Racial Justice is Not Justice
Justice does not need a qualifier
It is a common refrain among those who espouse the toxic ideology of anti-racism and those who believe in (or pretend to believe in) the fantasies of Critical Race Theory. They scream, “We demand racial justice!” with their jaws set and fists raised. It is a tactic of language manipulation that has become typical of progressivism. Embrace and promote a concept that no one could possibly disagree with on its face and then use it as a political cudgel to get what you want, i.e. power and control. The phrase “Black Lives Matter” for example, is a phrase that most people agree with by itself but what the group, Black Lives Matter, stands for - rioting, looting, blatant racism, dismantling the nuclear family - these things far fewer people condone. However, if you dare to oppose them, they will simply announce that you do not believe that black lives matter at all in an attempt to manipulate you, as if opposing their behavior equates to opposing the title. Clearly, standing against The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea does not mean that we oppose republics. It is a nefarious game of semantics and emotional blackmail. Racial justice is no different.
The cases of Kyle Rittenhouse and Ahmaud Arbery brought this issue once again to the forefront. To those who demand racial justice, Rittenhouse’s acquittal was seen as unjust. The McMichaels’ conviction was seen as just. Neither of these conclusions were arrived at by looking at evidence, seeking out objective truth, or trusting in due process. They were arrived at by looking at skin color, historical grievances and hypothetical grievances. It did not matter that Rittenhouse was chased and beaten. The focus was entirely on a hypothetical black Rittenhouse who would surely be sentenced to life in prison if he hadn’t first been killed by the police. This is what they mean when they say racial justice. It cannot be overstated. They mean that justice, as we understand it, must be overridden in the name of progressive ideology. Even if the evidence says someone is innocent, as was the case for Kyle Rittenhouse, it matters little because racial justice demands penance for the crime of whiteness and the hypothetical crime of what might happen to that person if he or she were black. It is imposing progressive dogma onto the scales of Lady Justice. It is ripping off her blindfold and demanding that she see the world through a racial lens and make judgments based, not on facts and evidence, but on skin color and the feelings surrounding it.
This should be no surprise when considering what Critical Race Theory stands for. CRT is very direct in its mistrust of justice. Ultimately, it is direct in its mistrust of all of our institutions and founding principles. Its proponents regularly attack ideas like liberalism (the true meaning) and they criticize concepts like free speech because they believe that they are used to perpetuate systems of white supremacy. They’ve even gone so far as to say they are suspicious of rights themselves, believing that “rights” only truly exist for white people in our current system. Ibram X. Kendi is well-known for promoting the idea that any disparities in outcomes between races within a system is automatically indicative of racism within that system. This is the grotesque, cracked glass through which the world is reflected in the minds of the race-obsessed. Everything is a racial issue. Everything has some racial dynamic that must be examined and deconstructed. The only variable that truly matters is skin color. It doesn’t matter if it involves a white teenager defending himself from three white people. White supremacy is still somehow to blame. It is not enough to look at things objectively. We must infuse race into the equation and adjust our concept of justice accordingly. That, of course, is not justice at all.
One thing people fail to understand is that “racial justice” is the same concept that was practiced in the past to oppress other racial groups. The people who enacted and enforced laws like Jim Crow believed them to be just. They believed that it was the right thing to do, but they were blinded by their own bigotry and emotional reasoning. This is what happens when you vacate the concepts of liberalism and attempt to manipulate justice to serve your own agenda. That’s what happens when you feel the need to add a qualifier to justice. It doesn’t work.
This is why it appears that we, as a country, are hurtling backward through time. Segregation on college campuses, racial discrimination in public schools, hatred, animosity, resentment, hostility - all driven by perception of racial grievance and a desire for retribution. The obsession with race and racial identity is fracturing our country and causing people to lose all sense of reason and perspective. White supremacy is held up as some kind of elusive boogeyman perpetually lurking in the shadows, whose presence has a significant impact on everything and everyone. Grievances are claimed and punishments administered based solely on the presumed existence and influence of this all-powerful specter. There need not be an actual perpetrator or even an actual victim in order to claim such grievances. Symbolism will do just fine. Kyle Rittenhouse was not even seen as a human being by the racial justice crusaders. He was seen as an abstract representation of opposition to progressive ideology, a representation of white supremacy, itself. His punishment would have been based on abstract symbolism rather than objective truth.
