Black public intellectuals who critique leftism get no attention from the leftist media. They are therefore unknown to much of the general public. This is a shame because they contribute greatly to the conversation on race in America. Many oppose critical race theory and the slogan “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI). Here is a selection of wise words from black sages on these and related topics:

I am a former university professor who for many years has been warning people about Critical Race Theory and its impact on our society. As a professor of both political science and law, I have watched CRT metastasize like a cancer on college and university campuses … Universities are no longer the marketplaces of ideas they once were. I fear for my country now that CRT has migrated from college campuses to society-at-large.

– Carol Swain in Carol M. Swain & Christopher J. Schorr, Black Eye for America: How Critical Race Theory Is Burning Down the House (Brentwood: Be the People Books, 2021), 1.

It’s [“The hegemony of critical race theory”] a catastrophe. It’s like the cultural revolution—I mean, small-c, small-r. … I’m talking about China. I’m talking about struggle sessions. I’m talking about people being led out with dunce caps on and being put in the corner and ridiculed because they’re not with what the party says is the right ideological interpretation of whatever political economic development there is … a kind of orgy of finger pointing and witch-huntery … burning the apostates at the stake, enduring a Twitter mob when you have a public relations-sensitive business profile.  That’s not quite being burned at the stake, but it’s definitely a bad thing to happen to you.

– Glenn Loury, “Critical race theory’s rising hegemony,” YouTube, February 2, 2021.

The average impact of corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training is zero and some evidence suggests that the impact can become negative if the training is mandated… Our intuition for how to decrease race and gender disparities in the workplace has failed us for decades. It’s time to stop guessing and start using the scientific method.

– Roland Fryer, “It’s time for data-first diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Fortune, June 20, 2022.

Let me be clear about one thing up front: I think critical race theory is nonsense. Most of its proponents insist that all black people are perpetually oppressed victims, and all white people are our oppressors. This does nothing to move the black community, or our country, forward.

– Robert L. Woodson, Sr., “A Better Way to Fight Critical Race Theory,” National Review, July 23, 2021.

[E]quity as equality of outcome rather than equality of opportunity—has become the unspoken real meaning for many of today’s educators, especially in the ever-lucrative industry of diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting.

– Ian V. Rowe, Agency: The Four Point Plan (F.R.E.E.) for ALL Children to Overcome the Victimhood Narrative and Discover Their Pathway to Power (West Conshohocken: Templeton Press, 2022), 59.

Critical race theory is bogus. To me as a minority, [it’s] demeaning, dehumanizing … But it is a currency with which whites can buy innocence in the marketplace. It’s a currency with which Blacks and other minorities can exercise power in the political arena.

– Shelby Steele, quoted in the Orlando Sentinel, June 3, 2021.

Today, as in the past, diversity is essentially a fancy word for group quotas. It is one of a number of wholly subjective criteria — such as “leadership” — used to admit students to colleges and universities according to their group membership, rather than according to their individual qualifications.

– Thomas Sowell, “The ‘Diversity’ Fraud,” Capitalism Magazine, August 25, 2020.

I have to think that many of the people nominally endorsing him [Ibram X. Kendi] are too smart not to notice how strange and simplistic and totalitarian his worldview is, but they’re afraid to say it because the culture of American elite spaces right now has cemented a taboo against criticizing any idea that successfully brands itself as anti-racist.

– Coleman Hughes, “Ibram X. Kendi Turned Down My Offer,” YouTube, March 3, 2021.

Racial preferences should now be thought of like chemotherapy, a cure that can cause side effects that should be applied judiciously. We’ve applied the cure long past that point, and have drifted toward an almost liturgical conception of diversity that makes less sense by the year.

– John McWhorter, “Stop Making Asian Americans Pay the Price for Campus Diversity,” New York Times, September 23, 2022.

There is growing pressure now to do away with SATs, GPAs and now even any shared conception of Standard English. What kind of world are we creating? In what way could this utter condescension possibly render a historically oppressed people suddenly equal?

– Thomas Chatterton Williams, Twitter, July 22, 2020.

Once leftists have gained power, as they have in most of our colleges and universities, free speech becomes a liability. It challenges their ideas and agenda and must be suppressed.

– Walter E. Williams, “The Fight for Free Speech,” syndicated, October 6 2020.

I submit to you that systemic racism is not the problem and critical race theory and reparations are not the answer.

– Larry Elder, Fox News, 28 September 2021.

It may resemble a serious academic discipline, but it’s really just a fancy argument for racial preferences.

– Jason Riley, “Critical Race Theory Is a Hustle,” Wall Street Journal, July 13, 2021.

To simply eliminate the tests as ‘racist’ because black students underperform on them is an anti-intellectual and even destructive idea.

– John McWhorter, Common Sense, April 28, 2021.

[I]f he [Ibram X. Kendi] was in the habit of engaging with alternative viewpoints, with folks like John McWhorter, Glenn Loury, or Thomas Chatterton Williams—really anybody—then I wouldn’t have made such a big deal of this, but he doesn’t engage with any criticism of his views, which is a cardinal sin if you’re claiming to be a serious thinker.

– Coleman Hughes, “Ibram X. Kendi Turned Down My Offer,” YouTube, March 3, 2021.

DiAngelo’s [Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility] picture of the ideal relationship between whites and blacks bears a disturbing resemblance to the relationship between an exasperated parent and a spoiled child: the one constantly practicing emotional self-control, the other triggered by the smallest things and helplessly expressing every emotion as soon as it comes. These are the roles she expects — even encourages — whites and blacks to play. That people can call this anti-racist with a straight face shows how far language has strayed from reality.

– Coleman Hughes, “Sermon for whites to wash away ‘Original Sin’ is misguided gospel of anti-racism,” New York Post, November 30, 2020.

Critical Race Theory poses an existential threat to the United States. It strikes at the very foundations of American society, undermining American unity and common purpose.

– Carol M. Swain & Christopher J. Schorr, Black Eye for America: How Critical Race Theory Is Burning Down the House (Brentwood: Be the People Books, 2021), 21.

Classical liberalism is a philosophy that promotes protecting civil liberties and limiting the role of government. It is fundamental to American democracy; CRT, however, strongly rejects this tradition … Critical Race Theory is anti-American in the same way that the sky is blue and water is wet.

– Carol M. Swain & Christopher J. Schorr, Black Eye for America: How Critical Race Theory Is Burning Down the House (Brentwood: Be the People Books, 2021), 30–31.

What I have seen from the diversity, equity and inclusion programs have been almost always a very divisive type of approach that results in accentuating rather than decreasing racial and ethnic tension …

– Carol Swain, quoted in the Tennessee Star, November 24, 2020.

Image: Adobe Stock