RUTHFULLY YOURS

A Rubicon has been crossed in American political discourse. Long purveyors of Marxism, the nation’s leftists have now come to fully embrace something else; racism. Just in the last week in the areas of medicine, education, and journalism, well-intentioned institutional racists have insisted — as is increasingly their habit — that skin color is and must be the defining element of our public policies.

There is no issue more important to the future and soul of our nation right now than the leftist bigotry threatening the very concept of what it means to be an American.

On the medical side, Dr. Harald Schmidt, a supposed expert on ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania, told the New York Times that essential workers, not the elderly, should be the first to receive COVID-19 vaccines. His reason? “Older populations are whiter,” he told the publication. “Society is structured in a way that enables them to live longer. Instead of giving additional health benefits to those who already had more of them, we can start to level the playing field a bit.”

To be clear, the term “level the playing field” here means allowing people to die because of the color of their skin.

What’s amazing about this is that just months ago to even question the efficacy of lockdowns meant to stop the spread of COVID-19 was met with accusations that one was killing grandma. Now, it doesn’t matter because grandma is probably white.

Nothing, it seems, is more important than protecting the lives of the oldest among us, except for fighting racism. The great irony of course is that the lockdowns themselves have disproportionately destroyed minority-owned businesses. Yet, for the Marxists on the radical left, this doesn’t matter. They don’t fight racism by giving people tools to lift themselves up, they purport to do it by making people dependent on the state.

Next, in outrageous racism infecting our educational system, this week, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio announced sweeping changes to the way in the city’s top public schools consider applicants in an attempt to diversify, or as some unhinged proponents of his plan put it, “desegregate” these schools. Essentially, admissions will focus less on grades and more on skin color.

The dirty little secret of his proposal is that it is Asian students, not white students, who dominate admissions to these schools and who will bear the brunt of de Blasio’s abject racism.

There is also a further deeply condescending and racist aspect of this approach. It simply accepts that there is nothing we can do to help black and brown students achieve except put our thumb on the scale. De Blasio and his racist allies like School Chancellor Richard Carranza would argue that systems of white supremacy are responsible for the achievement gaps, but if so, how do they explain the success of Asian students, and why are they being punished?

Finally, from the wonderful world of journalism, we have an argument from two authors at Harvard’s Nieman Lab that suggests reporting on crime is racist:

It’s racist, classist, fear-based clickbait masking as journalism. It creates lasting harm for the communities that newsrooms are supposed to serve. And because it so rarely meets the public’s needs, it’s almost never newsworthy, despite what Grizzled Gary in his coffee-stained shirt says from his perch at the copy desk.

Here we see a classic example of progressive white racism tinged with deadly paternalism. What’s the real problem with crime? Is it that murders are skyrocketing across America, with the victims disproportionately black and brown? No, discussing that makes white progressives uncomfortable. Indeed, they would much rather indulge absurd fantasies about “defund the police” initiatives lowering crime than actually try to save lives in minority communities. And now, they don’t even think the media should report on those deaths.

This sort of racism will get people killed. If reporters simply ignore crimes in minority areas for fear of being racist — including the murders of children — the problem will persist. More kids of color will have their lives snuffed out but understand, that is the price we have to pay for white progressives to feel good about themselves.

All three of these examples of dangerous racism occurred in one week. One week. All stem from the pernicious concept of critical race theory, a demonstrably racist set of ideas Democrats want to drill into the heads of all-white government employees except, apparently, Joe Biden, who to my knowledge has never undergone this vital training (strange, given that his own Vice President-elect has openly called him a racist).

There is no more important fight for conservatives today than battling the racism of the American left. And as is often the case with effective battle plans this one is quite simple. We must call for people not to be judged or treated differently solely on the basis of the color of their skin. That shouldn’t be a controversial concept, but it is.

Let’s be clear, this isn’t an academic or ephemeral disagreement between the left and the right. It is an existential fight against abject racism. It is a fight we must not only engage in but embrace. The very future of our nation depends on it.