West brings up a good point about the taxi problem. State neutrality is not going to solve everything. Nevertheless, I think it is the most practical solution and here's why: the only way to cure us of racism is to educate citizens and show them not that its simply wrong, but baseless. Under Appiah, we can work towards this on two fronts. First, we can even the playing field. We can make sure that everyone is treated the same under the law (equal tax dollars go to road work and teachers in bad neighborhoods, etc.). Second, we can educate people on the lack of evidence for any real racial categories. So here we are kind of attacking the stereotypes, by working towards solutions for crime, poverty, etc and also attacking the deeper rooted beliefs that accompany racist thinking. I think this would eventually trickle down to the mind's of would-be racists.
By West's acknowledgment of race he is only fueling the fire... Its better to just be color blind and fair and hope that the rest of society will catch up. programs like affirmative action, ect. only create resentment and further add to the (false) divisions in our society. And anyways, we cannot magically go into the mind's of racists and remove the idea of race. It needs to be educated out. We need to ditch the "us versus them" mentality, even when it has good intentions, because it will never solve anything.
Thoughts?
2 comments:
You make a good case, but I'm gonna have to play advocate a little. What about the education from the private sphere? What about the parents that teach their kids that everything they teach you in school about neutrality is based on a black man's lie? What if this sentiment is allowed to fester in the shadow of neutrality? Does the U.S."A." have any way of addressing this kind of problem?
I don't think we can educate in the private sphere. Thats kind of the whole point of it being "private" ;). There is no way for us to tell (as-in, demand) parents what to teach their kids. That said, if we, US"A", endorse neutrality then the kid in your scenario should find the "black man" category useless and his parent's argument absurd.
My point is that when we stress categories through recognition, we are only adding fuel to the fire. Affirmative action, for instance, can be used as ammunition by white bigots to teach their kids "see, the black man wants to push you down". As faulty as that line of reasoning is, it is still a line of reasoning. If we do away with the entire system then all the arguments for whatever intention will seem baseless. I mean really, think about what might go on in a racist's head. Isn't affirmative action going to piss them off?
There are always going to be ignorant jerks that just don't get it. Maybe they are insecure and needs something to fear and belittle. In the bright future of US"A" Maybe they will direct their fear towards astroids instead of the imaginary "black man". Because, you know, astroids are scary.
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