I enthusiastically support Glenn Loury’s Substack. He often discusses race issues with John McWhorter. Glenn invited questions for their upcoming question and answer session. Here is my question. I hope they have time to address it on their Q & A:
Here’s a hypothetical for the two of you.
Assume that God visits the United States next Tuesday. After sizing things up, God performs a miracle. He/She/They decide to make it impossible for anyone to know the “race” of anyone else. There are no longer any physical or historical ways to determine the “race” of any people you meet. Two questions: What % of people would like this new world? What % would be distressed because they no longer have a quick proxy for judging the character of others? I suspect that some people doing DEI work will get upset because they will lose their jobs. Some people will get busy trying to determine new immutable characteristics upon which to judge the characteristics of other people—perhaps astrology and phrenology theories will again flourish. In the midst of all this panic, distress and commotion of this non-racial reckoning, the news media reports that someone (race unknown) murders 15 people (race unknown). Many people watching the news reports don’t know whether to give a shit in the absence of “racial” information.
This one is easy. Many people appear to have a need to feel superior to someone. It was blacks, then Jews, then gays, then Republicans, then smokers, a slight deviation into the obese, now it’s the unvaccinated. I predict the next group will be left-handed Lutheran bisexual bowling team captains.
Also, see Asch’s research on conformity.