Happy New Year!

The simplest analogy here is a race. If you and I were to have a race, whoever wins is the best man and everything's fine. If I want to do better, I train harder and that translates to faster times. There are limits which exist simply because our bodies are different, but that's life. The competition is fair.

The problem is, black people up until sixty years ago, were forced to race in shackles. The lane they ran in was filled with obstacles and weeds when nobody else's was. Yes, those obstacles have been mostly (though not entirely) removed. The shackles certainly have been. But when shackles that you've been wearing for a long time are removed, the place where they were still hurts. If they were on for long enough, there'll be sores.

There is nothing patronising about black people asking for ointment for those sores. Even if the racers who weren't shackled don't get it. There is nothing wrong with black people asking for their lane to be properly maintained, even if the other racers don't need that maintenance because there were never any obstacles in the first place.

The analogy is getting a bit tortured 😅 but hopefully you see the point I’m making. If you disadvantage somebody for a long time, and then say, "okay, we’ll stop now, stop complaining," you end up with a situation that isn’t based on merit.

My problem with "solutions" like those posed by the Governor of Oregon, is that they don't actually fix the issues that see some black people lagging behind. They simply say, "Don't worry, we'll just let you qualify for the next round even though your times were slower." Or, "Don't worry, we'll just force everybody else to run a little bit more slowly." They presuppose black people are where they are because this is the best they can do, rather than recognising the factors that caused the disparities.

This is patronising.

Meritocracy is when everybody gets to have a fair race on a level playing field and the best person wins. This is as it should be. The point is making the race fair.