The civil rights movement stopped the progress of the Blacks

 Recently the New York Time had an article "Why Did Racial Progress Stall in America?" in which the effects of the civil rights movement on the progress of Black people was discussed. The conclusion was sobering: In terms of material well-being, Black Americans were moving toward parity with white Americans well before the victories of the civil rights era. What’s more, after the passage of civil rights legislation, those trends toward racial parity slowed, stopped and even reversed.

The authors - who also wrote a book about the subject - seemed puzzled by it. For me it is a logical effect of polarization. As long as everything was quiet people tended to see Blacks just like everyone else. There was no reason to see them different.

Then came the unrest. Not only Martin Luther King, but also more radical Black leaders who claimed that Black were different and who didn't sound very friendly. There was also a lot of news about Black protests that weren't always that peaceful. That changed the picture for many White people. Sure, there might be some points in the Black arguments. But at the same time it was no longer possible to the Blacks as just another human being who just happened to have another skin. And when a situation becomes us-versus-them the default human reaction is to side with your own tribe.

That is also the reason why I find the present "sensitivity" campaigns against blackface, Confederate statues and other symbols so foolish. Study the 1500s and 1600s and you find stories about Catholics persecuting Protestants and burning them alive. Yet nowadays no Protestant will object against Catholic symbols for that reason. And that mutual tolerance was achieved without a phase of hypersensitivity. One day there may become a consensus that some people from the past don't deserve a monument or that some customs put some groups in a bad light. Nothing wrong with that.

But the present campaigns assume that things will also work in the other direction: that the more sensitivity you spread the more racism will decrease. But people are very good at detecting fakes. They can feel the difference between people who are really hurt by something and troublemakers who just feign indignation because they hope that it will lead to some desirable result. Such troublemakers mainly evoke resentment. Problem is that they may fool themselves to believe that they are sincere.

It is seductive to believe that the emancipation of women and blacks can follow the same pattern. But women and men are closely connected so the potential for polarization is limited. And once it became the norm for women to have a career they could when they grew up access the same cultural capital as their brothers. For Blacks there is a much bigger gap to cross.

We all know the studies that show that Blacks are underrepresented in certain professions - specially at the top. But a remedy is hard to find. Sometimes people can serve as role models. But when that becomes the main argument one will soon see counterarguments arising about quality.

Everyone has prejudices. The Implicit Association Test is a famous tool to prove that. But the best you can do is becoming aware of them and using your conscious mind to question them. Seeing a bunch of violent Black protesters or having a meeting with an aggressive Black person will teach the subconscious part of the brains of people such prejudices and are thus to be avoided.

Fighting racism is simple: just avoid and punish the excesses. Be aware that you too have prejudices and counter them. Most important: behave as if equality is normal. Sure, things will take time. But polarization is mainly counterproductive.