Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Modern Day Racism

I twittered a pointer to a story about "Buy Black", and noted that it is just racism under a different label. Twitter is not a very good outlet for really discussing something, though.

I think the key question here is, "should business ownership diversity match the diversity of the population?"

If you answer "yes", then we need to fix these inequities, too:
  • overrepresentation of Mexican ownership of Mexican restaurants
  • too many Chinese-owned Chinese restaurants
  • way too many asian-owned dry cleaners
  • what's with all the Jewish diamond merchants? Get whitey in there!
I could keep going, but I hope you see my point. Why must business ownership match? Aren't you being racist by only buying from a black-owned business?

Now, granted. I can see supporting black ownership if there is something truly keeping them "down". But I would counter that Obama blows apart the notion of blacks being held back by "The Man". Hell... a black guy is The Man.

If you want to fix an inequity, then your time could be used to fight against the glass ceiling endured by women.

(and before anybody comments: yes, I use "black" just like I'm "white"; most Americans were born in the US and have nothing to do with Africa)