Racism

Rand’s main point is that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is racist. She claims that the fact that there is a Civil rights act is racist and thus depriving the rights of whites (the majority) which is contradictory of the act itself. It is obvious that Rand is a big proponent of the individual’s rights, which is why she thinks that an act like the civil rights act is immoral because it groups people into “collectives”. She relates racism directly to political philosophies like capitalism and communism. She claims that the more capitalist a country is, the less racist it is because people look at the accomplishments of the individual, rather than the accomplishments (or failures) of a group. Also, the more communist a country is the more racist it is too because the government only looks at people as a group, rather than individuals.

                I thought that Rand’s points relating racism to political philosophies made a lot of sense. The freer a county is, the more individuals look at each other as individuals. In a capitalist society, no one should be linked to their ancestors. One’s ancestors shouldn’t affect someone’s ability to succeed or fail. Rand also claims that in a communist society racism is more relevant because people are looked at as “collectives” or groups. However in a pure communist economic society as defined by Karl Marx, there is no class system and everyone is looked at the same under the eyes of the government. This should mean that there is only one collective, everyone which implies that there is no racism. However as Rand points out, a true capitalist society has never existed and this is the same for communism.