Discrimination and Disparities

Why it’s on the list: Sowell’s argument that unequal outcomes between groups are the normal case, not the thing requiring special explanation — so a disparity is weak evidence for any particular cause — and that policy inferring animus from a statistic often makes the underlying problem worse.

Where I heard about it

• Charlie Kirk — on @j_bambrick’s compilation of every book Kirk recommended across his episodes and videos, September 2025.

About this edition

Sowell separates discrimination in the sense of discernment from discrimination in the sense of animus. The 2019 revised edition adds chapters on crime and on social-justice policy.

Connections

• Basic Economics — Sowell’s textbook, already in the anti-library.
• Inequality — the phenomenon the book is about explaining rather than deploring.
• Meritocracy — the prerequisites argument cuts at this too.
• Economics — the method: prices, incentives and sorting rather than intentions.