Meritocracy

Get ready to hear this word a lot this year. Forget the dictionary definition—it’s been twisted, much like “woke,” into a coded dog whistle, a stand-in for white people to use because they can say the n-word anymore. This morning, I heard a sycophant use “meritocracy” and “woke” in the same breath, and suddenly, the picture of the next few years of “white lash” came into focus.

This same person waxed poetic about returning to the so-called “golden age” of America. Funny how no one can pinpoint when exactly that was good for Black folks. Was it the ‘40s? The ‘50s? The ‘60s? Put an 18 or 19 in front of any decade, and the answer remains the same: it wasn’t.

And if the plans outlined in Project 2025 are anything to go by, today might bring executive orders to fire thousands of civil service employees and replace them with “loyalists” under a so-called system of meritocracy.

Let me give you an example of what meritocracy seems to mean now: Imagine the president of the United States, a convicted felon, no public service record, no prior political experience, and no verifiable education, managing to win over two highly qualified women (party affiliations aside). And in another? Losing to a white man with a resume of qualifications. This, my friends, is the redefined “meritocracy.”