Tag: racism

Episode 57: Thaddeus Russell on the Launch of Renegade University

Thaddeus Russell comes back to the show to talk about his upcoming project called Renegade University.  RU will be a combination of online lectures, readings and interactive seminars based on his book A Renegade History of the United States and an attitude of individualism and free inquiry.

We also talked about where Thaddeus sees renegades today and how culture changes over time so that black market activities become legal and accepted. We cover his upcoming book that deals with US interventionism abroad and the blowback that ensued, as well as the vastness of pop culture influence, along with what he thinks is wrong with modern universities and current protests over racism and diversity.

Check out more about Thaddeus and the Renegade University at thaddeusrussell.com

This episode sponsored by Praxis and the Foundation for Economic Education.

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Three Types of Racism

  1. Scientific Racism: “Some races are biologically inferior and should therefore be treated differently.”
  2. Cultural Racism: “Some races are culturally inferior and should therefore be made to adapt to the superior culture.”
  3. Institutional Racism: “Some institutions have bad incentives that attract scientific and cultural racists and enable them to act on their racism without fear of bad consequences.”

All three forms of racism exist.  I think the first two statements above are false, while the third is true.

Those who believe in either of the first two are not likely to change easily, and almost never through direct argument.  A steady drip of experience could potentially affect them, and more likely a generational change.

The third type of racism is the kind that can be meaningfully alleviated by ignoring, defying, or innovating around the bad institutions.  When the bad institutions are undermined the first two forms of racism tend to shrivel and go into hiding.  The existence of bad institutions protects and perpetuates racist beliefs and actions.

In the long term, markets do not reward racism.  Free association does not perpetuate it.  It is for this reason that racists everywhere are always forced to go to violent state institutions to codify racism in the face of market pressure in the opposite direction.  When the market isn’t racist enough, the law is invoked.

You can justifiably scream about people’s horrible beliefs, but until you alter the incentives they face the outcomes are unlikely to change.