Aaron Sibarium on Identity Politics under Joe Biden and Donald Trump
Mar 27, 2025
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Aaron Sibarium, a staff writer at the Washington Free Beacon, delves into the intricate world of identity politics in this engaging discussion. He highlights the troubling influences of racial bias in healthcare, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and critiques the allocation of medical treatments based on race. The conversation also covers the tensions in medical education around affirmative action and how political dynamics have shaped university policies. Lastly, they tackle the role of government in steering media discourse and the ramifications of misinformation.
The alarming use of race-based criteria in COVID-19 treatments has raised ethical concerns and led to significant healthcare disparities.
Recent Supreme Court rulings on affirmative action exhibit how institutions can manipulate policies to maintain racial quotas under new disguises.
Emerging bias reporting systems in government provoke fears of a culture of surveillance, threatening free speech and individual freedoms.
Deep dives
Identity Fraud and Institutional Practices
The discussion highlights alarming statistics regarding identity fraud flagged by the IRS, amounting to $16.5 billion in just one year. This sets the stage to examine practices in prestigious institutions such as Harvard, which are often viewed as isolated incidents but actually reflect broader issues within major societal systems. The conversation points out the significance of Harvard's cultural impact on leadership across the U.S., suggesting that practices seen there often trickle down to other institutions, including state public health agencies. Moreover, the rationale behind decisions made during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as drug allocation based on race, further illustrates how institutional decisions can have widespread implications.
Critical Race Theory and the Identity Trap
The dialogue engages with the contentious debate around the influence of critical race theory and 'wokeness' in shaping institutional practices in America. Author Yasha Munk elaborates on this theme, suggesting that while some critics dismiss these as mere aberrations, they actually constitute systematic trends impacting universities, healthcare, and governance. Aaron Sibarium’s reporting illustrates how race has increasingly become a determining factor in institutional treatment, aligning with Munk's fears around an emerging identity synthesis. This perspective underscores that incidents of racial bias are not isolated but rather symptomatic of much larger societal patterns.
Racial Triage in Healthcare
The conversation presents troubling examples of racial triage, particularly in the context of COVID-19 treatments, where non-white patients received preferential scoring in accessing monoclonal antibody therapies. Sibarium reveals that hospital guidelines in states like New York and Utah included race as a criterion, raising significant ethical concerns. This practice was justified under the pretense that prioritizing minorities would improve health outcomes, yet it disproportionately impacted individuals based on race, leading to unjust healthcare disparities. The discussion reinforces that these policies not only failed to achieve their intended goals but also created a discriminatory system that complicates the pursuit of equitable healthcare.
The Impact of Affirmative Action and a Shifting Landscape
Munk and Sibarium explore the implications of recent Supreme Court rulings on affirmative action, particularly in relation to university admissions. They note that while some institutions promptly adjusted their policies to comply with the law, others appear to defy it, maintaining their racial quotas under different guises like socio-economic proxies. Additionally, the discussion reveals how schools manage school admissions through potentially deceptive means, allowing a semblance of equity while still discriminating against certain demographics. This raises concerns about the continued prevalence of institutional discrimination disguised as affirmative action, challenging the integrity of academic meritocracy.
Surveillance and Bias Reporting Systems
The episode concludes with a revealing analysis of bias reporting systems that have emerged within state and local governments, provoking fears of a surveillance-like culture reminiscent of oppressive regimes. These systems allow for anonymous reporting of not only hate crimes but also First Amendment protected speech, creating an environment conducive to social snitching. While officials assert that the purpose is to gauge hate crime potential, the lack of transparency and the capacity for misuse has raised significant alarm. This growing trend in bureaucratic policing underscores a pressing need for societal vigilance against policies that threaten free speech and individual freedoms.
Aaron Sibarium is a staff writer at the Washington Free Beacon, where he covers higher education and institutional capture.
In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Aaron Sibarium discuss racial bias in medicine, affirmative action at universities and if “woke” is dead.
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