Dinesh D’Souza

In the following viewpoint, Dinesh D’Souza contends that not all discrimination stems from racism. Instead, he argues, discrimination is often based on rational or commonsense assumptions about a person’s appearance. Such “rational discrimination” may be based in part on a person’s race but also takes into account other factors such as age, clothing, or behavior, D’Souza maintains. For example, he argues, cabdrivers who refuse to give rides to young black males may be discriminating not because of bigotry against African Americans but because of a rational fear based on the high percentage of young black criminals. The author of The End of Racism, D’Souza is also John M. Olin Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.

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