As a former diversity officer and professor at a university, I once asked the black-student union if their goal was to become obsolete in the near future. While most of the students didn’t understand the question, the group’s de facto leader stated that the group would continue to exist even if racism went away. This question now occupies my mind more than ever, as seemingly permanent organizations and protocols are being created that suggest racism is here to stay.
The traditional discourse about civil rights has focused on ending racial discrimination once and for all. However, the apparent goal of contemporary anti-racism activism is not to end racism, but to perpetuate it. If an activist group has no intention of ever becoming obsolete, it is not an activist group but a special-interest group, and a dishonest one at that.
As a member of Free Black Thought, an organization that celebrates viewpoint diversity within the black collective, I believe that race essentialism is a problem that needs to be solved. If we ever succeed in bringing about a world where people are judged individually and not by their membership in a particular racial group, our mission would be outdated. Free Black Thought wouldn’t fold, necessarily; but our mission would have to change.
Other organizations dealing with race relations, such as the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, seem to have a false telos of racial harmony. The director of the center, Ibram X. Kendi, has written that he wants the United States government to pass a constitutional amendment to establish and permanently fund the Department of Anti-racism. This department’s precarious nature could easily have it functioning in perpetuity, and in order to justify its perpetuation, one would need to perpetuate racism.
The rise of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) positions in colleges, corporations, and other institutions also suggests a problematic dependence on racism. If one’s livelihood consists of fighting racism, wouldn’t the perpetuation of racism be the very thing putting food on the table? While missions can change, maintaining vigilance could be a new mission. However, maintaining an anti-racist society would get pretty boring without racism. To show they are not expendable, DEI officers may be incentivized to “find” racism, but what happens when there is no racism to be found?
All people in such positions should aim toward a sacrificial telos, which would eventually deem those positions unnecessary. If your main goal as a DEI officer is not to render your job obsolete as soon as possible, you are enacting the very definition of a grift.
