part of the handout mindset?
I have no idea what this false equivalency means.
That is not surprising.
Trump is destroying democracy.
Jason Riley: “and half the police force were Klan back then. Bwahaha”
Then praises Trump
In November 1968, Ebony magazine gave a positive review of the “Julia”:television show.
https://books.google.com/books?id=1OEDAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true
Kendi works because the Right is so pathetic. There is a Right wing grift media. FoxNews had to pay $787 M for lies.
Criticism of 1619 was led by Nell Irwin Painter
Few are relying on affirmative action. Enrollment at HBCUs is increasing.
Edit to add:
The Black community will survive and thrive. We will oppose the trashing of our democracy.
Conservatives watch a conman receive an aircraft from a foreign country and remain silent. Black people have no reason to take advise or morality rules from Conservatives. Conservatives distract from the clear and present danger we face.
Mr. Redd,
Give Riley some grace about the Police force Klan comment. He was trying to make a point about the country being worse back then compared to modern times. That was his argument. I don't think he was laughing at or dismissing the type of discrimination that existed in American history. His point was black social mobility under the worse circumstances.
But I do understand why it would be interpreted in a negative way.
He laughed. He is no different who praised Jim Crow. Times change. There is no magic wand that is going to transform marriage rates in the short term. Other solutions are needed and Conservatives have no plan.
Mr. Redd,
Can you do me a favor and recommend some black historians for me to read. And this is regardless of their ideology. I am interested because I am a student working on a research project. In another reply, you named Nell Irvin Painter. I am aware of Manning Marable, Robin DG Kelley, and a few others like Peniel Joseph.
Obviously, there are many excellent Black historians. These come to mind
Annette Gordon-Reed
Benjamin Arthur Quarles
Carter G Woodson
David Levering Louis
Gerald Horne
Henry Louis Gates
Howard French
John Hope Franklin
Apologies to those not mentioned
Thank you so much!
Of course. I will work on it this evening. Off the top of my head, Michael Harriott has a hilarious take on Black history with “Black AF History”
Which aspect of Black history are you studying?
Theme? Time period?
At the end [34:25] of this conversation Glenn wonders "how the Democratic Party elites are going to respond" to the 2023 Supreme Court decision against Harvard and UNC and all the other in-progress shifts, including Trump's, away from race-based preferences and affirmative action.
If they responded by returning, now, to their long-forgotten strong support for the letter and spirit of the 1964 Civil Rights Act their stanidng with the electorate would be greatly improved. If in addition the Dem elites also reversed course to support the strong, fair and consistent enforcement of immigration laws, the Dems would easily take both the House and the Senate in the midterm elections. Impeach or fire the warmongering Rubio and make Jeffrey Sachs the new Secretary of State, and we could shackle the paranoid military-industrial complex at the same time.
Your mission, Glenn, should you choose to accept it......
Mythology, Truth, and Indulgence
I love Jason Riley's work. I remember the episode he was on during 2021 regarding Maverick, a biography on Thomas Sowell.
All of these men are right. But they, and all of us, have to remember how subjective black identity is. So there will always be an audience for what Kendi and Hannah Jones are selling. Certain blacks like or love the product. Even though it's a mythology to others, there are those who see it as a gospel or objective truth. And there are also whites who seek an indulgence for America's past sins.
Eliminate governmental racial categorization schemes and the social construct of "black identity" will wither on the vine. Glenn and John should revisit their past weak, incoherent support for continuing with officially approved "race boxes."
Stuart,
There is too much money and power in racial politics for people to eliminate those racial categories.
I have Neanderthal, Deisovich genes. Can I have a box for that?
Some German ethnic people were also put in detainment camps, in Chrystal City Texas during WW2
oops, Denisovich genes a finger from a cave in Russia
Remember that it's human to put people in boxes.
That is true. But fortunately, the government is not "human"!
We came close to doing it by ballot initiative in California in 2023. Try googling "Racial Privacy Initiative." at https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_54,_Prohibit_State_Classification_Based_on_Race_in_Education,_Employment,_and_Contracting_Initiative_(October_2003)
Then see how close this came to being passed:
https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2003/09/Pew-Hispanic-Center_2003-Multilingual-Survey-of-California-Voters.pdf
Here's my write-up in another unpublished document:
Thomas, Sowell, Ward Connerly and Shelby Steele should be honored for their path-breaking championing of the deracialization of society. Over a dinner in the early 2000s they came up with the idea of prohibiting government from racially categorizing people or demanding individuals do it themselves by checking one of several ‘race boxes.’ This has been a divisive, absurd, and unscientific activity of the U.S. government dating from the days of slavery. It ignores that Americans of different races have been intermarrying for so long that most Americans are bi- or multiracial to one degree or another. Yet some people think these racial categories were invented by the civil rights movement!
An action plan was hatched. Professors Sowell and Steele encouraged businessman, strategist and University of California regent Ward Connerly to execute. In March 2001 Connerly announced the California Racial Privacy [Ballot] Initiative (RPI), his supporters in the American Civil Rights Coalition gathered the necessary signatures, and lively public debates were held. Its key proposition read: The State shall not classify any individual by race, ethnicity, color, or national origin in the operation of public education, public contracting, or public employment.
