he precipitous decline of America can attributed to many things.  One of them, as it happens, is equality.  Of course, there is no formal tension between equality and excellence.  However, the way in which these two vectors play themselves out in America is utterly devastating.  This is for two reasons.  One is that the mere charge of racism has come to be none other than an extremely powerful political and social tool that has nothing whatsoever to do with the reality of an actual act of racism.  And the related factor is that once this charge is made against an individual, then he or she is effectively defenseless even if the charge has no basis in reality.

Consequently, people have become so concerned with making sure that the charge of racism cannot be made against them that they will tolerate mediocrity rather than insist upon excellence.  This is because in the present politically correct social climate it is way too easy for the mere insistence upon excellence to be construed as having racist motives: The “You-would-not-have-criticized me-if-I-had-been-white” claim.  If one is the boss who is white how does one prove that such a claim is just so much nonsense?  The answer, quite frankly, is that with rare exception one cannot.  One such exception is that one has been publicly insistent upon the requirement in question and one has publicly criticized whites who have failed to meet that requirement. 

Let it be the case, however, that a black or a Latino is doing something that is obviously wrong, but about which there has not been any public announcements, and a white criticizes that person.  Well, in that case all hell is apt to break out, because the white will invariably be seen as having acted from racist motives; and there is simply no way to diffuse things.  Herein lies the reason why excellence has taken a back seat to equality in America.  After all, anything other than praise of a black or a Latino by a white is apt to result in that white being called a racist by the person.  All that is needed is for the black or Latino to say “It just feels to me like that white person was being racist”. 

In this regard, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have been key players in undermining excellence in America.  Anyone with an ounce of commonsense surely realizes that these two are more interested in maintaining their power base than promoting excellence among blacks.  And both of them use the charge of racism as none other than a way to do that.  The case of the three white guys at Duke University who were accused of raping a black woman stands as a most poignant case in point.  Sharpton and Jackson were no more interested in the facts of the case than I have been in becoming a cockroach. 

We now know for a fact that the charge of rape was entirely without merit.  We also know for a fact that neither Sharpton nor Jackson have shown an ounce of remorse for the train wreck occasioned by them of the lives of the three young white men.  There is no indication whatsoever that either Sharpton or Jackson said to black communities: “We can’t let this sort of thing happen again”. 

In this regard, I should also mention that white liberals are also a fundamental part of the problem.  For them, supporting the charge of racism, no matter how implausible it may be, is a kind of psychological redemption ticket—their way of proving to themselves that they are not racist.  Likewise, white liberals have never asked for any accountability with respect to the charge of racism; nor were they apologetic for riding the train that wrecked the lives of the three white Duke University students.  But, of course, white liberals always mean well no matter how much damage they manage to do; and we should not lose sight of that.

For all of his faults, this much is clear: When Martin Luther King made charges of racism, there was no doubt whatsoever that there actually was racism in place.  His charges of racism had credibility.  What is no longer the case nowadays is that charges of racism have credibility. 

We had precisely this utter absence of credibility with the Keith Sampson matter in 2007, where a white man was accused of making blacks uncomfortable because he was reading a book about how the Fighting Irish defeated the KKK.  Duh?  A black woman made that charge; and it was upheld by the Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) affirmative action officer, who is also a black.  And once more, white liberal faculty members were essentially silent.  Is this not incredulous or what?

The Keith Sampson matter at IUPUI shows that the charge of racism can be made and entertained even when a white person is engaging behavior that is unequivocally the very opposite of racist behavior.  All it takes is for a black or a Latino to assert that she or he feels uncomfortable. 

Against this social -backdrop, a white person would have to be a fool to insist upon excellence when it comes to a black or a Latino.  Insisting upon excellence would make about as much sense as putting one’s hand in a fire and hoping that one’s hand will not be burned. 

Excellence is impossible if constructive criticism is ruled out of court.  And constructive criticism has floundered in the United States.  On the one hand, white people are rightly afraid of the charge of racism.  On the other hand, way too many black and Latino individuals seem to think that any criticism of them by another black or Latino shows a lack of solidarity with them on the part of the black or Latino.  Indeed, some would go so far as to accuse the person of being self-hating or harboring a desire to be white. 

The issue is not whether racism in various forms of subtlety still exists.  We can assume that it does.  The problem, rather, is that nowadays there is next to no room for constructive criticism to be made by a white of a black or a Latino without the charge of racism being raised.  And one untoward consequence of this is that across the board the demand for excellence has been progressively receding into the background.  After all, if excellence cannot be demanded of one group, then why bother demanding it of another group? 

Equality of shorn of excellence is utterly vapid and lacking in substance.  What it produces is not even a shadow of the better world for which folks like King hoped and struggled.  There is a very straightforward sense in which the black community is worse-off than it once was.  The argument of this essay can readily explain that fact.  No people can flourish in the absence of constructive self-criticism.  The rejection of the demand for excellence by whites as a form of racism has resulted in the absence of constructive self-criticism on the part of blacks.  This should come as no surprise. 

Excellence has no skin color.  It can only be wrong for whites demand excellence of blacks if it is also wrong for blacks to engage in constructive self-criticism, and so for blacks to demand excellence of themselves. 

And, of course, constructive self-criticism has become a precious commodity in general.  That is to be expected in a society that has made posturing about race far more important than occasioning the excellence of which human beings are capable. 

Notice the following irony.  During slavery, whites claimed that blacks lacked the wherewithal to achieve the intellectual heights of which whites are capable.  No one dares make such a claim nowadays.  Instead, no one demands of blacks that they achieve the intellectual heights of which all human beings regardless of race are capable.  Slavery, then, was the absence of freedom and, to freedom’s absence, the absence of excellence.  The present is none other than the most poignant contrast of an abundance of freedom on the part of blacks coupled with a most flagrant absence of excellence. 

A society whose citizens cannot demand excellence of one another regardless of race, color, or creed or whatever is a society that is fundamentally worse off for all regardless of race, color, or creed or whatever.  Make no mistake about it: That society is America.