Checkmate Before the First Move

Race, Chess, and the Illusion of the Perfect Game

I once dreamt that I had sat down at a chessboard, ready for a game of wits, only to discover that both armies were white.

Every pawn, knight, bishop, rook, queen, and king—blindingly uniform.

Identical.

Indistinguishable.

It was a game doomed before it began.

I looked up at my opponent, a smug, well-meaning bureaucrat of the rules. “It’s a fair game,” they assured me. “Everyone’s got the same pieces.”

“But no contrast,” I countered. “No balance. No yin to the yang.”

They blinked, uncomprehending.

This, I thought, is America’s race problem in microcosm—a board set with one kind of piece, where strategy is an illusion, and the only real choice is to move within the constraints of sameness. It is an exercise not in brilliance, but in redundancy.

The Tao of the Chessboard

Lao Tzu reminds us: “Know the white, but keep to the black.” The Tao teaches that harmony is found in balance—light and dark, movement and stillness, push and pull.

A chess game played with one color lacks the fundamental tension that creates possibility. Without opposition, without the creative force of contrast, the game stagnates.

America, in its grand delusion of meritocracy, has often been guilty of setting the board with one kind of piece and then claiming that the game is fair. Worse yet, it gaslights the players into believing that the problem isn’t with the setup, but with their ability to play.

Confucius might lean over the board, stroking his beard, and say, “The wise ruler does not fill a court with echoes of his own voice, but with those whose views expand his sight.” He would understand that a game played with no variation is not a test of intelligence—it’s a slow march to entropy.

And then, of course, there’s the I Ching, which warns us in Hexagram 39, Obstruction: “When the way is blocked, reflect before advancing.” How often has the U.S. faced an obstruction of its own making and mistaken it for an unavoidable fate?

Diversity: The Missing Pieces of the Game

A game of chess with only white pieces is not a game at all—it’s a quiet kind of extinction. The Tao reminds us that nature abhors rigidity. A river that refuses to bend will flood or dry up. A forest with only one kind of tree invites disease. A culture that refuses difference becomes brittle, unable to adapt, unable to innovate.

Taoism teaches us to embrace flow, to move with the natural order of things rather than forcing an artificial stasis. The Tao does not favor one over the other. Instead, it recognizes that existence itself is a dance of opposites. If one is erased, the other ceases to function.

Confucius, ever the advocate for a society built on mutual respect, would argue that a civilization flourishes when it values wisdom from many sources. He would have no patience for a board that insists only one kind of piece matters.

And the I Ching? It would remind us that life is a series of transformations, a perpetual unfolding of new arrangements. It would counsel that when the board is set improperly, the solution is not to resign oneself to the status quo, but to change the configuration.

A Call to Reshape the Game

We have a choice: we can continue to play a meaningless game with preordained winners, or we can reset the board. We can acknowledge that diversity isn’t a feel-good slogan but a necessity for a world that values evolution, creativity, and wisdom.

The Tao shows us that real strength is found in adaptability. The I-Ching advises that obstructions are invitations for ingenuity. And Confucius reminds us that a thriving society is one that values all of its voices.

So, I reach for the chessboard and begin replacing pieces. The game finally looks like something worth playing. I make my move.

Checkmate is no longer inevitable.

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