Sunday Thoughts July 09, 2023

Not much is going on in the news, so rather than talk about a bunch of trivial issues, I decided to talk about one story that I found in the New York Times. It is an interview with the lead attorney on the affirmative action cases decided by the court last week. It is one of those pieces that has a lot of layers to it once you figure out what is happening. It is, in effect, a clash between two moral codes that cannot exist simultaneously.

The interviewer is espousing the new code of equity and diversity. For her, the moral society is one free of whiteness, which can only be measured by counting heads. She also maintains the highly superficial notion of race as skin color. This is necessary in order to maintain the blank slate. The attorney represents the old civil right moral framing. In his view, all discrimination based on race is immoral, so the only way to avoid it is to never acknowledge it.

He is, of course, doing what conservatives have done for generations. He wants to get the desired result within the progressive moral framework. In the case of colleges, he wants a merit-based system based on objective measures, but at the same time says that discrimination is always wrong. The other side insists that the only way to know we are free of discrimination is by counting heads. The moral good of a discrimination free world requires open discrimination against whites.

Topics

* Affirmative Action (Link)

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