Liberals illustrate by their own words and actions that they are
both racist and against racism. Even as John Kerry voted for the
war before he voted against the war, modern liberals seem to have a
love/hate relationship with racism. Liberals hate racial profiling
when it comes to airport screening and crime fighting, but love
racial profiling when it comes to college admissions and other
forms of affirmative action.
Liberals illustrate by their own words and actions that they are both racist and against racism. Even as John Kerry voted for the war before he voted against the war, modern liberals seem to have a love/hate relationship with racism. Liberals hate racial profiling when it comes to airport screening and crime fighting, but love racial profiling when it comes to college admissions and other forms of affirmative action.
Actually, the liberal elites are guilty of watering down the concept of racism. First it was racism, based upon race. Added to this then was racism based upon ethnic origin. Still discrimination based upon ethnic origin continued to fit nicely under the general category of racism. Then sexism was added. Sexism did not fit very well, but hey sexism and racism are first cousins. Next came discrimination based upon age. Agist is a clumsy designator; maybe it can pass under the designation of racist also. Now we have added – especially in California – lifestyle discrimination.
What is the definition of a racist? The American Heritage College Dictionary gives this definition. “Discrimination or prejudice based on race.” Applied to the concept of profiling in the area of college admissions, the proponents of this policy are racists. Discrimination based upon race defines profiling in college admissions. Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is a racist, when in her majority opinion she wrote, “The Equal Protection Clause does not prohibit the (University of Michigan) Law School’s narrowly tailored use of race in admissions decisions.” It is difficult to see how it can be both ways; how is it logically possible to ban the use of racial discrimination when it is harmful, or perceived to be harmful, to a certain racial group, while at the same time promoting racial discrimination when it is helpful or perceived to be helpful to the same group? Conservatives have never bought into this view of life, and are often accused of racism by the same liberal elites. As Author Peter Brimelow has cynically commented a racist is “someone who is winning an argument with a liberal.”
A serious social and political issue underlies this dichotomy. How strongly is our self image tied to a group? Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist, defined a hierarchy of five needs of the individual in 1944. In order of attainment and fulfillment, they are; Physiological Needs (food, shelter), Security Needs (protection from danger), social needs (love, friendship, comradeship), Ego Needs (self-respect, personal worth, autonomy, and Self Actualization Needs (full potential). Human beings seek these in the order listed from Physiological to Self-Actualization. The second and especially the third of these needs relate to identification of the individual with the group. However, the fourth and fifth descriptions in Maslow’s sequence relate specifically to the individual and not to the group.
Group politics and group social identification is evidently on the rise in modern times. Consider that in 1991, with the break-up of the Soviet Union, some 15 nations based upon ethnic and racial identity appeared or re-appeared as part of the new order. Although united after WWII, Czechs and Slovaks separated when freed of Soviet domination. The Ukraine is facing a secession of the Russian speaking Crimea from the Ukrainian-speaking areas this former Soviet Republic. Crimea became part of the Ukraine in 1954. Yugoslavia has fractured into areas dominated by Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
We noticed in the recent soccer World Cup, England played not under the Union Jack, but under the red Cross of St. George. Canada continues to struggle with the division between the English speaking center and West, and the French-speaking East. The historian Arthur Schlesinger predicted in 1991, that “Ethnic and racial conflict will soon replace the conflict of ideologies as the explosive issue of our time.
The conditions for self-actualization are declining due to political correctness. The obvious inconsistency cited with regard to racism above is a symptom of it. That a political system that guarantees the maximum in individual liberty and freedom is required for attainment of the upper levels of the Maslow hierarchy is obvious. The future of the lofty principles embodied in the American experiment as well as the upward vector of the Maslow hierarchy of human needs is being dimmed by the rise of racial, ethnic, and other groupings. Individual liberty is the victim in this tragedy.
Al Kelsch is a Hollister resident wh writes a weekly column for the Free Lance. He can be contacted at
al******@ho******.com
