Posted on 11/30/2021 5:24:43 AM PST by Kaslin
Human beings are by nature tribal. We are tribal because our ancestors were tribal. Our ancestors were tribal because tribalism had evolutionary survival value.
Fifty thousand years ago, our ancestors lived in small communities of about 150 people. These tribes competed with other tribes for resources, and the competition was often violent and brutal. Loyalty to one’s own group and hostility to members of other groups was a valuable characteristic in tribal combat.
Someone who loved his neighbor (that is, a member of another tribe) as much as himself would not have been of much value in tribal warfare. If such people existed – say, as a result of some genetic abnormality – they most likely didn’t live long enough to pass on their genes.
I have often suspected that the zeal with which some people today enjoy sports is a modern manifestation of ancient tribal instincts. Why do Dallas Cowboy fans cheer so avidly for their team – when the players on the field are personally unknown to them, have nothing in common with them and wouldn’t even be in Dallas if they weren’t paid to be there?
If we are instinctively tribal when it comes to sports, doesn’t it seem likely that we are tribal with respect to a great many other aspects of life? And if that’s so, what can be done about it?
That brings us to the notion of systemic racism. Wikipedia defines it as:
a form of racism that is embedded in the laws and regulations of a society or an organization. It manifests as discrimination in areas such as criminal justice, employment, housing, health care, education, and political representation.
There is one glaring omission from that list: the marketplace.
When our ancestors weren’t warring with each other, they were trading with each other. In fact, mutually beneficial exchange between different communities is almost as old as civilization itself.
Economics teaches that in any voluntary exchange, both parties expect to be better off. That’s why people trade. And people don’t usually try to kill the people they are trading with.
It’s probably no exaggeration to say that the single most important institution for preventing war in the history of the human race is the free market.
The market is also the single most important institution for suppressing our tribal instincts. Going back thousands of years, the market was always the most integrated institution in all social interactions.
In the market, people found it in their self-interest to meet the needs of others so they could get something in return that met their own needs. The fact that other people looked different, dressed differently, spoke a different language, had a different religion, etc., did not prevent people all over the world from pursuing their economic interests through trade.
Flash forward to the modern era and we find that these ancient tendencies are as strong today as they ever were. In fact, one of the most remarkable findings of social science is how little prejudice seems to matter in the market, compared to other institutions in our society.
June O’Neill, an economist who used to direct the Congressional Budget Office, and her husband Dave O’Neill produced a comprehensive survey of the economic research on wage income.
The O’Neills found that the difference in pay for Black and white men completely disappears after adjusting for years of schooling and test scores. Among women, the gap actually reverses. After adjusting for education and test scores, Black women get paid more than white women.
What about men as a group vs. women as a group? The gender gap shrinks to only 3½ % when adjustments are made for work experience, career breaks and part-time work.
Is there discrimination in the workplace? Of course there is. That’s why there are lawsuits. But there is not enough of it to affect overall earnings.
Common sense tells us why. Suppose women in a certain industry were paid less than men for the same work. An entrepreneur could choose to hire only women. With lower labor costs, she could drive her competitors out of business and make a handsome profit along the way. The same thing would be true if there were Black/white differences in pay.
Wage differentials make discrimination expensive. If Black workers earned less than white workers for the same work, every time an employer hired a white worker, she would be paying a price for doing so. Money-grubbing capitalists don’t tend to throw away their profits like that.
Things are different in the non-market sectors of our society. All too often low-income families in our largest cites are forced to send their children to the worst schools; they are living in the worst housing; and they are subject to the worst environmental harms.
All too often city governments act indifferently when low-income minority citizens become victims of bad cops, bad teachers, bad schools and bad pollution.
In the past, some of these policies – especially school and housing policies – were the result of overt racism. But that is not likely to be the motive today. Almost every large city in America is run by liberal Democrats and more often than not the officials are themselves Black.
But if racism isn’t their motive, what is? Self-interest. Unlike the marketplace, in political systems decision-makers don’t pay a price for discriminatory behavior.
Rather than systemic racism, large cities today are best described as a systemic spoils system. The adverse effects on poor families are just as bad whether the officials are white or Black or of some other ethnic origin.
