Helping Blacks: A Cure Worse than the Disease

American race relations exhibit a bewildering paradox: The more whites help blacks, the more blacks hate whites. The government has spent trillions to lift up blacks, who grow even more vehement about “toxic whiteness.” Ironically, the greatest beneficiaries, those owing jobs and university admissions to naked racial preference, are the most vocal in denouncing “white privilege” and the “white” values that created the wealth that makes this generosity possible.

Blacks hate whites because of this, not despite it. Whites assume that their gifts are recognized by blacks as entirely beneficial, an unconditional helping hand, and who could bite the hand that feeds? Is not affirmative action the opposite of racial discrimination, and since discrimination was terrible, shouldn’t blacks love whites for affirmative action?

The key to understanding this non-paradox is to recognize that the help whites give blacks comes with a powerful message: Blacks need help because they are deficient. Blacks recognize this, even though they almost never admit it. It is as if generosity is a bad-tasting medicine to cure black insufficiency, not a gift for the worthy. We (whites) help blacks since they, by our standards, need help. The helping hand is demeaning, and the greater the gift, the greater the unacknowledged deficiency.

White efforts to improve black education perfectly illustrate this. They began with outlawing racial segregation and then morphed into coerced integration. Next came massive funding for schools with sizable black enrollments, and since this, too, failed to close the gaps, white experts changed the curriculum, hired more black teachers, rewrote textbooks, eliminated allegedly racist disciplinary policies, and renamed schools. However, as each new measure failed and was replaced with even more funding and coercion, blacks were, in effect, told that they are academically hopeless. A medical parallel would be increasing dosages to cure an intractable illness, i.e., blackness. No stone will be left unturned in this effort; whites will spend themselves into bankruptcy and violate fundamental laws to square circles. In other words, we are saying to blacks, “Your deficiency is truly colossal.”

It is no insult to offer extra tutoring to boost SAT scores for recent immigrants unable to speak English; quite another to announce that the very nature of black culture demands a white-organized Marshall Plan-like remedial enterprise. This is a call for Soviet style social engineering,

Particularly onerous is “fixing the black family” (a favorite of Amy Wax and Heather Mac Donald). It is hard to imagine a more devastating critique of black people than to tell them: “Your families, everything from the way you raise children to how you choose sex partners, is toxic and has to change. You must imitate white people.”

Imagine the humiliation of a black mother being told by “helpful” whites that she must enrich her vocabulary, replace physical punishment with cause-and-effect reasoning, supply cultural enrichment by visiting museums that celebrate white accomplishment, supervise TV-watching, and read books to junior every day. All to be followed by admonitions to be chaste, kick out worthless live-in boyfriends, get more education, and volunteer for more responsibility at work. Blacks know they can’t follow this advice, and even if they could, it is so contrary to their instincts it would make them unhappy.

The scope of white condemnation of blackness under the guise of being helpful cannot be exaggerated. “Help the blacks” programs don’t require that blacks deal with insufficiency; instead they assume blacks can’t help themselves. Yes, blacks get into college with lower test scores than whites or Asians, but this generosity comes with an army of helpers and special programs, all of which are visible to fellow students. Admission inflicts pain, since black success requires embracing “white” study habits inimical to their dispositions. At some point, beneficiaries can only resent the bargain: gain undeserved admission and then spend four years doing things they hate, all while surrounded by students who academically outshine them.

“Paying” for white generosity by forcing oneself to act contrary to inclination hardly ends with college, and the greater the “gift,” the greater the cost. A black Harvard graduate who lands a well-paying Wall Street job must be even “whiter” than a black bus driver. The black Wall Streeter must “pay” for preference by acting white, top to bottom: clothing, speech, socializing, even being punctual. The deal is: Take the gift and deny who you are.

To understand this, whites should imagine an alternative universe in which blacks and their values dominate, and ambitious whites must embrace blackness to succeed. In school, they would have to be rambunctious, refuse to hit the books, and party to loud music. They would have to wear wild clothes and shout a lot. Their social lives would consist of short-term pleasures and protecting their honor from disrespect.

May 12, 2022: Bovann live in Bern, Switzerland Bern, Switzerland. 12th, May 2022. The German-Cameroon rapper Bovann performs a live concert at Bierhübeli in Bern. Bern Switzerland Copyright: xGonzalesxPhoto/TilmanxJentzschx (Credit Image: © Imago via ZUMA Press)

Most whites would hate this; it would be a painful struggle. Much of the time a white would feel like an impostor or an actor. He might escape this alien blackness and seek out “white” settings where he could be himself — visit white-run countries, attend classical music concerts, relax in coffee shops, and quietly discuss art. Struggling in psychological discomfort, he might even demand that his college provide a “whites only” theme house where he could feel safe.

Are we not fighting biology? To speak the unspeakable, is it wise to try and “fix” the black family if it is anchored in genetics? Is it prudent policy to bribe people with preferences, quotas, and similar “gifts” if they can’t do what the gifts require? If you give a klutz expensive golf clubs and a country club membership and insist that he become a top-flight golfer, he won’t thank you; he will resent you.

No doubt, the pathological burdens that come from white generosity help explain the sudden popularity of “systemic racism,” which is another way of saying, “We are not to blame. Blackness is not bad. It’s your fault.” This reverses the diagnosis of black pathology. Blacks need racial preferences, handouts, and all the rest because whites are defective. This was the predictable reaction after decades of being told, often indirectly, that blackness is defective. The patient is now the doctor, and it is whites who need to be cured.