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In the early part of this millennium, 2006 or so, from a race standpoint it felt like we were on a roll—more mixed neighborhoods, more interracial marriages, more boring, everyday life together. Then somewhere around the Obama era, we took a hard turn.

 Suddenly every dispute was racial, and every outcome gap was “systemic racism.” And it seemed the answer to everything was to reengineer the scale until the numbers came out equal. Not enough of one race in top colleges? Lower the test bar for some groups. Too many Black people being arrested for crimes? We told cops to back off and ignore that some groups, for socioeconomic reasons, commit more crimes.

And worse, we told kids that their category mattered more than their choices. And crazily, we built an industry that needs racism more than it wants to solve it—needs it—because there’s money and power in keeping the wound open.

 Today I want to do two things: confess how I’ve been wrong about the word “social justice”—and then explain why I’m ready to embrace social justice, but only in a rational way.