We are a nation of immigrants; that we can state without a doubt. The question of assimilating—yet still respecting—so many cultures, languages, religions, and histories has always been a challenge.

We must recognize, however, that one significant component of America’s population did not come here willingly in pursuit of a better life: those who were forcibly brought here as slaves during the early years of our nation. The descendants of these slaves, who were dehumanized and brutalized in order to control them, still walk among us today, and this original sin of America’s founding is one we have spent the past 248 years struggling to overcome.

Many of the laws that were adopted to speed racial reconciliation were resisted, and it is worth remembering that only 60 years ago a two-month Senate filibuster nearly derailed the landmark Civil Rights Act that was eventually signed by President Lyndon Johnson and, with the stroke of a pen, voided laws that racially discriminated (or had a discriminatory effect) regarding voting rights, education, employment, and interstate commerce while establishing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 

This one federal action was, of course, not a magical solution to the problem of racial discrimination in America, and years of court battles to enforce its provisions were to follow, but a horrid legacy of laws was erased and new opportunities for dignity and advancement were thereafter available to all citizens, which was a cause for celebration. 

Those Americans who fought for the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act would certainly be amazed by the progress we have made today, although the wounds of the past have not yet completely healed and idiotic racial bigotries still exist today among a few irredeemable idiots. Nonetheless, the incredible, mind-boggling, and laudable steps America has made toward equal rights for all (and it must be noted to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 guaranteed rights for women as well) should be neither ignored nor denigrated. We must, however, today ask ourselves why, in a nation as diverse and open-minded as ours, is the color of one’s skin seemingly still such a divisive and difficult issue? 

The short answer is politicians and provocateurs simply cannot resist stirring up hatred and division in the quest for political and financial gain.

Leaders throughout history have mastered a shortcut for winning new followers: induce fear and offer protections. If you look at the rhetoric of most individuals anxiously angling for elective office here in America going back to the founding of our nation, this formula features prominently. Sometimes the fears are legitimate, but often they are imaginary or amplified, and whether they are real or not has surprisingly little to do with whether they provide successful paths to power.

We are seeing this dynamic today whenever the flag of “white supremacy” or “institutional racism” is waved to rally the unwary. The business (and it truly is a business) of convincing many People of Color that the deck is stacked against them at every turn has provided lucrative, long-term careers for a great many elected officials, non-profit administrators, government contractors, media personalities, social media influencers, academic theorists, classroom educators, movie and television actors, and assorted beneficiaries of programs designed to counteract the supposedly pervasive bigotries putting the health and safety of black and brown Americans at risk. These fears justify all manner of expensive and extensive race-based preferential programs that have, over the past few decades, greatly irritated those who thought they were buying into a color-blind nation—not one where unending grievances (and soothing cash allotments to the perpetually aggrieved) would become the norm.

The escalating pushback against affirmative action programs does not indicate that America is being taken over by racists. We are instead seeing an increasing frustration being expressed by those who want race to be a non-factor—rather than a defining characteristic that provides opportunities for preferential treatment and cash payments. As the Supreme Court ruled in 2023, it was unfair and unjust to decide to discriminate against highly qualified Asian students, who are apparently considered white enough to punish, when it came to college admissions. The continuing push to pay slavery reparations to today’s Black Americans, who have never been enslaved, and Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ proposal to offer $20,000 “forgivable” loans to Black entrepreneurs thrill those who are convinced an implacable infrastructure of racism still exists in America, but the reality is that a majority of Americans find such ideas both repugnant and insulting.

The resistance to the ongoing push to distribute race-based goodies is not, as much as many Liberals might dearly wish it to be, a symptom of White Supremacy that permeates the very air we breath. Even toddlers are disturbed when one child gets two pieces of candy and another gets only one—or none at all. The Biden-Harris administration’s “forgiveness” of millions upon millions of higher education loans, which boils down to transferring the costs to those who never attended college, has nothing to do with race and everything to do with a perception that a chosen few are being favored at the expense of others. Why a student loan should be erased but a rent payment or car loan should not has never been explained in any reasonable manner, except that it provides a vote-winning handout to those who now fear their expensive degrees in Art History or Sociology were a grievous financial blunder—that everyone else must pay off for them.

