so it is not surprising to see a recently proposed republican bill in the north carolina state house announced that it aims to ensure dignity and non-discrimination in schools while putting strict limits on what schools can teach when it comes to race, including a ban on promoting, quote, the belief that the united states is a meritocracy is inherently racist or sexist or was created by members of a particular race or sex for the purpose of oppressing members of another race or sex. huh, the idea that meritocracy could be elevated to sacrosanct american civics under force of law is just insane to me. first of all, obviously the word is nowhere in the constitution or our founding documents. it was invented by a leftist british sociologist, michael young in the 1950s to describe what he conjured as a dystopian and unjust future society where all positions in society were remorselessly determined by high stakes testing. that's the origin of that term.