Racism - Ayn Rand

(Originally written July 20, 2006 in Book 3)

Racism
Ayn Rand

"Racism is the lowest, most crudely form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social, or political significance to a man's genetic lineage - the notion that a man's intellectual and characterological traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry" (Rand, 126).

Racism claims that man's convictions, values and character are formed by physical forces outside of his control, prior to birth.

Racism invalidates man's ration faculty.

Racism negates man's reason and choice, replacing them with chemical predestination.

There is no such thing as a racial or collective mind. There is no such thing as a collective racial achievement.

Individual can only have minds and are capable of achievement.

Culture is the sum of intellectual achievements of individual men.

Racism has one root - the racist's sense of his own inferiority.

Racism, like all other forms of collectivism, is a quest for the unearned.

Racism is more prevalent in persons who have no achievements of their own.

"Observe the hysterical intensity of the Southern Racists; observe that racism is much more prevalent among the poor white trash than among their intellectual betters" (Rand, 128).

Linehan - ironically, this statement is the 'high-minded' racism employed by pompous, self-ascribed intellectuals to denounce the 'low-minded' racism. If man is an individual as Rand claims, then his racism is his own individual racism. The fact that it is more prevalent among 'poor white trash' than their 'intellectual betters' demands that men are collective by nature. Now, I do believe that it is obvious that a lack of education is a breeding ground for racism, but education does not make all people who are educated 'intellectual betters'. High-minded racism is as low as low-minded racism. Both are a scourge.

"There is only one antidote to racism: the philosophy of individualism and its politico-economic corollary, laissez-faire capitalism" (Rand, 129).

Capitalism is the only system capable of penalizing all forms of irrationality, including racism.

The more free a society is (the more laissez-faire capitalistic it is) the less racism there is.