LET US LIVE WITHOUT HARMING! THE SAME RIGHTS AND NO PRIVILEGES FOR ALL RACES/ETHNICITIES

Being non-racist, ethnicist, xenophobic, or ultranationalist implies not giving any privilege to any race or ethnicity over another. For example, it means not favoring whites over blacks, but also not favoring blacks over whites, as some “woke” extremists of Marxist heritage intend. Because an injustice is never solved with another injustice, but with justice.

Read THE ART OF LIVING WITHOUT HARMING: Let us not fall into extreme wokeism

For this reason, it is not advisable to go from one extreme to the other, as has happened in the United States. In the South of that country, after the abolition of slavery, Black people remained subjugated to plantations through a fraudulent system of debts from which they were never freed, and later to a segregationist regime under Jim Crow laws.

Furthermore, although they legally had the right to vote, in practice, white people used tricks to prevent them, as well as a system of terror to relegate them to second-class citizens through various forms of violence, especially lynching. In fact, they were even forbidden from looking white people in the face and had to step aside when they passed on the street, among other rules degrading to the dignity of Black people. Looking at a white woman or standing out and generating envy could end in lynching.

Well, there has been a shift from that extreme to the other: giving privileges to Black people for university admission over whites and Asians.

The former is just as unjust as racial/ethnic quotas in educational centers or other types of organizations and companies. It is deeply anti-meritocratic and discriminatory to require Asian-Americans to have much higher admission scores than African-Americans or Hispanics, leaving many brilliant students, professors, and researchers of Asian ethnicities—who are better prepared academically than some from different ethnicities who are given the spots—out of prestigious universities.

Whoever wants to choose their favorite career at their preferred university should study hard in school.

Some defend so-called positive discrimination (which is actually negative and unfair to those who deserved a spot and are left without it) based on the argument that we must fight inequality and give more representation to ethnicities that are underrepresented in certain fields.

But if we want to equalize, the fair thing is to do so in the values that lead to the effort that results in success, and not just in the latter. The most effective way is to teach all students in schools that study, work, continuous improvement, giving one’s best, innovation, saving, and using those savings in profitable investments, as well as entrepreneurship, are what lead to economic and social progress. That is the true button that activates the social elevator, rather than taking away rights from some to give privileges to others, which harms and aggrieves the former.

It is the average differences in this modus operandi between different ethnicities and races that result in different average socio-economic-cultural levels among them, even though they all started from the same starting line.

For example, in the United States, Asian-Americans and Jews have the highest average per capita income levels, higher than whites and much higher than Latinos and especially Black people. The key fact is that the first two ethnicities usually started in that country from scratch, with nothing to their name.

The majority of Jews were poor and marginalized inhabitants of shtetls (ghetto villages in Poland and other areas of Eastern Europe belonging to the former Russian Empire) who had to flee with only what they were wearing from various pogroms or, later, escaped the Nazi threat or survived the Holocaust after their properties had been confiscated.

As for Asians, the majority were poor Chinese who emigrated in the 19th century to work on the construction of the railroad network, earning very little and facing discrimination.

Despite their disadvantaged beginnings, they progressed significantly on average because they have a culture that values education, work, saving, and business.

Even whites, despite enjoying privileges over other races, largely descended from landless European peasants who started in America from scratch. Or, to be more accurate, many of them started from less than zero, as they were so poor they didn’t even have money to pay for their passage from Europe. Therefore, in exchange for it, they had to work for free as “indentured servants” during the first few years.

In summary, the different ethnic groups have begun their journey in the USA more or less from the same starting point (zero or less than zero), and if some have progressed more, it is because they have worked harder, educated themselves more, saved and invested more, and innovated more.

The sun has been rising for everyone, and opportunities have been there for everyone. What happens is that some have made more of an effort to seize them than others.

Some justify privileges for Black people because they were victimized by whites in the past. And the same happens with other groups. When there is an abuse, reparation is appropriate, but it must be carried out by the aggressor and their accomplices, and never by other innocent people.

At the governmental level, it is appropriate to make historical reparations through memorials, museums, monuments… read more at…

LET US REPAIR THE DAMAGE!: Historical damage as well

However, current generations are not responsible for the outrages committed by our ancestors. Each person is responsible for the acts they commit themselves or the minors under their legal guardianship, but for nothing else, and therefore should not pay for the misdeeds of others.

Consequently, it is only fair that the same rights exist for any individual regardless of their racial, ethnic, or national origin, and no privilege for anyone, because every perk given to some is at the cost of taking away rights from others. And that is a way of harming them. And remember: LET US HARM NO ONE! Let us always be fair and egalitarian in rights, which is different from being egalitarian in economic terms.

THE REVOLUTION OF LIVING WITHOUT HARMING: Let us be egalitarian in rights, though not in wealth

Furthermore, as a general rule, it is not advisable to give importance to race, ethnicity, or national origin, just as we do not give it to the color of a sweater or the material of shoelaces, but rather focus on the individual.

Belonging to a collective can be relevant when there is a level of abuse, practices, or undesirable traits within it that is much higher than in other communities. For example, being a member of a radicalized fundamentalist mosque may imply a much higher risk of terrorism or gender-based violence than in a community of Buddhists. Or belonging to a traditional Romani clan may involve a probability of theft, squatting, and other dishonesties much higher than that of a circle of Japanese or Swedes.

But the important thing is always the individual and not their race or origins.

And in any case, let us be upright with our judgments: let us make an honest judgment for each collective, if we wish, but always a fair judgment for each individual, which does not necessarily correspond to that of the collective to which they belong. Therefore, it is not upright to either exclude or grant anything to anyone a priori based on their ethnicity, but rather to do so on an individual basis based on rational facts that justify that exclusion or concession.

Thank you for sharing if you believe this article contributes to a more just society.