Richardcyoung.com

  • Home
  • Debbie Young
  • Jimmy Buffett
  • Key West
  • Your Survival Guy
  • How We Are Different
  • Paris
  • About Us
    • Foundation Principles
    • Contributors
  • Investing
    • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
  • The Swiss Way
  • My Rifles
  • Dividends and Compounding
  • Your Security
  • Dick Young
  • Dick’s R&B Top 100
  • Liberty & Freedom Map
  • Bank Credit & Money
  • Your Survival Guy’s Super States
  • NNT & Cholesterol
  • Your Health
  • Ron Paul
  • US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool
  • Anti-Gun Control
  • Anti-Digital Currency
  • Joel Salatin & Alfie Oakes
  • World Gold Mine Production
  • Fidelity & Wellington Since 1971
  • Hillsdale College
  • Babson College
  • Contact Us

What It Means to Be Woke

December 11, 2020 By Debbie Young

By iQoncept @ Shutterstock.com

The first requirement on the road to wokeness is the refusal to acknowledge the real world, as it exists. Francis Menton, aka the Manhattan Contrarian, explains, “You must pretend that the world is something else, something immediately transformable into a fantasy of perfection through coercive collective action.”

You also must firmly close your eyes to any facts or evidence that might contradict such progressive fantasy, and indeed you must demand that any such facts or evidence be suppressed and never mentioned.

Among numerous illustrations of this point, perhaps the most striking is the current hysteria sometimes going by the name “anti-racism.” Here, the official progressive fantasy is that any under-representation of blacks (or other minority group of your choice) at designated heights of society can only be the result of “systemic racism.” Therefore all must commit to the coerced program of “anti-racism,” whereupon, I presume, perfection will promptly be achieved.

In the current City Journal, Heather Mac Donald writes about  The Bias Fallacy, in which she makes the case that “bias against minorities explains little if any of their under-representation in certain positions and professions,” reports the Manhattan Contrarian:

To her credit, Ms. Mac Donald has managed to find considerable data illustrative of the limitations of the minority talent pool relative to some of the top positions at major corporations and law firms. I give a good deal of credit to Ms. Mac Donald for finding these data, which exist only for certain categories and certain years.

Heather MacDonald in City Journal:

As long as data on the skills and behavior gap remain available, it is possible to challenge the myth of bias, at least in theory. So those facts must themselves be canceled, as well as anyone who publicizes them. That is the ultimate motivation for the movement to end the use of standardized tests in admissions. . . . The reason to eliminate standardized assessments is rather to put the College Board and the Educational Testing Service out of business entirely—and with them, any possibility of an objective measure of intellectual skills.

There simply are not enough competitively qualified black candidates to go around. Moreover, one-third of all black males have a felony conviction.

It would be almost impossible to miss the parade of major societal institutions — large corporations, banks, law firms, universities, and so on — caught with insufficient numbers of minorities in their ranks and pledging to rectify the situation immediately if not sooner, continues Mr. Menton.

Which leads us to the NASDAQ, looking to be the new diversity consultant. Companies on the NASDAQ stock exchange would be required to have at least two “Diverse” directors, “one director who self-identifies as female,” and “one who self-identifies as Black or African American, Hispanic or Latinx, Asian, Native American or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, two or more races or ethnicities, or as LGBTQ+.”

NASDAQ and Social Policy

The NASDAQ is proposing a requirement that its listed companies meet NASDAQ CEO Adena Friedman’s goals for diversity on their boards, writes the WSJ’s Holman Jenkins.

Let’s count the absurdities. Shareholders of listed companies elect their boards and are already free if they choose (and some do) to promote diversity goals. Voters elect legislators at the state and federal level who, if they think the public favors it, can pass affirmative-action mandates.

Nobody elected Nasdaq, as even Ms. Friedman seems mutely to concede. Though noncompliant companies in theory could be kicked off the exchange, they won’t be, she says. They will be required to explain publicly why they aren’t complying. (Here’s hoping many will say it’s because their self-respecting board members refuse to honor Ms. Friedman’s demand that they “self-identify” by race, gender and sexual orientation.)

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with diversity. That’s why so many con men, fraudsters and cynical self-promoters are attracted to it. No sensible person doesn’t think America has been missing out on the untapped gifts of large sections of its population, in some cases because of bigotry and in some cases because of what somebody once called the soft bigotry of low expectations.

