Rand summary

In Ayn Rand’s piece called Racism, the claim she makes is that it is the individual, as opposed to the group, that matters.  In the first portion, she explains how racists are insecure:  “The overwhelming majority of racists are men who have earned no sense of personal identity, who can claim no individual achievement or distinction […]” (128).  She does not agree with collectivism and how racism has become more developed because of it.  She is not saying that white people are always the racists.  In the last portion, she disapproves of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.  Because the bill is protecting the blacks, the whites are losing their private property rights.  She does not think that this is fair because now, the blacks “are now in the vanguard of the destruction of these rights” (134).  The roles have basically changed between the black and white races.  In the last quote from The N.Y. Times, it seems that Rand believes that if all the rights of the individuals are addressed and protected by the law, then there is nothing else to worry about.

For me, this piece was difficult to read and hard to understand.  I do not agree with her opposition to the civil rights bill because blacks deserve to have their rights after so much mistreatment.  I do not think it is right to say that the whites are now the ones being targeted after being stripped of their private property rights.  I was surprised when I read about the Soviet ideology.  It doesn’t seem credible that “men can be conditioned to communism genetically […]” (128).  The idea is just insane.