In early September 2003 a scientific, California-wide poll of voters found the RPI to be supported by 58% of Hispanics, 55% of Blacks, 55% of Whites and 51% of Asians who had an opinion on it. With about $5,000,000 in funding, opponents of the RPI then got into high gear and saturated TV networks with misleading ads. On October 7, 2003 the RPI was put to the voters. Unhappily, it got only 36% of the vote. Connerly recounted this effort at the end of his 2007 book (#4, "Creating Equal").
This issue remains very much alive. The inappropriateness of the ‘race boxes’ can be understood even by primary school students. The manifold downstream effects of racial categorization abound as themes in all the books offered.*** Two recent ones, Coleman Hughes (2024, #12) and David Bernstein (2023, #21), do especially good jobs of summarizing all the anti-categorization arguments put forward during the RPI campaign. It is a puzzle, however, that neither mentions either Ward Connerly or the RPI !
________________
***I and my wife had tried to offer gratis to each of 400 staff members in our retirement community their choice of one book from the following list. Higher powers forbid this. Sometimes all you can do is cause a ruckus and leave the coup de grace to youngsters.
1. Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell, Jason Riley, 2021, 290pp
2. The Quest for Cosmic Justice, Thomas Sowell, 2002, 214pp
3. A Personal Odyssey, Thomas Sowell, 2002, 308pp
4. Creating Equal: My Fight Against Race Preferences (rev. edn), Ward Connerly, 2007, 298pp
5. Lessons from My Uncle James: Beyond Skin Color to the Content of Our Character, Ward Connerly, 2008, 93pp
6. Shame: How America's Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country, Shelby Steele, 2015, 198pp
7. White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era, Shelby Steele, 2007, 181pp
8. The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America, Shelby Steele, 1991, 175pp
9. The Adversity of Diversity, Carol M. Swain & Mike Towle, 2023, 174pp
10. Black Eye for America, Carol M. Swain & Christopher J. Schorr, 2021, 153pp
11. From Rage to Responsibility: Black Conservative Jesse Lee Peterson and America Today, Jesse Lee Peterson w/ Brad Stetson, 2019, 132pp
12. The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America, Coleman Hughes, 2024, 235pp
13. A Dubious Expediency: How Race Preferences Damage Higher Education, Gail Heriot & Maimon Schwarzschild, editors, 2021, 321pp [essays by 10 authors]
14. Diversity: The Invention of a Concept, Peter Wood, 2003, 351pp
15. School of Woke: How Critical Race Theory Infiltrated American Schools and Why We Must Reclaim Them, Kenny Xu, 2023, 238pp
16. Red, White, and Black: Rescuing American History from Revisionists and Race Hustlers,
Robert L. Woodson Sr., editor, 2021, 213pp [essays by 20 black authors]
17. Getting Under the Skin of "Diversity": Searching for the Color-Blind Ideal, Larry Purdy, 2008, 255pp
18. The End of Racism: Principles for a Multiracial Society, Dinesh D’Souza, 1995, 724pp
19. Beyond the Color Line: New Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity in America, Abigail Thernstrom & Stephan Thernstrom, editors, 2002, 438pp [essays by 25 authors]
20. The Diversity Delusion, Heather Mac Donald, 2020, 288pp
21. Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America, David E. Bernstein, 2023, 186pp
22. Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin, J.H. Franklin, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, November 2005, 416 pp,
23. The Racialization of America, Yehudi O. Webster, St. Martin’s Griffin, December 1993, 320pp
Nice job!!
I have read many of these books. The Quest for Cosmic Justice is the third book of Sowell's trilogy. The first two are A Conflict of Visions and The Vision of the Anointed. I have used them in my work as a current student.
I have Shelby Steele's entire four book collection, and I have read Content of Our Character several times. It never gets old. He makes the same arguments in the other books, but uses different language. In his 2015 book, Shame, he uses the term "poetic truth." It describes the postmodern society we live in.
Postmodernism is the reason why black identity is subjective. So there are people who cannot see anything beyond a racial lens. So this war within black culture will continue. It's been going on for generations. It's a fight for moral authority. Who can define and dictate what blackness is?
I heard one black woman say that Martin Luther King jr. and his group were sexist in the sense that they were saying to some black women who wanted to be in leadership roles "not now, not yet"
This has been one of the best Glenn Shows ever. Jason Riley is a very smart cookie and extremely erudite. He explains difficult and unpleasant topics with such intelligent ease and panasche. Glenn resiled from a foreword previously written and they all laughed good naturedly. Glenn is always smart. John McWhorter impressed with his intelligent comments, wonderful smile and infectious laugh. John often looks miserable, not this episode. Gentlemen, I have been very critical of academic privilege and snobbery. This episode was superior in every way. Congratulations.
Will,
It's too bad this was short. It should have been 90 minutes to do it some justice. Even the Cornel West, Robert George episode was 75 minutes. When Jason spoke to Glenn and John in 2021 about the Maverick-Thomas Sowell biography, the conversation was 65 minutes. And that still bothers me to this day. These intellectuals left you begging for more. But these men also have busy lives. So I give them some grace.
We agree.
😩