But I haven't labelled him that way. In fact, I didn't even mention Charles Murray in the article. I don't think his book is a "racist screed." I don't have any interest in labelling him a racist or not a racist. I think the key issue here is just an unquestioned embrace of the idea that there is even such a thing as race, that can be discerned by looking at skin. But Murray has made the case that these differences are genetic. Or at least very strongly implied it. Even in his interview with Coleman.

And while Murray says any number of hilariously out of touch and/or boneheaded things in that interview (yes, I'd already listened to it), one of the comments I found especially telling is the part where he talks about "wanting to defend the proposition that America is not systemically racist (https://youtu.be/wCJFr6zB2NM)." Here, I think, we see Murray's problem. He has a conclusion, that he is determined to defend, and works backwards from there.

But what if America is systemically racist? At least to a degree. What if, less than 60 years after America was unabashedly and legally racist, bias and prejudice still linger within the cultural and legal fabric of America? Does this really seem far-fetched to any reasonable person? Especially when that racist era lasted for centuries?

I'm not arguing that there aren't cultural reasons for racial disparities. Not at all. I've even written about them a few times. But even the reasons behind those cultural issues are complex. The impact of racism is nuanced. And frustratingly invisible to people, like Murray, who can say with a straight face that we need to "get back" to the time where Americans were treated without regard to their race, colour or creed.

There is no "getting back" to that period for black people. Because it only ever existed for white people.

The point in time where everyone is treated without regard to their race, colour or creed is (hopefully) in the future. I think some of the recent attempts to get there are incredibly wrongheaded and can only make matters worse. Which is why I’ve criticised them. But that's not at all to say that things were fine before people started attacking “whiteness.”