Most people become libertarian or conservative late in life. But even as a young child, I objected to the notion of welfare and group identity politics. I became a Rothbardian libertarian. But my apparently strange sentiments proved to be a bother to the perceived guardians of black culture. As a result, random strangers made it their duty to remind me that my interests were incompatible with their jaundiced concept of blackness. These attacks might have hurt most children, but I’ve never needed validation from other people. More than anything, I was annoyed by the lack of reasoning employed by my detractors. From a young age, I realized that black people expressed a pathological form of collectivism.

It did not matter if your expression of blackness was counterproductive — if you exhibited stereotypically black traits, you were accepted as authentically black. But what many black people consider to be black culture is really ghetto behavior or acting like a hooligan. For example, as a teenager, I was upbraided by a black prep school student for my civility. She felt that men were expected to behave like ragamuffins. She was not the only one who felt that way. Growing up, I knew many middle-class black girls with penchants for louts.

Luckily for me, I attended a decent high school where the students spoke proper English and engaged in intellectual discussions. The blacks I knew there were decent people. But outside of my school environment, associating with blacks was a daunting task. Once, a black woman stopped me and a schoolmate to ask us why we were speaking in standard English. But mocking men for their grasp of language is a mild sin compared to the pride black people take in being ruffians. A young black man once wanted me to give him the time, yet instead of greeting me like a normal person, he greeted me as “killer.”

Although there are honor cultures around the world, blacks have a unique ability to cater to the lowest common denominator. Blacks celebrate films that paint them as gangsters or lowlifes. Ironically, they embrace negativity and then complain that they are owed respect. Blacks reside in a dream world. To earn respect, blacks must learn to respect themselves. It is illogical for blacks to demand respect from whites when they revere Hip Hop stars who are contemptuous of women and black wellbeing. How can people who celebrate filth expect to be treated with dignity?

Moreover, blacks should stop accusing their more elegant peers of acting white. A white man can read Hubert Harrison, Marcus Garvey, and John Locke and prefer Harrison and Garvey to Locke and maintain the admiration of his peers. Blacks who prefer Locke to Garvey and Harrison are not so esteemed. More importantly, success is not just for white or Asian people. Blacks cannot attain true success without expressing individuality. Western culture is individualistic and exceptional, and black Americans have yet to assimilate into its Faustian spirit. Black culture is simply antithetical to innovative or radical thinking. I am always amazed by the breathtaking intellectual curiosity of white scholars. In researching African history, I have discovered that several of the leading Africanists are white men. There are also many eminent white sinologists.

The illogic of black culture befuddles me. Nothing is more mind-boggling than the mysticism of black people. Even today, some blacks still cling to the refuted theories of Afrocentric writers such as Ivan Van Sertima, George James, and Frances Cress Welsing. My own conversations with blacks have shown that few have any interest in evidence and data. Presenting a sharp critique of Ivan Van Sertima would never faze the average Afrocentric thinker. Too many black thinkers are unable to admit that myths cannot restore black pride. The mysticism of black culture is so pathetic that the movie Black Panther has become a permanent fixture in African American culture, although it is a woefully inaccurate counterfactual. As I have argued in this piece, without the arrival of Europeans, Africa would still be an economic laggard. In fact, numerous studies actually indicate that colonialism resulted in benefits for Africans.

Since they are mystical, however, blacks prefer to blame white people for all their problems, because doing so is more soothing than accepting harsh realities. Believing that your future is beyond your control is a prominent feature of mystical thinking. Understanding the mysticism inherent in black culture gives us insight into their defeatist worldview.

Likewise, black entitlement stems from their culture of mysticism. Black actresses, for example, will fiercely complain that they are underpaid relative to white men when white actors deservingly earn more due to the performance of their films. But why should blacks act differently, when white liberals enable their immature behavior? The truth is that America does not owe black Americans anything. For too long, white liberals have appeased the destructive culture of blacks when it is evident that misguided people abetted by race hustlers are hostile to progress. As someone who is black, I submit that black culture is downright regressive, and I do not care if people are offended. Until black people evolve, they will remain an obstacle to their prosperity.