Public

Public

Share this post

Public
Public
Fake White Guilt Drove Decades-Long DEI Mania
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More

Fake White Guilt Drove Decades-Long DEI Mania

America was founded on individual responsibility. Why then did so many of its institutions reject meritocracy for victimhood ideology?

Alex Gutentag's avatar
Michael Shellenberger's avatar
Alex Gutentag
and
Michael Shellenberger
Jan 27, 2025
∙ Paid
646

Share this post

Public
Public
Fake White Guilt Drove Decades-Long DEI Mania
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
84
59
Share
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the US - Mexico border, June 26, 2018. (Credit: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez)

For hundreds of years, the idea of individual responsibility has been foundational in Western civilization in general and the United States in particular. In a court of law and the court of public opinion, you as an individual are responsible for what you have done; you are not responsible for what other people, dead or alive, have done.

This view of individual responsibility was a major change from how most societies had treated people throughout recorded human history when we were viewed as parts of orders or tribes. It was only with the rise of nationalism that we became viewed as members of a sovereign community of fundamentally equal individuals with a shared national identity.

Individual responsibility underpins the principle of meritocracy, which rewards achievement based on personal effort and ability rather than external factors like inheritance or race. As such, much of the effort over the last half century to end racism was based on the idea that we should treat each other as individuals and not make generalizations about each other, much less hold each other accountable based on one’s racial group.

And yet, over the last 20 years, the idea of individual responsibility has come under attack by advocates of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs. The big idea behind DEI programs is that white people, all white people, are responsible for the bad behaviors of a few white people in the past and uniquely advantaged, or “privileged,” due to their material and cultural inheritance. Conversely, the thinking goes, all racial minorities are oppressed victims due to belonging to the same race as victims of the past and inheriting their trauma and troubles.

Judges, government agencies, universities, newspapers, and other corporations should consider one’s membership in a particular racial group, not simply what one did as an individual, argued DEI leaders. And overcoming historical racism, say DEI advocates, requires preferential actions for the descendants of historical victims.

This post is for paid subscribers

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Michael Shellenberger
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share

Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More