John Stossel: "Chris Rock Has It Wrong"

An interesting column by John Stossel--

Complaints about racism still dominate press discussion of the disparity between black and white success. Comedian Chris Rock tells white audiences, "None of ya would change places with me! And I'm rich! That's how good it is to be white!"

I assumed that the success of Barack Obama, as well as thousands of other black Americans and dark-skinned immigrants — many of whom thrive despite language problems — demonstrates that America today is largely a colorblind meritocracy.

But a white campus lecturer, Tim Wise, gets tremendous applause from students by saying things like, "[W]hite supremacy and privilege continue to skew opportunities hundreds of years after they were set in place" and in America, "meritocracy is as close to a lie as you can come."

His message is in demand — he is invited to more than 80 speaking engagements a year.

But a black writer, Shelby Steele, argues that whites do blacks no favors wringing their hands about white privilege.

"I grew up in segregation," Mr. Steele told me. "So I really know what racism is. I went to [a] segregated school. I bow to no one in my knowledge of racism, which is one of the reasons why I say white privilege is not a problem."

Mr. Steele claims, "the real problem is black irresponsibility. ... Racism is about 18th on a list of problems that black America faces."

Whites' preoccupation with guilt and compensation such as affirmative action is actually a subtle form of racism, writes Mr. Steele in his book, "White Guilt." "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. ... And black dependency.

"White privilege is a disingenuous idea," he adds. In fact, now there is "minority privilege."

Stossel concludes:

There is black privilege — and white privilege. It's time to stop complaining about past discrimination and to treat people as individuals, not as members of a certain race.

I agree. It's time to treat people as individuals.

Unfortunately, too many people have an interest in not allowing that to happen.

Divisiveness works.