Harvard study suggests Ibram X. Kendi is wrong about racial progress

By Jack Elbaum of The Washington Examiner.

"The argument that America, and Americans, are irredeemably racist just took a significant blow.

Earlier this year, a working paper from Harvard Business School that was written by three scholars at the University of California, Berkeley, Harvard, and the University of Washington looked into the effect of Yelp making the "race of a set of Black business owners salient to customers" — in other words, labeling certain businesses as "black-owned." 

The results? They found that “this feature substantially increased demand for Black-owned businesses — in the form of more calls to the restaurant, more delivery orders, and — using cell phone data from a different platform — more in person visits to the restaurant.”

This is quite interesting, as I have been reliably informed by some of our leading voices on race that the United States is one of the most racist places in the world. Author of How to Be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi, wrote that in all the research he has done, he has not seen a "singular historical force arriving at a postracial America” (as in, he does not believe there has been any racial progress). Not only that, but all whites are racist, too. As CNN wrote, “If you’re a white person in America, social justice educator [and bestselling author of White Fragility] Robin DiAngelo has a message for you: You’re a racist, pure and simple, and without a lifetime of conscious effort you always will be.” 

But if America was just as stubborn, and Americans were just as rotten to the core, as these supposed thought leaders suggest, then there is no reason to believe businesses would see any boost when the race of its owner was made public. In fact, for their theses to hold up, we would have to observe a significant drop in patronage. The owners of these businesses would be completely opposed to being labeled “black-owned” if they thought it would reduce sales. That this is not the case demonstrates the extent to which we have progressed, contrary to the claims of Kendi.

The point of discussing this study is not to suggest that we ought to expand the use of racial classifications of businesses on apps such as Yelp. Rather, it is solely to point out that the narrative of America as having made no progress over the past 400 years is simply wrong.

We continue to face a number of problems related to race and racism. There is no denying that. But that is by no means the whole story. The fact we have gone from a country with a widespread practice of slavery to one where 94% of people approve of marriages between white and black people is no small thing. For reference, in 1961, only 4% approved of such marriages. No progress? You have to be joking.

The shtick of Kendi, DiAngelo, and their fellow travelers has undoubtedly made them quite rich. But it has taught us very little that is actually valuable about the state of race in America."