Greg Salmieri on What Racism Is and Why It Persists

On the sixtieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — a law that prohibits discrimination based on race, skin color, religion, and sex — Greg Salmieri took the stage at OCON 2024 in Anaheim to reassess America’s progress in overcoming racism. Revisiting the themes of Ayn Rand’s 1963 article “Racism,” Salmieri examines the persistent challenges of this “most crudely primitive form of collectivism” that, as Rand argued, undermines property rights.

Salmieri tackles fundamental questions, such as: What do “race” and “racism” mean? How does rejecting free will lead intellectuals toward racist doctrines? How do seemingly opposed ideologies on the political left and right both reinforce racist trends? And in what ways can racism be understood as “institutional” or “systemic”?

Building on Rand’s insights, Salmieri argues that collectivist policies — including those of the Civil Rights Act — perpetuate racial inequities and racist attitudes. He makes a compelling case that only through capitalism and economic freedom can society fully eradicate racism and its legacies.

In the Q&A period, Salmieri addresses such topics as:

• The concept of “genocide”;
• Why racism is less apparent in sports and music;
• What race is.

For anyone grappling with the seeming intractability of debates about racism today, Salmieri’s lecture offers a bold, philosophical lens that challenges conventional narratives.