Ahistorical liberals—like most Americans—still believe that race invented racism, when in fact the reverse is true.That is Ta-Nehisi Coates in the Atlantic, on Oafish and Graceful Racism.
If the above is incomprehensible, here is a longer quote, with the important part highlighted:
"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race," {Supreme Court Chief Justice} John Roberts elegantly wrote. Liberals have yet to come up with a credible retort. That is because the theories of John Roberts are prettier than the theories of most liberals. But more, it is because liberals do not understand that America has never discriminated on the basis of race (which does not exist) but on the basis of racism (which most certainly does.)"Races don't exist?", someone expostulates. Without going into biology, let's just consider the fact that President Obama with one parent from the "white" race and one parent from the "black" race is black per American racial classification. This is just as arbitrary as saying the son of a German and a Swede is always Swede.
A person with one "black" grandparent, or one "black" great-grandparent is also black. "Passing" is the phenomenon where someone of mixed race who looks "white" enough, passes themselves off as "white".
And yes, I've encountered enough liberals who don't understand that race as used in America is a social construct. They go ballistic over this, and invoke biology and DNA and whatever; or else they seemingly concede the point, but at the first opportunity continue their talk about the genetics of black vs. white IQs and such. (I've decided to boycott such people.)
Anyway, please read the whole of Ta-Nehisi Coates' essay.