Here is the answer to that. We need to substitute market-based institutions for political decision-making wherever possible. We know that is easily done in education, housing and transportation – because it is already happening in many places. But there are also opportunities for market solutions in health care, occupational licensure, and even policing.
However, to encourage more of these opportunities, low-income voters must stop voting for their oppressors.
To the left, it’s a White man defending himself from 3 white Antifa thugs.
The DemocRAT Party.
It’s the concept that you have to follow the law regardless of your skin color.
“Here is the answer to that. We need to substitute market-based institutions for political decision-making wherever possible. We know that is easily done in education, housing and transportation – because it is already happening in many places. But there are also opportunities for market solutions in health care, occupational licensure, and even policing”
Yes, that is very reasonable and rational. Except for the assumption that everything is going to remain the same after the Democrats/globalists finish plundering us. Will the globalists accept ANY “market solution” in their current quest to destroy the USA? (Will any of us be able to care when we’re living in cardboard boxes?)
This idea doesn’t need to be sold to me. The Democrats aren’t going to entertain it for a hot second - “easily done in transportation.” Dunno, it sounds like Mayor Peed is going to take his gigantic slice of the pie and create racial equality for every boy and girl with it. (And afterwards, when things are just as screwed-up as before, or even worse, he’ll get a pat on the head and “Good boy! Well, you tried!”)
An adult would read this article and nod, and have thoughts that it recommends reasonable and sane actions. But the Democrats are not adults.
Systemic racism, is whatever some slime sucking scum bag democrat says it is. Screw them. 👎
As a conservative I instinctively know this. Thanks Mr. Goodman for your eloquent writing, I hope this article gets pushed out far and wide, especially to teachers that actually teach.
It’s when unqualified or lesser qualified “People Of Color” are given preferential treatment, such as employment,
college admission or financial assistance, over qualified whites or Asians because of their skin color.
The term accepted by the courts as illegal is “institutional racism”. It means that it’s illegal for a public institution to racially discriminate. However, that term implies that actual constitutionally protected rights, like free speech would have to be protected in public institutions like colleges, flitter and farcebook.
The left needed to invent a term which they could use to demonize living people for what dead people did, and to demonize conservatives just for being white. “Systemic racism” is their last hope.
“What is Systemic Racism?”
Just more catch words, like racial equity, invented by Democrats to promote their Socialist agenda.
Jussie Smollett
Outlawing “institutional racism” means that universities and corporations can’t discriminate against white people in admissions and hiring. The left can’t STAND that, and needs another rallying cry.
A power grabbing effort by liberals.
Systemic Racism, formerly known as Affirmative action, in the United States is the active effort to improve employment, educational, and other opportunities for members of groups that have been subjected to discrimination. Criteria for Systemic Racism include race, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, and age.-
Expecting looters to be arrested.
What is systemic racism? Mr. Goodman using a capital “B” for black and a small “w” for white. I got that far into the article and didn’t continue. This to me is bowing to the CRT and race baiters level of writing about racism.
Systemic itself is a weasel word.meaning the nature of a system. No individual can define qhether a system has any particular charateristic as it is constructed. Certainly if one looks at the Wikepedia list of system charateristics, they are all protected by laws.
In fact the laws and regulations we have relating to race are slanted to favor non-whites over whites.
Pproponents of this idea of systemic racism are going after people’s internal feelings and thoughts. Those are nobodies business but the individual. All a civil society can do is regulate action; not thoughts.
Systemic Racism is something the democratic party made up to try to include everybody into their sin. Dating back 50 or 60 years ago, they violently tried to keep segregation going while the rest of the country was going in the other direction. They want to imply that we all were doing it. We were not! Systemic Racism means nothing!
“Systemic racism” means inequality. It’s saying you don’t need “racists” to have “racism,” because the “racism” is already there in the unequal outcomes. But when the country started to fixate on “systemic racism” it gave ambitious or malicious people the green light to go through everyone’s tweets looking for examples of racism and excuses to get people fired.
Evidence of systemic racism? Albeit "reverse" racism. Which is a non sequitur. Racisim is a two-way street.
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