“Racist” — it’s a word that I use sparingly because the term is triggering for many white Americans, especially in the political context. The word holds a lot of power because of the role that racism plays in America’s history and culture. It is used to depict the inequality and poor treatment of someone on the basis of race but is also often attributed to meaningless jokes about culture — because of this, many who don’t experience or recognize racism regularly, now feel that the word has lost much of its meaning.

So why question if this so-called “socially liberal” platform is racist?

Libertarian politics dismisses or simply ignores the fact that race and poverty are not mutually exclusive. The ideology suggests that capitalism is perfect and that if we eliminated many of our social programs and institutions, the “free markets” would bring prosperity to everyone who deserves it — to the privileged suburban youth, I’m sure this sounds very appealing.

They argue that eliminating income taxes would leave more money in workers’ pockets, because they no longer have to pay for the “laziness” of others. Without tax or minimum-wage barriers, businesses will be more successful and will feel obligated to share their wealth with employees. Simply examining Walmart’s business model, we can see that company success rarely results in a better working environment.

This ideology states that if people struggle to find a job, they should move. Unfortunately, the effects of Jim Crow laws and our racist past have left many cities in seemingly infinite generational cycles of segregation and poverty. Regardless of where you live, most of us simply cannot afford to pick up and move, and we generally lack the entrepreneurial acumen to start a business.

In today’s America, a disproportionate number of minority families are forced to live on unemployment and food stamps in order to offset poor compensation. In general, this is not because of laziness but rather a lack of resources and opportunity. Eliminating or even cutting these programs would leave millions of people unable to afford the ever-growing costs of living.

Libertarians will argue that individuals who have success will donate much of their wealth and, in turn, help people access the support that they need. However, even Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson admitted in a CNN town hall that his charitable donations are “almost nonexistent.” The truth is that capitalism free of social programs or government restrictions could be disastrous — or as Ayn Rand, an idol for many Libertarians, put it, “Capitalism is the one system that requires absolute objective law, yet libertarians combine capitalism and anarchism.”

While many modern Libertarians may believe in government protection of certain civil rights — at its core, the philosophy argues that government should have as little power possible, even if it means leaving businesses and states free to discriminate.

Most young Libertarians are not explicitly racist, but their views illustrate the covertly racist remains of the openly racist upbringing of generations past. Libertarians will try and hide their tea party-like politics by proclaiming a “socially liberal” fallacy that claims to care about racial issues; however, they’d rather wait out the problem than actually help.

— Alejandro

Murguia-Ortiz