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The ideological distortion that the world is suffering due to the new progressive positions of segregation has produced a new type of racism in our societies, one that is supposedly based on “good intentions,” also known as “positive discrimination.”
For a few months now, as a result of the massive demonstrations by Black Lives Matter, this discrimination phenomenon has been radicalizing, but it is not new. The differentiated treatment of the so-called “minorities” in the United States has been occurring for years, but far from avoiding the discrimination of a certain part of society, what it does is to label them as socially handicapped in order to obtain “benefits.”
A couple of days ago Agence France Press covered the news that Joe Biden had appointed retired Army General Lloyd Austin as secretary of defense, but the headline was reflected in a tweet with a distinctive racial connotation: “Biden names Black General Lloyd Austin as head of the Pentagon”; in the face of an avalanche of criticism the publication received, they were forced to delete it in order to publish it again, this time without the label “Black.”
And no, the people of AFP weren’t saying it to discriminate against an Army General, they said it to exalt Biden’s inclusive policy towards the Black community. But it wasn’t just AFP; other agencies, such as EFE, also saw this type of accusation, as if his choice depended on the color of his skin, and not on the merits, experience, and preparation that Mr. Austin has had throughout his life.
The issue, that people’s racial traits, origins, or even sexual preference are promoted before their merits has been evolving to the point in which it now seems that individual’s achievements are the least important thing. It is their sign of segregation, that they can put the handicapped label for social benefit. Thus, for example, Senator Kamala Harris went from being the Indian American candidate in previous electoral contests, to being the “first Black candidate for vice president,” because today the label of “Black” sells better, the progressive world considers that it has more power than that of “Indian American.”
It is for all these reasons that today we encounter in most Western press publications that speak of this “Black,” or that “pan-sexual-homosexual-transgender,” before finding references based on the merit of the individual in question about whom they are writing about or that they are trying to introduce us to.
In this sense, the Progressive bias has been ruining the system of incentives that every society needs to evolve, granting promotions, educational and work positions, not according to merit, but by an infamous distribution of labels. For example, one Washington district school determined that Asian students could no longer be labeled as “students of color,” thus no longer being considered minorities; the reason for this is that Asians, in percentage terms, outperform Black and Latinos among other “minority groups,” so they no longer deserve the label of oppressed that progressives hand out to manage benefits.
These type of behaviors, media biases, and government policies, are not only harmful to the development of a society, but are also terribly bigoted. To praise a Black person just because he or she is Black, to give him or her a job or a privileged position, just because of the color of his or her skin, is tremendously racist, it is to say indirectly that the preferential incentives he or she receives are due to his or her inferior condition. I am not Black, but I am very clear that Blacks are not at all inferior to whites, Latinos or Asians, and that, in fact, the great majority of Blacks have physical qualities far above people of other races, so why should they be classified as oppressed?
If people believe in a level playing field, we must immediately end this atrocious system of segregation based on race and sexual preference, a homosexual is no less than a heterosexual, just as a Black is no less intelligent than a white, in that sense, there is no reason to give them “privileges” of any kind. Good men and women are good men and women regardless of their race, religion, beliefs, or sexual preferences; just as men and women with criminal behavior and a lack of values do not stop being bad people just because they are homosexual or from some “protected minority” category.
The world cannot continue in this constant drift of stupidity. We must all have the right to point out a person who behaves badly regardless of whether he is Black or white, there is no reason to refrain from pointing out an individual who breaks the rules because he is from a “discriminated population,” or said without euphemisms, that he is not white; in the same way that we must all recognize talent and good intentions regardless of external conditions to the work being done.
Michael Jordan, Barack Obama, Ray Charles, Morgan Freeman, Oprah Winfrey did not achieve what they did because they were black, they achieved it by standing out in their different professions and being leaders, even role models in their specific areas of performance.
If we continue with the totalitarian and stupid slide of equalizing men by force, we will end up destroying our own civilization. Today the companies on the Nasdaq Global Select Market are expected to appoint at least 2 “diverse” directors within 4 years. The question is, where does all this go? Are they also going to say that the NBA should equalize the number of whites, Blacks, Latinos and Asians in the league? Should the professional basketball league be punished for having more than 70 percent of Black players? Or can we simply enjoy the sport by admitting and celebrating Black preeminence in this case?
Blacks do not need a victim’s label, nor do they need Progressive leverage to achieve their life goals, nor do Asians or Latinos; what all human beings need and is fundamental is respect and equality before the law. The day that racial, sexual, and religious labels cease to prevail, then we will have made some progress.
Don’t be racist, don’t impose favorable or unfavorable criteria because of the color of people’s skin! Positive discrimination is still discrimination.
Emmanuel Rincón is a lawyer, writer, novelist and essayist. He has won several international literary awards. He is Editor-at-large at El American // Emmanuel Rincón es abogado, escritor, novelista y ensayista. Ganador de diversos premios literarios internacionales. Es editor-at-large en El American