This has always been the problem with the anti-racism garbage. It is nothing more than racism repackaged. Racial justice is racism. It demands that decisions be made on the basis of race, which is completely backwards to how things should operate. As mentioned previously, progressives manipulate language to conceal their agenda. Anti-racism, like anti-fascism, directly engages in exactly what it claims to be fighting against. Most of us are anti-racist so far as it means “being against racism.” But, ironically, the anti-racism movement actually is not and anti-racism does not mean what it purports to mean. Anti-racism wholly relies on racism to achieve its goals.
“The only remedy for past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination” - Ibram X. Kendi
Racial justice does not care about actual justice. Racial justice is emotional and vengeful. It seeks revenge and suffering. There was no evidence that George Floyd’s death had anything to do with race but racial justice demanded it be viewed that way. It demanded not only that Derek Chauvin be hanged as a white supremacist, but that anyone who questioned the details of the case at all were also white supremacists who should lose their jobs and have their lives destroyed. God help you if you didn’t post a black square on your Instagram. It was a similar story with Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, and Jacob Blake. No evidence whatsoever that race had anything to do with any of it but it’s irrelevant to them. Racism is the foregone conclusion. Any opposition to the racial narrative presented is seen as perpetuation of systems of white supremacy, regardless of what the facts say. Even to this day, racial justice demands that we believe that Michael Brown had his hands up in the air, which is a blatant lie. But again, evidence doesn’t matter. The only evidence needed is race itself and nothing else need be examined.
Racial justice also demands that we see math as racist because black students struggle with it more than their peers. We are to see proper grammar as racist for the same reason. We are to see advanced classes as vestiges of white supremacy because not enough minority students do well enough to get into them. We are supposed to applaud when schools announce the end to standardized testing to make things more “equitable” for black and brown students. We are to view concepts such as meritocracy, individualism, and punctuality as aspects of whiteness. It is madness. Racial justice means abandoning truth, facts, and reason in favor of ideology. It is pure ideological possession, as Jordan Peterson would say.
After the George Floyd incident, I remember having several debates centered around policing and I tried to explain to people that police rarely kill anyone of any race, let alone black people, and that when you control for crime rates, white suspects are actually more likely to be killed by police than black suspects. I backed up this argument with statistics from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report and the Washington Post’s Fatal Force Database. The general response to this was that the statistics, themselves, were racist. Yes. Instead of rebutting the argument with facts, they announced that institutional racism had skewed the data. You can’t win. Everything is deemed racist and all of their claims are non-falsifiable. If you attempt to falsify a claim (e.g. CRT’s assertion that racism is endemic in our society), they will simply say that your data is just further evidence of a racist system. It is the ultimate Kafka Trap. Kyle Rittenhouse is a white supremacist if he admits it and he’s a white supremacist if he denies it. There is no way out. A black man attacking an Asian man in San Francisco proves nothing except for that white supremacy is everywhere in America. Black people killing twice as many white people last year than the reverse and over 10,000 black homicide victims with more than 90% killed by other black people is just more evidence of the pervasiveness of systemic racism. Darrell Brooks mowing down a group of white people in his SUV at a Christmas parade, killing several people including an 8-year-old little boy, after calling for violence against white people on social media - was that due to the white supremacy? Andrew Coffee being found not guilty for shooting police officers in a case of self-defense the same day Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted - was that white supremacy? A white jury convicted three white men of murdering Ahmaud Arbery, a black man - is that white supremacy? Must everything be about race? If you believe in racial justice, the answer is yes. It is delusional foolishness.
There can be no such thing as racial justice. There can only be justice. Justice cannot be driven by emotions, agenda, or ideology and still remain justice. When you consider terms like racial justice, social justice, climate justice, etc, you recognize that they are just that - ideology-driven tactics of a progressive agenda. The desired outcomes have already been predetermined by those who adhere to these titles and they declare “injustice” until they get what they want. But that is not how justice operates. It’s not how it should ever operate. Justice is blind, impartial, and fair. It is not dependent on race, gender, sexuality, or ideology. It has nothing to do with the things that you want or the emotions that you feel. Justice is justice. It does not need a qualifier. When people feel the need to add one, you can be certain that we aren’t talking about justice anymore.
Well said. Thank you.