Self-interest produces racist policy, which then produces racist ideas and ignorance

Evidence

These many forms of educational persuasion, like uplift suasion, have been predicated on the false construction of the race problem: the idea that ignorance and hate lead to racist ideas, which lead to racist policies. In fact, self-interest leads to racist policies, which lead to racist ideas leading to all the ignorance and hate. Racist policies were created out of self-interest. And so, they have usually been voluntarily rolled back out of self-interest. The popular and glorious version of history saying that abolitionists and civil rights activists have steadily educated and persuaded away American racist ideas and policies sounds great. But it has never been the complete story, or even the main story. Politicians passed the civil and voting rights measures in the 1860s and the 1960s primarily out of political and economic self-interest—not an educational or moral awakening. And these laws did not spell the doom of racist policies. The racist policies simply evolved. There has been a not-so-glorious progression of racism, and educational persuasion has failed to stop it, and Americans have failed to recognize it. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 1249

Categorization

• DEFINE: States the book’s central causal inversion at its most explicit — the exact formulation the reader is reading to master.
• XREF: Directly gives the reader the tool needed to test the inversion against cases where ideas seem to precede policy — the stated goal. — connects to: Political ignorance functions as an effect of cultural discouragement, not merely its cause — Nina Eliasoph, “Close to home”: The work of avoiding…, 150