The Grift That Keeps on Grifting

The cause is an end unto itself

Activism: the work of perpetuating a cause for the self-enrichment and political power of those involved. Any change in or resolution of the stated problem is purely accidental.

This definition does not appear in any dictionary, but it is far more accurate than any that do. The term is typically defined as an effort or practice designed to bring about a change in some issue, be it economic, political, or social. But if resolution was the goal, one could name at least a few groups that achieved their goal. Can anybody think of a couple that put themselves out of business?

The professor knew what he was talking about when he said, “Find a cause and you will have a job for life.” This real quote from a real person reveals the malicious truth of the activist enterprise. There is no incentive in fixing the stated problem; there is quite a bit of incentive in perpetuating a problem or the appearance of one.

Time magazine puts this reality into stark relief in a collection of essays, interviews, and stories bundled under the headline of Five Years Later: America Looks for a Way Forward After George Floyd. A way forward from what? It’s as if nothing happened regarding race relations before that day. An outsider might be surprised to learn that the country is approaching the 61^st anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, which made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, sex, and other immutable characteristics.

Activists, however, were undaunted and creative. They and a lot of people who should know better figured out ways of turning the problem into the solution, with the side benefit of extending the grift. Never mind that affirmative action and DEI are still discrimination based on immutable characteristics, no different in application than Jim Crow was, other than who benefits and who does not. But it is apparently okay to discriminate so long as it is done under a suitable name. After all, affirmative is a good thing, right? And who but a fascist or a bigot would be against inclusion?

In a 60 Minutes interview years ago, actor Morgan Freeman said it would help if people were to stop injecting race into every conversation, especially those where it has no place. The starting point is to quit taking seriously attempts to use race as the default excuse for every time that a minority has a bad experience. Not getting the job, losing out on a promotion, being denied a loan, and receiving bad service are among a thousand ordinary things that happen every day to all people, not just the brown and black ones. What excuse do the rest of us have when something does not go our way?

When everything is evidence of racism or white supremacy (which should be a drinking game if it is not already), then nothing is. Both terms wind up trivialized from overuse. It is not racism when a black player with a famous father drops several rounds in the NFL draft, not when the top overall pick is black and the league itself has been majority black for years. It is not racist to point out that disproportionate prison populations stem from disproportionate crime rates. And it is not racism when a minority politician or candidate is criticized.

What is racist is to imply that minorities should be judged by lower standards than their white counterparts. I keep wondering when, or if, there will come a groundswell of opposition from black people who are tired of being condescended to and treated like mascots by white saviors. But thus far, any pushback is limited to a select few who are often attacked for daring to call out what’s happening. If the goal is equality or equity, then there must be consistent and uniform standards in place.

That stupidly simple idea of one standard is now the subject of a DoJ investigation. A county attorney in Minnesota told prosecutors to use race as a consideration in drawing up plea deals. In a memo, Mary Moriarty informed staff that “The purpose of this policy is to achieve safe, equitable, and just outcomes that center the healing of victims.” I have no idea what a safe outcome is, but prosecutors putting criminals ahead of victims is not new, and how this helps anyone heal is unexplained. I somehow doubt that any victim will spend time contemplating an offender’s race in trying to reclaim their life.

Lest there be any misunderstanding, George Floyd should not have died that day. But that does not make him a martyr, nor does it whitewash the months of rioting that followed on the faulty premise that killing black civilians is as common to cops as eating donuts. This premise does not stem from an honest mistake, a bad assumption, or confusing data. It is built on a narrative that is reinforced in news stories like this and this that fixate on “a leading cause of death” or “the sixth leading cause.”

Few media outlets want to touch the leading cause, which is homicide, usually at the hands of other young black men. There is no gold for the activist who tells a community that its biggest problems are self-created. There is no glory for the activist who says that progress means laying down the crutch and standing up under one’s own power. And there is no activism itself in rejecting the victim mentality.

The strength of the anti-cop narrative was revealed in this study of young Americans. When asked how many unarmed black men had been killed by cops in a given year, answers ranged from 100 to 10,000. The real figure was 11. Eleven. The same result is echoed in every empirical measure that has been done, whether it involves a study or just a database. Time may have a point regarding a ‘way forward,’ but the magazine is either confused or obstinate about forward from what.

The magazine went to great lengths to racialize as much of life as space and reader attention spans allow. It ignored how dramatically the country has changed just in my lifetime. I started school at the dawn of segregation in George Wallace’s Alabama with classmates whose parents lived the ‘colored only’ experience. To pretend nothing has changed since then is to spit on the memories of people who endured real hostility, not the sort of pearl-clutching issues that pass today for injustice.

On this front, Time has much in common with the activist. The perception of a problem creates the foundation for a special issue. Other media will follow suit, as typically happens on anniversary years that end in a 5 or 0. No one will point out that public schools continue to fail black youths. No one will mention policies that make things worse for the law-abiding in minority communities. And no one will dare touch the cultural dysfunction that has birthed a million YouTube videos.