Opinion
The Segregationist Practices Of Prospective Week
By David J. Hemmer | April 11, 1996Next week the Class of 2000 will visit en-masse, descending on the College with innocent faces and maps in hand.
David J. Hemmer
Arts
D'Souza '83 discusses the nature of racism
By David J. Hemmer | October 10, 1995Dinesh D'Souza's '83 controversial new book, "The End of Racism" gives a comprehensive discussion that includes a wide assortment of intriguing ideas regarding the nature of racism in modern day America and throughout history. In an exhaustively researched and clearly laid out presentation, D'Souza traces the historical development of racism to the present day, arguing convincingly that it is rarely a product of ignorance and fear as often charged, but instead the result of a rational, scientific attempt to reconcile observed differences between groups. D'Souza elaborates on the difference between racism, which is based on a presumption of biological inferiority, and ethnocentrism, which is between cultures, not necessarily racially based and presumes no biological inferiority. Contrary to popular claims, D'Souza argues that racism is not a universal part of human nature, that it had a clearly marked beginning and thus there is hope for its end. It is in his consideration of the origin and correct interpretation of racism that D'Souza excels, debunking many of the myths espoused by what he sees as a Civil Rights establishment afraid to admit that racism has largely vanished from American society because it would leave them with no job and no cause to fight for. Unfortunately some his ideas and refreshing perspectives are bogged down by poor organization and a lack of a coherent thesis. D'Souza's purported goal in the book is to argue that the enormous decay in the black community in America can not longer be blamed on racism by whites or on lingering effects of slavery, and that the blacks must take responsibility for their community. But far too much of the book is dedicated to a discussion of cultural relativism, an idea that D'Souza spends considerable time bemoaning but little time rebutting. Much of the text is a meandering trip through a series of ideas that, while all related to race and racism, give the reader little indication as to the author's goal. And in the last chapter, with the reader hopeful that D'Souza will attempt to pull together his monumental research effort into some sort of defining statement, he comes out of nowhere with a proposal that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 should be repealed in favor of a system that calls for a completely "color blind" government and a legalization of discrimination in the private sector. In this culminating chapter D'Souza argues that people do not have a basic right not to be discriminated against.