The Elephant In The Room: Dysfunctional Inner-City Culture — Not ‘Systematic Racism’ — Is Hindering Black Progress, New Book Says

New York Times bestselling author Heather Mac Donald argues in a new book released Tuesday that the Left’s obsession with equity is jeopardizing scientific progress, destroying public order, and poisoning the appreciation of art and culture.

Mac Donald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor at City Journal, released “When Race Trumps Merit: How the Pursuit of Equity Sacrifices Excellence, Destroys Beauty, and Threatens Lives,” through DW Books on Tuesday. The book makes the case that the new policies applied in the name of so-called disparate impact have only served to harm those they were put in place to help. 

“The reality remains that a dysfunctional inner-city culture is hindering black progress,” Mac Donald writes. “That culture belittles academic achievement as ‘acting white.’ America turns its eyes away from this pathological culture and blames itself for phantom racism. We pretend that the reason for the lack of proportional representation in institution after institution is racist measures of achievement rather than vast academic and behavioral gaps.” 

In response to alleged racism, Mac Donald says that society has created condescending and lethal double standards of accomplishment and behavior that help no one.

“As a remedy for this alleged racism, we create double standards of accomplishment and behavior. But double standards help no one. They are condescending, and they are lethal,” she writes. 

The book argues that disparities in representation throughout scientific labs and the academy is not due to systematic racism but academic skill gaps. Mac Donald says that instead of addressing the root causes of this problem, the Left has turned to pushing equity. 

In turn, Mac Donald says this push for equity has serious implications for the fields of science, law, and culture. In science, racial quotas are substituted for meritocracy, putting future scientific discovery in jeopardy, Mac Donald explains. She also says that colorblind enforcement of the law is labeled racist, undoing years of progress in reducing crime in urban areas. In culture, imagination and creativity are tossed aside in favor of a bland emphasis on equitable representation. 

Mac Donald is also the author of the books “The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe” and “The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture.”