Loading everyday life with even more identity-politics paranoia is the last thing America needs. Or turning its most accomplished business leaders into beneficiaries of social promotion. Or metastasizing more examples of elite favoritism for the public to be repulsed by. Never mind papering America with yet more rules of the sort that require a 271-page Nasdaq proposal to explain. Even California’s liberal electorate signaled last month that crude and invidious affirmative action should remain a thing of the past.

If you’re willing to fight for Main Street America, click here to sign up for the Richardcyoung.com free weekly email.

Related Posts

  • The Woke Legacy Media Is in a Meltdown
  • How to Fix 'Woke' Television
  • What Dow 20,000 Means for Nasdaq Investors
  • What Brett Kavanaugh means for the Supreme Court
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Debbie Young
Debbie Young
Debbie, our chief political writer of Richardcyoung.com, is also our chief domestic affairs writer, a contributing writer on Eastern Europe and Paris and Burgundy, France. She has been associate editor of Dick Young’s investment strategy reports for over five decades. Debbie lives in Key West, Florida, and Newport, Rhode Island, and travels extensively in Paris and Burgundy, France, cooking on her AGA Cooker, driving through Vermont and Maine, and practicing yoga. Debbie has completed the 200-hour Krama Yoga teacher training program taught by Master Instructor Ruslan Kleytman. Debbie is a strong supporting member of the NRA.
Debbie Young
Latest posts by Debbie Young (see all)
  • Allowing Free People to Make a Democratic Choice - June 20, 2025
  • Political Theater on Display: Padilla’s Wild Day - June 20, 2025
  • A Great Victory for Liberty - June 19, 2025

Dick Young’s Must Reads

  • A NEW CONTRACT WITH AMERICA: Rick Scott Finally Gives the GOP Something to Run On
  • “We’re Not Going Back”
  • YOU DESERVE FREEDOM: Your Hard Work Will Make It Happen
  • Democracy: The Most Dangerous and Insidious Effect of Majority Rule.
  • “It’s My Job” Key West’s Farewell to Jimmy Buffett
  • Your Survival Guy’s 2022 Super States: #1 New Hampshire
  • America’s Silent Army with 423M Guns
  • Yes, Your Children Are Listening to You
  • Your Sheriff Is Your Friend
  • Joel Salatin Can Help Americans Beat Food Inflation

Our Most Popular Posts

  • The Night of the Living Dead
  • TRUMP: "Everyone Should Immediately Evacuate Tehran!"
  • Are You Familiar with the EF and Arithmetic?
  • A Classic Issue from Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report
  • A Nationwide Day of Defiance
  • Political Theater on Display: Padilla's Wild Day
  • Best Bang for Your Buck: Top 5 AR-15s of 2025
  • Epic Man Cave with Car Elevator in Utah
  • Israelis Speculate on American Involvement in War with Iran
  • GBU-57/B: Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP)

Compensation was paid to utilize rankings. Click here to read full disclosure.

RSS Youngresearch.com

  • Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report from Feb. 1987
  • America’s Energy Boom: Record Net Exports and Rising Renewables
  • Senate Passes First U.S. Stablecoin Regulation Bill
  • Game-Changing Vision: Meta and Oakley Unveil AI Performance Eyewear
  • A Great Victory for Liberty
  • Letchworth: Are You Living Your Best Retirement Life?
  • Job Openings Rise in Four States, National Rate Steady
  • Ethane Shipments Stall as U.S.-China Trade Tensions Rise
  • Historic Tax Cuts Across All States
  • Are You Familiar with the EF and Arithmetic?

RSS Yoursurvivalguy.com

  • Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report from Feb. 1987
  • Private Equity Is the Next Big Thing Coming for YOU
  • The Wildlife in Kansas
  • PRECIOUS: Silver and Gold
  • June Rage Gauge: Best Déjeuners in Paris
  • Letchworth: Are You Living Your Best Retirement Life?
  • Will SALT Kill the “One Big Beautiful Bill?”
  • You’ve Read the Last Issue of Intelligence Report: Back to Investor’s Yield
  • The Sound of Silence?
  • Are You Familiar with the EF and Arithmetic?

US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool

My Key West Garden Office

Your Retirement Life: Traveling the Efficient Frontier

Live a Long Life

Your Survival Guy’s Mt. Rushmore of Investing Legends

“Then One Day the Grandfather was Gone”

Copyright © 2025 | Terms & Conditions | About Us | Dick Young | Archives