Legal Commentary

For progressives like Yglesias et al., racism was not only America?s original sin; it remains a stain so deep that it can be erased ? or perhaps only attenuated ? only by generation after generation of national mea culpas in the form of field-leveling racial preferences.

If by now you haven?t thought of Shelby Steele and his soul-searching writing about white guilt, you should have. A good place to start ? and you?re only going to read one of his pieces, finish ? is his November 30, 1999, article in Harpers, ?The Age Of White Guilt: And The Disappearance Of The Black Individual.? Here?s a taste:

What is white guilt? It is not a personal sense of remorse over past wrongs. White guilt is literally a vacuum of moral authority in matters of race, equality, and opportunity that comes from the association of mere white skin with America's historical racism. It is the stigmatization of whites and, more importantly, American institutions with the sin of racism. Under this stigma white individuals and American institutions must perpetually prove a negative ? that they are not racist ? to gain enough authority to function in matters of race, equality, and opportunity. If they fail to prove the negative, they will be seen as racists. Political correctness, diversity policies, and multiculturalism are forms of deference that give whites and institutions a way to prove the negative and win reprieve from the racist stigma.

Full post as published by Discriminations on March 20, 2011 (boomark / email).