Merit is a ‘myth’ used to ‘justify inequality,’ Yale professor says | Gabrielle Temaat, The College Fix ASU event asked students to ‘imagine more just and equitable alternatives to earning success’ Meritocracy is a modern “myth” that perpetuates inequality, blocks opportunity, and harms the common good, a professor argued during an Arizona State University event this month. “Any idea that merit makes inequality deserved is a circle… merit isn’t a real virtue. It’s just an ideological conceit constructed to launder otherwise offensive inequalities,” Yale Law Professor Daniel Markovits said during the “Myth of Meritocracy” event. Markovits defined meritocracy as reward based on talent and effort, rather than race, class, or gender. He said the original promise of the concept was that “no group … has a monopoly on merit” and “anyone can get ahead.” He acknowledged that meritocracy is the reason there are black elites and women in power today. However, it has become self-defeating. Now, he said, it “starves the middle class” and “justifies inequality with the myth of ‘merit.'” He called meritocracy “the single greatest obstacle to equality of opportunity.” He said it promises that anyone can rise through their own achievements, but success actually depends on three factors: raw talent, personal effort, and investment in training and education. Wealthy families pour vastly more resources into developing their children’s skills than anyone else does, turning what looks like a fair race into one that’s heavily rigged from the start, he said. Offering an example, he said, “At elite colleges there are more kids from the top 1 percent than the entire bottom 50 percent.” Further, the same ten universities that dominated in 1920 remain on top today. According to Markovits, this is because the new meritocratic elite developed an “effectively unlimited appetite for education.” He said rich families now spend $60,000 more per year on schooling than middle-class ones, and the rich–poor achievement gap has surpassed the 1954 white–black gap. “Rich parents use exceptionally intensive investments in education as a technology to pass privilege down,” Markovits said. “We have recreated an aristocracy … only now it’s based on training and school,” he said. He also said that this “meritocratic elite … no longer serves the common good.” Top earners claim their massive paychecks are justified by their productivity, “but the only reason they’re so productive is that the labor market has changed to suit their needs,” he said. The economy has been reshaped to make their specific skills hyper-valuable while devaluing everyone else’s work. The top one percent of earners work as much as 12 hours more per week than the bottom 60 percent, not because others are lazy, but because the economy no longer offers dignified work to those without elite credentials, he said. Finally, the professor refuted criticisms of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives. With all the discussion around DEI, the assumption is that we’re not admitting qualified people of color, he said. Markovits argued universities are actually admitting “hyper-qualified people of color.” “Now, here’s something that’s also true, though. Our students of color are in general pretty rich. We’ve had an enormous success in the past five years in by a multiple factor, admitting more and more and more students who come from real economic disadvantage,” he said. According to the description of the event on ASU’s website, attendees were invited to discover how meritocracy obscures “structural inequalities” and “collaboratively imagine more just and equitable alternatives to ‘earning’ success.” “Through critique, dialogue, and collective visioning, the event invites attendees to move beyond individual achievement narratives toward systemic understanding and action,” the description states. https://www.thecollegefix.com/merit-is-a-myth-used-to-justify-inequality-yale-professor-says/
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