Speaking the Unspeakable

I think there are a number of interesting and worthwhile notions in this piece by Glenn Loury at Quillette, originally a lecture. In it he outlines five “unspeakable truths about racial equality in America” and proposes a remedy. His “unspeakable truths” are:

• Outcomes for blacks are not disconnected from behavior
• “Structural racism” has no referent
• Police killings must be viewed in perspective
• Pushing the notion of “white fragility” is risky
• Blacks are being infantilized

while his proposed remedy is that blacks must earn equality rather than having it awarded to them by whites. That is no novel proposal. It’s much what figures as disparate as Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and Malcolm X have asserted.

I recommend you read the piece in full. You’re likely to learn something. Here’s a snippet:

The “structural racism” argument seldom goes into cause and effect. Rather, it asserts shadowy causes that are never fully specified, let alone demonstrated. We are all just supposed to know that it’s the fault of something called “structural racism,” abetted by an environment of “white privilege,” furthered by an ideology of “white supremacy” that purportedly characterizes our society. It explains everything. Confronted with any racial disparity, the cause is, “structural racism.”

History, I would argue, is rather more complicated than such “just so” stories would suggest. These racial disparities have multiple interwoven and interacting causes, from culture to politics to economics, to historical accident to environmental influence and, yes, also to the nefarious doings of particular actors who may or may not be “racists,” as well as systems of law and policy that disadvantage some groups without having been so intended. I want to know what they are talking about when they say “structural racism.” In effect, use of the term expresses a disposition. It calls me to solidarity. It asks for my fealty, for my affirmation of a system of belief. It’s a very mischievous way of talking, especially in a university, although I can certainly understand why it might work well on Twitter.

My own view, probably equally unspeakable, is that the explanation for so many blacks being trapped in the underclass is that it’s multi-factorial, having its roots in behavior by blacks, behavior by whites, history, and, frankly, that blacks have been sold a bill of goods for the last half century. Both the notions that blacks cannot prosper through their own efforts or that they need to be saved by non-blacks are problematic but that’s where we are now.

One more thought. The present discourse is entirely about power and its thrust does not lead in a direction which will benefit by far the greatest number of blacks in the U. S.