The Merit System (Malik Speaking)
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We had affirmative action for white men for 350 years. Now, all of a sudden, everybody is talking about merit. Why?

It's because the old social contract among white people has been broken. For a long time, the deal was that rich whites got their privileges over everybody else, but the average white person was privileged over blacks. That contact was broken by an increase in the political power of black people working with their white allies. It can never be restored.

The new talk is about merit, because that's how many whites hope to hold on to their gains. But, again, a merit system is only fair AFTER we undo the harm done by a long history of injustice.

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