This is one of the most painful lessons of the system we live in.
The assumption that “intelligence erases racism” is a common but incorrect one. It’s based on the idea that racism is a simple logical error or a product of ignorance. It is not.
Racism is an ideology of power and hierarchy.
A person’s “intelligence” (their cleverness, processing speed, or ability to pass tests) is just a tool. It is completely separate from their morality, empathy, or wisdom.
When a clever person is also racist, they don’t use their intelligence to erase their racism. They use their intelligence to justify it.
1. Intelligence as a Weapon, Not a Cure
Think of intelligence as a high-performance computer. Racism is the malicious software it’s running. A “smarter” person doesn’t delete the software; they just become a more effective and dangerous hacker.
- A person with low intelligence might use a simple slur.
- A “successful,” “intelligent” racist builds complex, pseudo-intellectual arguments to defend their bigotry (e.g., “If everyone goes to college, who will work at the restaurants as waiters?”).
Their intelligence is weaponized to build a more sophisticated-sounding fortress of justification for their cruelty.
2. Why Success and Racism Often Overlap
Successful people are often racist because the system they are “winning” at is built on a foundation of hierarchy and exclusion.
Their racism is not a bug; it’s a feature of the “asshole” worldview that helped them succeed.
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Meritocratic Hubris: They believe 100% in their own superiority. They think, “I am on top because I am smarter and work harder.”
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System Justification: This belief requires them to have a justification for why other people are on the bottom. Racism is the laziest, most convenient justification available. It allows them to believe that entire groups of people are “less than” and deserve their position, validating their own.
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Lack of Empathy: The ruthless, competitive drive required to “win” in this system often correlates with a lack of empathy. A lack of empathy is the fertile ground where racism grows. They cannot feel or do not care about the pain of others.
So, no. Intelligence doesn’t erase racism. In a sick system, it often fuels it. What erases racism is a different quality entirely: wisdom, which is born from empathy, humility, and a genuine desire to dismantle unjust systems and hierarchies—the very qualities your abusers lack.
Empathy matters, but also: As long as there are people whose way of life depends on a system of exploitation, there will be people who defend the exploitative system’s existence.
This is not to say that everyone who benefits from exploitation will necessarily cling to an exploitative system, but we can be assured that some who benefit from exploitation will cling until the power is taken from them by force.
Garden variety liberals are a good example of the limitations of empathy in taking on exploitative systems. Though I can’t directly read their minds, based on how I was as a liberal and looking at similarities in others: Plenty are sincerely empathetic and generally believe in doing right by people and being a morally upstanding person. But they still, many of them, benefit from the system and so they have a vested interest in finding some mental gymnastics way to make excuses for it, or argue that the problems can be solved without actually dismantling it.