One Color of Altruism

At RealClear Politics is a John Stossel editorial to the effect that the popular notion of "white privilege" is getting in the way of the advancement of blacks in America. He is mostly dead-on, although there is a greater underlying point I wish he would have made.

Stossel based much of the column on a recent interview with Shelby Steele, author of Content of Our Character and a new book, White Guilt. Two of Steele's points in particular stand out. I think they reinforce one another. These appear in boldface below.

Steele says too many blacks and whites are stuck in the old conversation, as though it was 1950. And he thinks there are questionable motives for this on both sides: "If we can get a big discussion going about what white privilege is, we never have to look at what blacks themselves are doing. And black responsibility. How are we contributing to our own problems? How are we holding ourselves back? Why don't our children do better in school than they do?"

Whites' preoccupation with guilt and compensation such as affirmative action is actually a subtle form of racism, Steele says. "One of the things that is clear about white privilege, and so many of the arguments for diversity that pretend to be compensatory, is that they advantage whites. They make the argument that whites can solve [black people's] problems. ... The problem with that is ... you reinforce white supremacy all over again. And black dependency."

This is very close to hitting the nail on the head -- except that I am not so sure that racism is as much the problem as altruism, the moral code that holds each man exists for the sake of helping others.

Yes. It is patronizing on the part of some whites that they feel blacks "need" them to solve their problems and it can even be racist, in the sense that perhaps many whites do not believe that blacks have "what it takes" to succeed in a capitalist society. But how, exactly, is having one's money confiscated for the sake of welfare programs to alleviate black poverty an "advantage"? How is having one's opportunities for academic scholarships limited by racial quotas an "advantage"? And, with the Democrats in charge again, the question arises: How will having to pay reparations be an "advantage"?

To a racist, there is the comforting notion, I am sure, that one "knows" that blacks are inferior because they "need" these things, but I don't see this being the dominant problem anymore, if it ever was. Most whites would agree, I think, that blacks "need" help because they have had a raw deal and need a hand getting back on their feet. This notion, too, is antiquated, but it serves a psychological need for the altruist: The need for moral sanction. What does an altruist see as good? Helping others. And what do so many racially-motivated government programs purport to do? Supporting these programs allows one to feel good -- without having to do or think about very much. This last is very important to Steele's first point.

Altruism is fundamentally at odds with man's life on earth because it cannot be practiced consistently without fatal results. The fact that anyone is alive is direct evidence that he has consumed food, worn clothes, or taken shelter that someone else could have used. As such, altruism is the breeding ground for hypocrisy and guilt. Toss a few coins at a beggar or pull the lever for the poverty pimp at election time and then forget about it. You've done your good deed for the day. I suspect that guilt keeps many from looking too closely at the actual effects of such programs as affirmative action. Altruism is a morality that encourages people not to think about morality.

And the recipients? That's the easy part. Steele mostly nails the effects of altruism. Furthermore, altruism tells them they're entitled to what they get. And since these programs destroy personal initiative, there will always be blacks who "need" them.

Most perniciously, the programs we would all be better off dismantling subvert the genuine good will many whites feel towards blacks, not to mention the justice that the civil rights movement could once legitimately claim.

And what was that justice? The notion that the government should protect the right of every individual to do the best he can through the exercise of his own rationality. We all lose -- as individuals-- under government programs that force us to take race into account. Yes. Affirmative action does harm blacks. But the real travesty is that it harms everyone. It is this last fact that the morality of altruism, by causing Mr. Stossel to focus on just blacks, has caused him to miss.

Altruist-collectivist thinking -- of which white guilt is only one variety -- hurts everybody.

--CAV