Even daylight savings time is racist

Photo by Jessica Delp on Unsplash

I hate time changes. I once joked I would run for president on a platform of nothing but ending daylight savings time and a lot of folks said they’d vote for me. I have yet to find someone who actually enjoys having their sleep jacked around twice a year.

But there’s one thing we can say about it and that’s how it screws us all equally.

Or does it?

It seems that some believe it’s actually racist.

Do these people ever grow tired of beclowning themselves? And by “these people” I’m speaking of the folks at CNN who can’t seem to cover any issue in the United States today without “systemic racism” as the underlying cause. Homelessness is caused by racism. The pandemic was racist. And now, putting a cherry on top of this dish, daylight savings time is racist. But how does that work? I’ll be the first to admit that I think daylight savings time is a bad policy that’s no longer required and would like to see it end. But how does it relate to racism?

The answer is provided by CNN Health reporter Jacqueline Howard. You see, disruptions in a person’s sleep cycle (which happen for many when we change the clocks) have been shown to “contribute to general health problems.” And since Black and Hispanic people supposedly have more health problems on average than white people, that means that they are disproportionately impacted by daylight savings time. Let me know if I’m going too fast for you here. (Fox News)

A recent online article from CNN argued that Daylight Savings Time disproportionately affects the sleep and health of minority communities.

The piece, published on Friday by CNN Health reporter Jacqueline Howard, argued that Daylight Savings Time often disrupts sleep, throws off people’s circadian rhythms and can contribute to general health problems.

And since people of color have a higher number of health problems, this means observing Daylight Savings Time is more dangerous for them.

It appears that the author was aware of how ridiculous she sounded because she included the phrase “it’s not that White adults don’t also experience a lack of sleep and its health consequences.” Of course, a phrase like that is always followed by a “but.” And there were plenty of buts to come as the article progressed.

And this, boys and girls, is why I cannot take any suggestion that something is racist as the gospel truth without checking it out for myself.

I hate daylight savings time. I wish we’d put an end to it here and now. There is some truly bipartisan ground that will actually make our lives better for a change, but it’s not racist.

While it may be true that black Americans have more health problems on average and that changing the time as we do doesn’t particularly help it, that’s just an unfortunately secondary effect.

For it to be racist, the reason for its existence would need to be motivated by race itself. It would almost require the time changes to be engineered to negatively impact black folks more than white people.

It ain’t.

But when you start pretending that anything that creates challenges for an ethnic group is racist, this is what you get.

Even here, though, they’re inconsistent. After all, young black men were far more likely to be arrested for weapons charges in “may issue” concealed carry states, but that was fine.

In fact, some have alleged gun rights are racist, too, so absolutely no consistency.

Then again, consistency isn’t a hallmark of the American left by any stretch of the imagination.