The many Liberals who continue to defend race-based preferences justify themselves by claiming to provide protections that are still necessary due to the shadow of bigotry that they believe still hangs over all of America. The stubbornly weak academic outcomes of Black and Brown students versus those of White and Asian students is routinely explained away by the racism mysteriously baked into the very bricks of our nation’s public school systems.

Speaking as a former high school teacher, I can guarantee there are no secret meetings being held in a hidden faculty lounge where finding new ways to keep minority students illiterate is the main topic of conversation; it is quite the opposite, in fact. Continuing disparities in educational outcomes have very little to do with schools trying to harm Children of Color and very much to do with dysfunctional families, regressive community norms, and drug and alcohol usage that leads to unstable households and chaotic childhoods. Bigotry is not the problem; it is simply one of self-immolation that is cheered on by those Liberals who foolishly believe that celebrating single parenthood, promiscuous behavior, and stupid choices is supportive rather than destructive.

Leaders who continue to push the myth that racism explains all the problems that harm the lives of minority groups in America are impeding the self-examination and self-awareness that must occur if the cycle of impoverished and wasted Black and Brown lives in America is to be ended. This is, by the way, equally true for that portion of White Americans who embrace ignorance and violence, but these misguided millions are typically ignored by those supposedly caring Liberals who believe they are worthless “Deplorables” who deserve the pain and degradation of their lives because, should they vote at all, they are likely voting for Donald Trump. His acknowledgement and recognition of their suffering gives them hope they have not been entirely forgotten in the race to globalize away their jobs and turn their lives into a punch line for smug elitists, but this reality escapes those who push propaganda for profit and see racism lurking everywhere.

The hatred that permeates our country today is being spewed by Leftists who find criticism impossible to endure—and lash out. How many times, for example, have we been told that Americans are racists because we are dismayed that hundreds of thousands of immigrants—many of whom are instantly being granted cash, housing, clothing, food, cell phones, and driver’s licenses—are granted Temporary Protected Status before being secretly dumped into cities across America by the Biden-Harris administration with no consideration for the wishes of the residents? 

Are Americans bigoted because we are terrified by news stories detailing takeovers of neighborhoods by Venezuelan gang members who were allowed to enter our country illegally? Are we heartless because we demand deportations when we hear of women being raped and murdered by individuals who should never have been allowed into America? Watching citizens who recently lost everything in Hurricanes Helene and Milton being offered a measly $750 apiece, is it a surprise that many believe that those who break our immigration laws are being handed the whole bag of candy—while hardworking Americans are being left with only the discarded wrappers?

The problems facing our nation and people are complex and cannot be solved by demagogues who gain power and prestige by sorting us by our melatonin content while sowing discontent. The color of our skins—like our speech, our dress, our posture, our hairstyles, and our facial expressions—is a characteristic that describes us but does not define us. However, as long as a substantial portion of our country continues to vote for leaders who assume that we are a hateful people living in a hateful country with a hateful history—and the cure is more government handouts and unfair preferential treatment given to those who may or may not being willing to act responsibly and work hard—we will continue to spiral down toward a national catastrophe that is now close at hand but, hopefully, is not yet inevitable. 

Achievement is directly related to the sweat on one’s brow and, as the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. pointed out, the content of one’s character. Success for any individual is not guaranteed, and hard knocks and disappointments are a part of everyone’s lives—no government program can change that. However, the grit, heart, and determination that carries us through the rough patches can only occur if we discard the paranoia and fear that are the tools of the race hustlers who cash in by victimizing us all with their siren song of hatred and division.