The upcoming ruling by the US Supreme Court on racial preferences is certain to ignite yet another divisive debate about whether or not a person’s ethnic heritage should determine their treatment by the state and major institutions. After steady progress towards “race-blind” governance, the notion of equal treatment is disappearing in a frenzy of ethnic self-assertion and white guilt.

The new racialized politics sunders the basis for liberal societies, essentially diminishing the value of merit and hard work. …

Race-centrism has become the modern equivalent of Catholic dogma, once a requirement at church-run colleges. Now some legal and medical establishments routinely publish pledges in support of an omnipresent DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) agenda. DEI-related courses are now required of all students at the State University of New York; job applicants at Ohio State’s engineering school must sign a pledge to promote the progressive race agenda. A recent AEI study found that in a survey of 999 jobs, “19 percent require diversity statements, while 68 percent include the terms ‘diversity’ or ‘diverse’ in some fashion, often as a way of describing the university environment.”

[At least Catholic dogma offers space for repentance and redemption. Dogmas based on ethnic grievance cannot do the same, definitionally, since immutable characteristics never change. This is bigotry by other means, and nothing more. — Ed]