I just finished reading a book called ‘Race and Liberty’ which was written by the independent institute. This book was about the history of classical liberalism and race and I found it to be very informative because it taught me a lot about the history of liberalism and shed a new light on modern self proclaimed ‘classical liberals.’ While I have a problem with classical liberalism and the way it handled race back then, I have even more of a problem with it now and I will enlighten my readers on exactly why this is the case.
Common Classical Liberal Talking Points: The Issue of “Racial Preferences”, individual freedom, and color blindness
A common theme that one hears from self-identified classical liberals and conservatives on youtube is the idea that racial preferences, or race based laws, or raced based politics, no matter their purpose or effect, are inherently wrong. However, without addressing the argument itself with counter arguments, I would like to point out some internal inconsistencies. The argument is made based on the history of racial collectivism in this country and how it (along with race based legislation) have been used as a tool to subjugate others, however the history of this country also shows that the dynamics of racism changes across time and space—thus the methods for fighting it must change as well. Not only that it’s advocated for under the pretense that it violates individual freedom and equality. No evidence or adequate justification is ever given to support the idea that we actually live in a society with equality of opportunity; furthermore it makes little sense to advocate for the idea that we should put the individual over the group in the spirit of collective racial equality, especially when this supposed individual freedom comes at the expense of efforts toward progress for the group.
Neo-classical liberals are so stuck on opposing racial preferences for the sake of equality that they are willing to gloss over the fact that equality has not actually been achieved. One cannot claim to be for equality but only advocate for it when race conscious efforts to achieve it are being put forth.
Finally, classical liberals cannot be for the equality of racial groups but also be for the absolute freedom of the individual. When individual freedom and self-concern come to dominate the thinking in societies, it always comes at the expense of the larger group, or at the expense of various sub-groups. The social disparities that are brought forth as a result of this self-concern come at the expense of the individual—thus undermining both the individual and the group.
Neo-classical liberalism, at least when it comes to race and possibly gender, is a self defeating ideology; it’s a self defeating ideology that once held a lot of merit because it’s alternative, blatant white supremacy, was no better. However, in a world where injustices occur despite the wide spread adoption of these ideals, such ideas no longer serve an important function, and merely serve to perpetuate oppression by placing the blame on a mass of randomly coordinated, socially unaffected, and mentally isolated individuals, rather than the structural forces at play, as well as foster a sick sense of apathy.
Sources
Dr. King Said It: I’m Black And I’m Proud
Bean, Jonathan. Race and Liberty in America: The Essential Reader. University Press of Kentucky, 2009.
King, Martin. Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos Or Community?. New York: Harper & Row, 1967. Print.
Hall, Jacquelyn Dowd. “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past.” The Journal of American History 91.4 (2005): 1233-263. Web.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3660172
Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, “Framing Affirmative Action”, 105 Mich. L. Rev. First Impressions 123 (2006).
http://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr_fi/vol105/iss1/4/
Fleegler, Robert L. “Theodore G. Bilbo and the Decline of Public Racism, 1938-1947.” Journal of Mississippi History 68 (2006): 1-28.
Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department, United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, March 4, 2015
http://tinyurl.com/jpk4bjb
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