Why Eliminating Meritocracy Is a Racist Idea
Equity is another name for the tyranny and bigotry of low expectations
The Left has made a subtle and sinister change in the language over the past couple of years.
Everything used to be about equality. Equality of opportunity is something we fought decades for in the civil rights movement. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin and prohibited discrimination in public accommodations and federally funded programs.
This is outdated thinking for the Left. It’s more important to have equity than equality. There’s a big difference when you remove make small changes to the spelling. It shifts from equality of opportunity to equality of outcome which goes against everything America stands for because it has roots in Marxism. Equity is about everyone ending up in the same place than starting in the same place.
The Left makes a weak connection that any difference in outcome is the result of some kind of racism. It’s only a problem when results go in one direction. If minorities get better outcomes than White people, it isn’t a problem and there’s no discussion of equity to even the results. Equity is tearing down one group’s achievement and hard work in favor of groups who didn’t do as well.
One of the worst ideas to come from the Left that relates to equity is eliminating AP courses. If you want to weaken America to fall behind the rest of the world in math and science, that’s the best way to do it. Lowering standards and eliminating opportunities for educational achievement is the best way to a dumber, but more equitable country.
Equity is tearing down one group’s achievement and hard work in favor of groups who didn’t do as well.
Education departments in left-wing areas are considering eliminating AP classes to achieve equity. Our betters in power who can make these stupid decisions think it’s because of racism that more White and Asian students are in these classes than Black and Latino. They think it’s better to eliminate the classes instead of finding ways to get more minority students in.
That approach is lazy and racist. Educators don’t want to do the work to improve minority chances to get in the classes. It’s racist to think minorities are too stupid to get in and excel in them. By getting rid of the classes, you are telling students, “You aren’t good enough to do this.” It tells students racism is the reason they can’t in and there’s nothing you can do about it.
The social justice warriors fighting to eliminate AP classes don’t care about the minority students who are excelling in that environment. They are penalizing minority students for the lack of results from others in their racial group. How is that fair or equitable? That’s what happens when you view life through the lens of group and racial identity instead of viewing people as individuals.
The irony of getting rid of these classes is lost on the people attempting to do it. Educators at the highest levels no doubt took and excelled in AP classes. Minority administrators and professors put in hard work to get to where they are now. They earned their positions and didn’t let the fact that there weren’t many people who had similar skin color in their classes slow them down.
Meritocracy has been called systemically racist, along with everything else they can come up with, by the Left. Are professional sports leagues racist in sports where Black players far outnumber White players? When will LeBron James say the NBA is systemically racist? James got to his level through hard work, not through equity programs.
It tells students racism is the reason they can’t in and there’s nothing you can do about it.
If we abandon the concept of meritocracy in our institutions, what are we left with? How do you decide who gets into what college or who gets the promotion? Everything becomes subjective and up to the whims of who the Left thinks is the victim at the moment. The most recent example of changing victimhood is women. Trans-women are now more important than women because the Left wants born biological males competing against them in sports.
Do we really want to live in a world where achievement is thrown out the window for equity to benefit arbitrary groups whenever we feel like it? It’s never fair to punish an entire group for the lack of results from others. Everyone deserves the same opportunity, but assuring equal outcomes is as un-American as it gets.