The Vague Grounds of “Systemic” Racism, by David Carlin

By David Carlin, The Catholic Thing, July 23, 2021

David Carlin is a retired professor of sociology and philosophy at the Community College of Rhode Island, and the author  of The Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in America.

Note: Friends, the EWTN segment on the pope’s new restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass – in which Cdls. Burke and Mueller, Fr. Murray, and I appeared – did not air in the regular slot last night (8-9 PM) owing to a technical problem. (The Devil does like his little games.) It did air in its entirely 9-10 PM. If you did not have a chance to watch then, as always, it’s available at the EWTN YouTube channel, which you can access by clicking here. – Robert Royal

The issue of equality is almost always on the American national agenda. It was so from the day the Declaration of Independence was signed; it’s been so again and again in the years since 1776. And today it is prominent as Americans once again consider how to reduce inequalities between men and women, between native-born and immigrants, and above all between whites and blacks.

The idea that “all men are created equal” wasn’t discovered in Philadelphia in 1776. For a precise time and place for its beginning, think of Athens around 300 B.C.  For that was the approximate year when Zeno of Citium founded the Stoic school of philosophy in the city that was the philosophical capital of the Greek world.  Stoicism taught that all humans are equal in that they possess reason, a godlike attribute; and that reason is the best of all human things, better than wealth, health, strength, fame, good looks, etc.  In other words, that all humans are equal is what is most important. …

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