On Race in America

There are a million opinions on race in America. In the Virginia blogosphere today are perhaps two of the most well written and compelling pieces of writing on the subject in the past year. If you read nothing else on the question this month, read these.

Vivian J. Paige on Geraldine Ferraro.

As for this election, for the very first time, black women matter. Early on, black women supported Hillary Clinton, some of them, no doubt, because she was a woman. Slowly but surely, through boneheaded missteps of this campaign, she has lost this important voter group. I suspect in many minds it was a pretty easy transition to make. Because, you see, I think black women think of themselves as black first - and women second. It is hard for us to see the injustices of being female when we are whacked over the head daily for being black.

The United States of Jamerica on Affirmative Action.

Affirmative action in - employment and college admissions - is essentially a (so far successful) attempt to use the principle of homophyly against itself. Its an attempt to both use the principle of homophyly to get more minorities into higher positions without the help of a government program (black people will be more willing to promote another black person) and a long-term effort to nullify racial homophyly by expanding everyone’s circle of inclusion beyond race, so that people literally don’t think about racial categories in hiring or education, but equal representation is maintained.

It is days like today that I am proud to be both a blogger, and a Virginian.