Source:George Washington Forum– Professor Thomas Leonard, giving a lecture about race in the Progressive Era.
“Thomas C. Leonard is Research Scholar in the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University and Lecturer in the Department of Economics, which has twice awarded him the Richard D. Quandt Prize for outstanding teaching. His book, Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics and American Economics in the Progressive Era (2016), won the 2017 Joseph J. Spengler Best Book Prize from the History of Economics Society. This event receives support from the Jack Miller Center through a grant from the Thomas W. Smith Foundation.”
From the George Washington Forum
As a Liberal as an American, but more importantly as a person and I would hope that all people feel this way, but unfortunately thats not the case, I believe all forms of racism is bad. No matter who’s it directed at and what race. Just as there’s no such thing as a good from of slavery or evil, there’s no such thing as a good form of racism.
As someone who’s a proud product of a very diverse high school (Bethesda Chevy Chase) where literally the whole world is represented there and still is and someone who went to diverse schools my whole educational career and who met and experienced people of different races growing up, including befriending them and still knowing some of these friends today, I got to know people of different ethnicity’s and races early on. And learned on my own that they are just people, you know who happened to look different then from people of my ethnicity and race. And then once you establish that, you learn that they are people and you can treat as such and not differently.
As opposed to someone who grew up in a segregated area and didn’t meet and was unaware of people of different ethnic and racial backgrounds growing up. Perhaps grows up with parents and grandparents with bigoted attitudes growing up. And once they finally are around different people, perhaps in college or when they are working. Don’t know how to act around them.
Now I’ll admit as a Caucasian-American man my experience at feeling racism towards me is pretty limited, mostly in the form of humor. And most of that bad humor has been directed at my German heritage. So mostly about my ethnicity not race. And a lot of those jokes have been German ethnic stereotypes. Still bad but not things like ethnic slurs.
Racism is bad, whether its coming from the Far-Right or Far-Left and whatever race its directed at. Conservatives get accused of racism especially towards minorities all the time. But they don’t own a monopoly on it, even though it clearly exists and has been well documented.
But racism also comes from the Far-Left and a lot of times in the form of humor. Directed at Caucasians, jews and in some cases Asians. And generally directed at men and I believe even though they would describe it as being race conscience.
The Far-Left in America also tend to be more likely I believe, to identify ones race in describing someone. Instead of their hair color or outfit, physical build, etc.
To me any Dr. Martin Luther King who I consider the Leader and hero of the civil rights movement and with his I have a Dream Speech of 1963 laid down the vision of civil rights and equal rights, because of the famous and most important line,:”I have a dream that one day my children would be judged by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin.”
MLK’s “I Have a Dream” is the most important thing ever said in the civil rights movement, because that laid down the vision of what that movement was all about: that all Americans would be treated by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin. That all racism was evil and needs to be defeated.
All racism is bad and should be treated for the evil that it is. If all people just remember the MLK I have a Dream Speech and just treat people as people, judge them by their character and not race or ethnicity, then Dr King’s dream will become a reality and America will live up to what it represents as a land of equal opportunity for all not for a special few.
I can’t think of anything more regressive and illiberal than racism, regardless of who it’s targeted at and who is doing the targeting. And real Progressive or Liberal (and progressive and liberal doesn’t mean the same thing) hates racism and bigotry regardless of who it’s targeted at. Just because someone calls themself a Progressive or Liberal, doesn’t automatically make that person a Progressive or Liberal. You have to live up to progressive values to be a Progressive and liberal values to be a Liberal, like racial and ethnic tolerance, not bigotry.
The Daily Times 