How to Be a Non-Racist

“Non-racism, thus understood, implies colorblindness, not in the sense of literally not seeing skin color, but in the sense of treating it as insignificant.”

According to Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, “There’s no such thing as ‘not racist.’” In his opinion, “We are either being racist or antiracist.” This view has a surprisingly large number of subscribers. But once we recognize it for what it is—a false binary based on common misconceptions about racial disparities—it becomes clear that it is, in fact, perfectly possible to be a non-racist in today’s society.

Indeed, given the social divisiveness of racial identity politics, it is imperative that we adopt such a stance. When the actor Morgan Freeman was asked how racism could be eradicated, he famously replied: “Stop talking about it. I’m gonna stop calling you a white man. And I’m gonna ask you to stop calling me black man.” In other words, the sooner we begin to judge people by “the content of their character”—to borrow Martin Luther King Jr.’s phrase—rather than their race, the better.

Kendi’s approach, which aligns itself with Critical Race Theory, is diametrically opposed to Freeman’s non-racism. It can be summed up as follows: There are racial disparities in society, ergo “systemic racism.” As Thomas Sowell, Coleman Hughes, and others have repeatedly shown, however, this is a fallacy. Disparate outcomes do not imply disparate treatment. Absent legal discrimination, other factors—such as cultural differences—appear to play a much greater role.

Kendi and others like him, however, presume that racial outcome disparities are evidence of racism. Assuming equity to be the default state of human society, they rule out the possibility that unequal group outcomes may be due to internal factors (such as skills, attitudes, and behaviors), rather than external treatment (such as racial discrimination). Even worse, they point to historical racial injustices and conclude that racially discriminating against white people will restore equilibrium and serve “social justice.” But two wrongs do not make a right. In fact, this approach seems more like a recipe for perpetual racial conflict. To quote Kendi: “The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”