In Ayn Rand’s piece on racism her main objective is to argue why, in a political and social sense, it is not acceptable to collectively place a certain race or any group under certain laws or guidelines. Individualism rather than collectivism, in Rand’s opinion, is what makes a country and its individuals successful. It is only acceptable to look past different races and look at individual success and motivation. Likewise, capitalism compared to communism places an emphasis on individual success rather than having everybody forced to do be split up into different groupings by the government or some communal force. In her piece her main objective as seen in the end of the piece is to argue against The Civil Rights Act of 1964. She believes that even though African Americans would gather more rights and wouldn’t be as repressed, it is not right to separate different races. She thinks it unacceptable for black leaders to be in favor for this “separate but equal” philosophy in which they “would become victims of the same racists by succumbing to racism” (Rand 134). She believes racism is merely objectifying people by the way they look like rather than looking at an individual’s morality and intelligence. Ultimately, this civil rights act would only hinder the struggle for an equal, individualistic, capitalist America.
I believe this piece is very informative and it is very easy to follow her arguments on racism and other political views. She makes it clear that she favors a nation in which individuals are able prosper on how they act and think after they born, rather than being born into a certain situation in which it is impossible to escape. The only place where I could see some flaw in her argument is when she talks about communism and how she believes communism is a form of racism. If everyone, no matter the race, is held under the same laws, then I cannot really understand how this would be racism. I see how communism rejects individualism in which individuals are not able to prosper and work for a prosperous life, but this would be the same for everyone. Overall, her views on capitalism and racism might have been pretty extreme, but her arguments, whether you agree with her not, are very logical.
