Anti-racism protests have engulfed the West. What started as a legitimate protest about police violence in the US soon morphed into a general challenge to perceived ubiquitous racism across the Western world. It has proved enormously influential in shaping the public debate and prompted reflective introspection where most white people seem to see the ugly face of racism staring back at them. But as so often is the trouble with populism, this popular movement is much better at pointing to the symptoms than correctly diagnosing the problem and coming up with the right solution.
The symptoms are clear. In the US, black people are much more likely to be in jail and suffer higher unemployment rates and lower incomes than people of other ethnic backgrounds. And of course, though the vast majority of victims of police killings are white, black people are killed in proportionally higher numbers. And as protests have multiplied, the narrative has been accepted: the cause of racial disparities in outcomes is racism. But while the symptom is inequalities of outcomes between racial groups, the problem is not institutional racism. Racism is neither a defining characteristic of Western democracies nor an ubiquitous obstacle to black people fulfilling their dreams. Racism has, as so many other ‘isms’, become a patsy, a convenient explanation of inequalities of outcome that absolves the individual from personal responsibility for their shortfalls and provides politicians with a cause to champion in return for votes. The true problem is one of inequality of opportunity, not of outcome. Too often, black kids grow up in blighted communities characterised by high crime rates, single motherhood, unemployment, relative poverty and drug and alcohol abuse. Struggling to extricate themselves, it is all too easy to understand why youngsters are susceptible to the narrative that the reason for the state of their community and any of their own shortcomings is an outside force, an injustice perpetrated by an enemy of their people – racists. But it is much more complicated than that.
Take the justice system. The question the campaigners should attempt to answer is not why black people are more likely to be in jail or be targeted by stop-and-search. That is because they are much more likely to be criminals. Policing is crime led, not race led (that is not to say that there are no racists police officers). The right question to ask is ‘why are black people more likely to be criminals?’ Similarly, the accusation that education is institutionally racist is nonsense. Academia is saturated with the same left wing intellectuals who often champion the anti-racism cause and especially higher education has done much to advance the chances of people of BAME backgrounds like pursuing affirmative action policies.
There are many reasons why black kids are presented with less opportunities than white people. One is single parenthood, usually single motherhood. Almost 75% of African American families are headed by a single parent. Children of single parents are unsurprisingly twice as likely to be living in relative poverty and much less likely to do well in school. This is a bad start to life. US research suggests children from single-parent homes are twice as likely to be arrested. Undoubtedly, the welfare state bears a large part of the responsibility for the prevalence of single parenthood. In 1960, before the massive expansion of welfare programmes made single parenthood economically viable, less than a 5th of black children were raised in single parent families. Of course, the fact that 3-5% of the black male population is in prison at any one time amplifies the tendency to the father being absent. And since the vast majority of black inmates are serving time for drugs related offences, the US’s draconian drugs laws bear a significant part of the blame for black kids’ lack of opportunities (more on the counterproductive War on Drugs here).
Since unemployment is higher among black people than other ethnicities, black kids are also much more likely to grow up in households with no working parent. This of course means no working role model to emulate and lower than average household income. Again, the welfare state is culpable. Again, kids from such backgrounds tend to do badly as school – whether due to lack of support or lack of motivation. Once they reach adulthood, a life on welfare is notoriously hard to break out of as means tested benefits act as powerful counterincentives – this phenomenon is known as the ‘welfare trap’ – setting in motion a vicious circle of inter-generational welfare dependency. The welfare system holds back those who are trapped in it and disproportionally, those people are black. So why did black people get trapped in welfare in the first place? There is an argument that the history of slavery, Jim Crow laws etc. has at least contributed to the current problem. But that is only true in the US. In Britain, people of Indian origin have significantly higher incomes than ethnic white. There is no reason why black people should not be able to emulate Indians. If the problem is not one of racism but of lack of resources, the solution is to increase social mobility. But according to US research, 95% of the constituents of the bottom quintile of the income distribution have moved up the income rankings 16 years later. Social mobility is a fact, but not if you’re unemployed and trapped on welfare.
It is clear that the debate about racial inequalities of outcome is much more complicated than just blaming it all on white supremacy or ‘white privilege’. The protesters are marching for the right cause but towards the wrong goals. Toppling statues and cancelling old TV shows is unlikely to make any difference whatsoever to the opportunities of black kids. What is much more likely to make a difference is encouraging the ‘nuclear family’ of two parents and their children, building a dynamic, meritocratic economy and emboldening people to accept responsibility for their own life. That means dismantling the state sponsored cronyism, rent seeking and clientelism that protects real privileges and prevents ‘creative destruction’; it means rolling back the paternalistic welfare state and releasing the power of free enterprise and capitalism, which has been the single most powerful force in advancing opportunity to the poor and underprivileged.
Racism exists. It shouldn’t, but it does. But fortunately attitudes are changing. In Britain, just over 10% of people believe ethnicity is an important determining factor in being British. That is down from 20% in 2012. But while racism is receding, the real factors which cause the inequalities of opportunity that blight black communities go unaddressed. Black communities are best placed to solve their own problems, but the welfare state, with its paternalism and clientelism, is encouraging behaviours that damage those it is designed to help. This is where we should focus if we want to create a dynamic, prosperous economy for all citizens, irrespective of colour or creed. Unfortunately, that is far from the minds of the protesters.