THE ONLY COLOR THAT REALLY MATTERS IS GREEN: Social scientists (at Yale, of all places) have produced a preliminary study showing that Americans are less responsive to race-based appeals than they are to class-based appeals. JustTheNews reports that:

“Appeals to class interests are best at increasing support for progressive policies across racial and political groups “despite leftward shifts in public attitudes towards issues of racial equality,” according to Josh Kalla, assistant professor of political science and data science, and doctoral student Micah English.”

Anyone who has spent more than five minutes reading Adam Smith, Thomas Hobbes, and yes, even Marx understand that our human instincts — and political choices — are more geared towards satisfaction of personal basic needs rather than “political identification.” For most, the latter is merely a means to acquire the former. In shorthand, regardless of race, most people inherently want security and sustenance, and political choices are merely means to obtain those things. But apparently the approach of most policy-makers is to override the peoples’ preferences with their own, allegedly superior, understanding:

“It questions the wisdom of “Democratic elites,” including President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders, racializing ostensibly race-neutral issues such as infrastructure, climate change and minimum wage increases.”

There is a certain amount of bravery in these scholars publishing this work, given Yale’s (and the rest of the so-called “progressives”) propensity for cancel culture. It if does not fit their world-view or narrative, it is doomed be pounced upon by keyboard warriors:

“The duo could become a target of race-focused progressive activists, given the repercussions faced by data scientist David Shor for tweeting research that found peaceful protest was historically more successful than violent protest […] Shared during the riots stemming from George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, the tweet drew widespread criticism in progressive circles, and Shor’s employer fired him soon after.”

I’m still waiting for self-righteous and “woke” Yale students and alumni to demand that the school be renamed “Harriet Tubman University” instead of honoring a slave trader, but I’m not holding my breath.

The value of having a Yale degree is money in the bank, and as if to prove the researchers’ point, these elite will act — like everyone else — in their own self-interest.