Obama is Making an Honest Conversation About Race LESS Likely

President Obama injected race into the acquittal of George Zimmerman despite a year-long FBI investigation that found not a shred of evidence of racial animus, and despite the jury finding Zimmerman not-guilty at all. And President Obama has asked his Attorney General, Eric Holder, to see if he can reopen the investigation that it was a hate crime.This is a political witch hunt reminiscent of the Salem witch trials.



Obama used as evidence of non-Blacks being unfair to Blacks that, for example, a woman might hold her breath and her purse tight when in an elevator with a young Black male. Well, fact is, she--whether white, Black, or of any background--has more reason to worry than if, for example, she were in an elevator with an old, Asian, woman. It is indisputable that young, Black males, especially in low-income areas, commit a disproportionate percentage of the violent crime.



In every other context, we not only accept but extol people for making reasonable inferences based on the inevitably limited information available. For example, any good physician deems a patient healthy based on limited data and a probabilistic assessment that ordering more tests is unwise. Indeed, a physician that tested everything to 100% certainty would legitimately be accused of overtreating and even lose his or her license to practice medicine.



Yet when a woman gets nervous in a low-income, high-crime area upon seeing a young Black male, President Obama denies her even the right to hold her breath and her purse more tightly. Note, we're not talking here about something serious, for example, unfairly denying someone admission to college. Indeed, the opposite is true there. Blacks are admitted to colleges with grades and test scores that would result in whites or Asians being rejected. What Obama is demanding is that we not even think the truth--that young Black males are far more likely commit violent crime than are other groups. We can't even hold our breath.



Mr. Obama's statements and policies and those of Attorney General Holder, newly appointed Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, etc., reflect a core belief in "redistributive justice," institutional racism," and "Disparate Impact" theory. which requires, for example, employers to spend a fortune on customized statistical data before using a test of thinking ability as a criterion for hiring employees, because it would result in fewer non-Asian minorities to be hired. Of course, the result is that most employers will forgo using a measure of thinking ability in hiring. Somehow, the Obama Administration believes the nation is better if proportionate percentages of races are hired even if employers are severely disincented from testing what often is the most important attribute in a employee: thinking ability.



All this will only make race relations more difficult, an honest conversation about race impossible, and most important, accelerate America's descent into becoming just another struggling nation.



I sent a draft of this to three people I respect, of different political persuasions. They all agreed that it's a worthy essay but two warned me that lesser lights will somehow find a way to call it "racist." I certainly hope not. That is the last thing I want to be.