The Closing Word: On Merit, Class, and the Myth of the Level Playing Field

Richard Mellor

Note:

The video above from The Officer Tatum channel, attempts to defend Charlie Kirk against accusations of racism, featuring Kirk arguing to a young man at the microphone that all human beings — regardless of race — share the same DNA. Tatum himself, believed to be the son of former Oakland Raider Art Tatum, likely comes from a position of relative privilege and, like many in his social circle, appears motivated by a desire to advance his standing within the existing capitalist hierarchy.

 

Tatum is also connected to Angel Studios, a religiously-driven media company with Mormon roots and a global reach, spreading content that promotes both faith and the virtues of capitalism and the free market. Kirk, meanwhile, was bankrolled by billionaires long championed the tired "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" myth.

 

I made a video about this on  You Tube and Kirk’s defenders responded. My response to them is the following. 

 

The Closing Word: On Merit, Class, and the Myth of the Level Playing Field

A response to criticisms to a video I made saying Charlie Kirk was a racist. His line “Did You Earn It?”mentioned in this video is a profoundly racist comment and if you don’t understand that, I really urge you to re-think it and discuss with people why you’re wrong; if you are genuine, you’ll see why it’s wrong. If you’re not, be open about your racist views and defend them so we can see who you are. 

I stress I am not a white liberal. I do not feel guilty because people that were the same color as me or the same nationality treated others as lesser beings. We are not responsible for the acts of ancestors or relatives from the past. We are obligated to learn from history, recognize that we don’t all have the same history as we stress in the best way we can that working class people have the same general oppression in society and that we all have the same enemy.

To those claiming that systemic racism is a thing of the past—or, more absurdly, that the "real" racism is now directed at white people—let’s get one thing straight:

When you argue that job opportunities should be about "merit" and "the best person for the job," you aren't saying anything new. It sounds fair on paper, but in practice, it’s a tired shield used to protect a status quo built on theft. We live in a capitalist, class-based society designed to exploit. While all workers are exploited, history shows us that some are targeted with "extra" layers of oppression—whether it’s Catholics in Northern Ireland, Muslims in India, or Black people in America and at all times women.

1. The Myth of "DNA Equality"

People like Charlie Kirk love to cite DNA to claim "we’re all the same." It’s an oft repeated claim. Society doesn’t interact with your double helix; it interacts with your class position, your skin color, your zip code, and your access to generational wealth. To use biology to deny the reality of social and economic exclusion doesn't fool anyone—least of all the people who have to live through that exclusion every day.

2. Two Centuries of Affirmative Action

It is a massive insult to preach "meritocracy" to people who were legally excluded from the very institutions that build "merit" (schools, home loans, stable jobs) for centuries. Let’s be honest: White workers in this country have benefited from a couple hundred years of their own version of affirmative action. To oppose efforts to rectify that history now by claiming you "only see qualifications" is, frankly, a joke.

3. The "Buffer Class" Strategy

I’ll be the first to admit that the ruling class will never teach history, that includes racism and why it exists, in a way that actually unites us. They don't want white workers and Black workers realizing they share an enemy. Instead, after the heroic Civil Rights movement forced the state’s hand, the system made just enough concessions to build a Black middle class—a "buffer layer" to stabilize the system and make it look like the "American Dream" was finally open for business.

The Bottom Line

Class oppression is real, and white workers are victims of it in a million ways. But Black workers face that plus the weight of a racial caste system. This isn't rocket science; it's history. If you want to talk about "merit," first you have to account for a head start that lasted three hundred years. Until then, your "color blindness" is nothing more than a blindfold.