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Every single day someone of prominence on
the left—a politician, a cable news host,

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an entertainment figure—accuses someone
on the right of being a racist.

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Here are typical examples:

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MSNBC host Chris Matthews said this: “The
age of Jim Crow managed to find a new habitat

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in the… 21st-century Republican Party."

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Comedian Seth Meyers told his late-night audience
that Republicans traffic “in open racism.”

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Tennessee state representative London Lamar,
a black woman, announced that the entire state

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of Tennessee is “racist. Period.”

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This was just after she was elected… in
Tennessee!

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The left calling the right racist isn’t
new.

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It’s been going on for decades.

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Republican Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald
Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush, his son,

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George W. Bush were all accused of being racists.

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And, of course, from the left’s perspective,
“racist” is essentially Donald Trump’s middle name.

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To call someone a racist is a very serious
charge.

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A racist is a person who believes that one
race is inherently superior or inferior to another.

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It’s not intelligence, character or values
that determine an individual’s worth;

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it’s his or her skin color.

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To say that racism is foolish and stupid—not
to mention evil—is to understate the case.

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But according to most Democrats, Republicans
are that stupid and that evil.

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So, let’s examine some conservative policies
to see if they are, indeed, racist.

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If they are, then the left has a valid complaint.

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And if they’re not, then the left is lying.

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The longstanding conservative opposition to
Affirmative Action is a good place to start.

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It was Democratic president John F. Kennedy
who, in 1961, first used the term “affirmative action.”

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But Affirmative Action in the way we think
of it now wasn’t implemented until 1970,

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during the administration of a Republican
president, Richard Nixon.

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The theory was that, because of historical
discrimination, blacks were at a competitive

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disadvantage to other races and ethnicities.

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To erase that disadvantage, standards that
most blacks presumably couldn’t meet

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had to be lowered.

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One could make the case that this policy had
some utility when it was first put in place.

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But that was a long time ago.

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The conservative position is that blacks have
repeatedly proven they can compete with anyone

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without the benefits of lower standards.

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There are countless examples of black success
in every field, at every level.

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The policy is no longer necessary.

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But the conservative argument goes further.

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Study after study shows that, in the case
of college admissions, affirmative action

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hurts more blacks than it helps.

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By lowering admissions standards for blacks
(and some other minority students), colleges

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set many of these students up for failure.

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They get placed in schools for which they
are not prepared.

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And high black dropout rates confirm this
view.

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How could it be otherwise?

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If academically unprepared white students
were admitted to Ivy League schools,

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they, too, would be set up to fail.

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Conservatives believe blacks and other minorities
are every bit as capable as whites of succeeding

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as engineers, surgeons, policemen, businessmen,
lawyers, and college students.

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And therefore, lowering standards for blacks
is unnecessary as well as insulting.

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Yet for this belief, conservatives are called
racist.

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The irony, of course, is that those who accuse
conservatives of being racist believe blacks

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and other minorities are not as capable as
whites of succeeding and therefore still need

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affirmative action—almost a half-century
after it was first implemented.

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Let’s look at another issue where this contrast
between conservatives and those who accuse

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them of being racist is even more starkly
drawn: voter ID.

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Conservatives say America should require every
voter to present an ID when voting, just as

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European countries do to help keep their elections
honest.

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Are all these democracies racist?

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Of course not.

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Yet the accusers say that conservatives who
support voter ID are racist.

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Why do they say this?

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Because, they argue, it’s really a ruse
to prevent blacks and other minorities from

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voting since many of them just aren’t capable
of acquiring an ID.

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Can you get more condescending than that?

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Let’s be real.

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You need an ID to drive, to fly, to buy a
beer, even to purchase some cold medicines.

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Whites can do it, but blacks can’t?

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Tell me again who the racists are?

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One more example: it’s conservatives who
push for school choice, which would allow

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all parents, not just wealthy ones, to decide
where their children attend school.

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Tuition vouchers, charter schools—these
are conservative initiatives.

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Those on the left fight these reforms at every
turn.

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It’s the left that doesn’t trust minority
parents to select an appropriate school for

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their children.

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Why aren’t the people who keep black children
in failing schools the racists?

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At some point, maybe you’ll start asking
yourself, like I did: Who’s really obsessed

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with race?

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The left or the right?

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And whose policies really hurt blacks?

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Maybe it’s not who you think it is.

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I’m Derryck Green of Project 21 for Prager
University.