THE UNSPOKEN RIGHT

I heard a commentator on television the other day argue in favor of affirmative action (AA) on the basis that it is needed to remedy past racial discriminations in our country, and that it is an effective way of doing so. Those are the classic pro-AA positions and while I disagree with both of them...I think education is the best way to lessen the frequency of racial, sexual, religious or any other form of discrimination, and that AA programs may actually promote discrimination...those are not the arguments I wish to make here.

I would like to reply to the commentator from a different standpoint...one I have never heard voiced before (not saying it hasn't been made, just that I have never heard it):

We each have a right to be racist.

I have a right to prefer vanilla or chocolate, to hang out only with members of a certain race, to invite to my home only members of certain national origin, to marry only a member of a certain religion. And, yes, I have a right to hire only members of a certain ethnic group to work for my company, and to use any other illogical, irrational basis for hiring that I wish.

Years ago, a certain very well known company hired only, or virtually only, African Americans. Many called the company racist, and it was. But I also argued that it had a right to be racist, to run its business as it wished. That is what freedom is all about. ..your right to live your life as you choose provided you do not initiate force against others and restrain their right to live their lives as they choose.

I am a member of a minority that has been persecuted throughout history. To their credit, my tribesmen never thought, nor sought, to fight their way out of persecution by way of further persecutions (by way of denying freedom) or prosecutions. They thought instead to enhance their worth as human beings, as students, as workers, in the hope that others would use that worth as the basis of their decisions. Some of the others have, some haven't. That is their freedom.

It is the government, not individuals, that may not discriminate. We are all equal under the law and justice requires that we be treated that way. Favoritism for or against any group by the government, whatever its noble motives may be, is prohibited. But I, and you, are free to be as picky and choosey as we want, no matter how ignominious and uneducated that might be.

It no doubt sounds strange to most, but arguing for the right to be racist is actually a call for freedom.