Discrimination, civil rights and questions of individual liberty have become increasingly frequent topics in the news since the oratorical blunders of Rand Paul, the US Senate hopeful from Kentucky. In short, Paul says private businesses have a right to discriminate against people based on any reason they desire, even race. Dr. Walter E. Williams, an established economist and nationally syndicated columnist, actually supports Paul’s idea. Ironically, Williams is an African American; however, those who are familiar with his work aren’t surprised he backed Paul.
In Williams’s most recent book, Liberty versus the Tyranny of Socialism: Controversial Essays, the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and chairman of the economics department at George Mason University discusses the basic concepts that connect liberty with the free market. Most of Williams’s topics deal with free market systems versus government intervention. Although he doesn’t consider himself a libertarian, from my perspective he does support positions that many of us libertarians believe. He has also been a staunch advocate for asserting the importance of education and private school vouchers for African Americans, even suggesting that the public school system is “a fraud against African-American students and families by lowered standards.” He also believes that African Americans place too much importance on the impact of slavery and racism in respect to the problems they currently confront.
Thus, it shouldn’t strike one as odd that he has stated that he believes that in a free society people should have the right to discriminate by gender, race or any “other attribute.”
In an article published this month, Williams said, “Should people have the right to discriminate by race, sex, religion and other attributes? In a free society, I say yes. Let’s look at it. When I was selecting a marriage partner, I systematically discriminated against white women, Asian women and women of other ethnicities that I found less preferable. The Nation of Islam discriminates against white members. The Aryan Brotherhood discriminates against having black members. The Ku Klux Klan discriminates against having Catholic and Jewish members. The NFL discriminates against hiring female quarterbacks. The NAACP National Board of Directors, at least according to the photo on their Web page, has no white members.”
As an individual, I respect Williams’s right to articulate his locution with respect to his understanding of Title II of the 1964 Civil Rights Act; however, he must also recognize the feculent impact that such a bland hypothesis may have on individuals without the luxury of doctorate degrees such as he and me. It borders on tyranny — although, it’s true that “one does not have to be a racist to recognize that the federal government has no constitutional authority to prohibit racial or any other kind of discrimination by private parties.” The concern is that if the responsibility isn’t left up to the government to protect all citizens, then minority populations, as in the times of Jim Crow and the Black Codes, will just be subjugated to the hatred and mob mentality that racist attitudes and actions generate.
