By Paul
Mirengoff I Powerline
I had hoped that the idiotic left-wing outrage at Attorney General
Sessions’ use of the term “Anglo-American law enforcement” would dissipate
without making it into mainstream discussion. The fact that former President
Obama has referred to the Anglo-American nature of our justice system seemed to
support my hope.
No such luck. This morning, I
heard NPR pretend there is a legitimate racism story here. So did ABC News and the New York Daily News. (To its credit, the
Washington Post countered by trying in two stories to set the record straight).
Accordingly, I must reluctantly
agree with Charles Cooke’s take on this pseudo-controversy:
“We’re screwed.”
We’re screwed as a polity if we must
pretend that our system of law isn’t what it actually is — Anglo-American —
lest we be accused of racism.
We’re screwed if we must pretend
that black students in public schools are suspended and otherwise disciplined
at a disproportionately high rate
(including by black teachers) mainly because of their race rather than
because of their behavior and, underlying that behavior, their upbringing
and family structure. And if we must therefore relax disciplinary standards. Lest we be accused
of racism.
We’re screwed if we apply the same
kind of fiction to adult criminals and
redefine what’s a crime and what’s a proper criminal sentence in an attempt to
create racially equal outcomes in our (until now Anglo-American) justice
system. Lest we be accused of racism.
We’re screwed if we must pretend
that personal and cultural “identity” are irrevocably tied to skin
color, and have this doctrine taught to our children as a matter of fact. Lest
we be accused of racism.
Nations with a relatively robust
sense of reality usually outstrip, and often dominate, nations that lack this
sense. Every nation indulges in fictions,
but the fewer the better, especially when they carry significant policy
implications — explicit or implied.
As the world becomes “smaller” and
as we face more and more competition, the risk associated with pretending
things becomes more acute. And the risk of adopting positions because they
don’t offend rather than because they are true becomes too great to assume.
