the feminist librarian reads

The ghetto is public policy, period, and I’m not sure conservatism is equipped to handle this. It’s not that conservatives can’t help—Right on Crime does a lot of good work on criminal justice, and I hope Republicans writ large adopt their skepticism toward mass incarceration—but that it’s hard to reverse the consequences of action with limited government. If racism is force, then you can’t solve the problem with its absence—you need countervailing force. Liberals have this in the form of color-conscious state action. But conservatives are (admirably) committed to libertarian principles that emphasize colorblindness, and this makes it hard to discuss racial inequality.