August 25, 2019
MY CORNER by Boyd
Cathey
Walter Williams on
Racial Discrimination – Cutting through the Maze of Disinformation
Friends,
I pass on
today, with little comment, a recently published piece by Dr. Walter Williams, Professor of Economics at George Mason University. Professor Williams is black. In few words he
punctures some of the “sacred cows” and standard narrative which dominate
thinking on “racial discrimination.” The information and statistical data
Professor Williams offers fly in the face of the race hustlers and, yes, much
of the Establishment “conservative movement” who buy into the idea that the
problems of black America are the result of “the legacy of slavery.”
Perhaps
only a black scholar or a woman academic like Dr. Heather MacDonald, uttering
these truths, could escape being driven from the University in our day and
time? Certainly a white male saying or writing them would be shouted down,
shamed, doxxed and hounded by the raving pseudo-intellectuals and post-Marxist
mob who dominate the Academy and the media these days.
Obviously,
Professor Williams’ short analysis is not an exhaustive examination; there is far
more that needs to be explored and written if realistic approaches to these
questions be addressed. Unfortunately, far too Americans—especially our
educators and political class—are thoroughly invested with a stubborn
resistance to such investigation and the very uncomfortable results that might
be produced….
How Important Is Today's Racial Discrimination?
There is discrimination of all sorts, and that includes racial
discrimination. Thus, it's somewhat foolhardy to debate the existence of racial
discrimination yesteryear or today. From a policy point of view, a far more
useful question to ask is: How much of the plight of many blacks can be
explained by current racial discrimination? Let's examine some of today's most
devastating problems of many black people with an eye toward addressing
discrimination of the past and present.
At the root of most of the problems black people face is the
breakdown of the family structure. Slightly over 70 percent of black children
are raised in female-headed households. According to statistics about
fatherless homes, 90 percent of homeless and runaway children are from fatherless
homes; 71 percent of pregnant teenagers lack a father figure; 63percent of
youth suicides are from fatherless homes; 71 percent of high school dropouts
come from fatherless homes; and 70 percent of juveniles in state-operated
institutions have no father. Furthermore, fatherless boys and girls are twice
as likely to drop out of high school and twice as likely to end up in jail.
One might say, "Williams, one cannot ignore the legacy of
slavery and the gross racism and denial of civil rights in yesteryear!"
Let's look at whether black fatherless homes are a result of a "legacy of
slavery" and racial discrimination. In the late 1800s, depending on the
city, 70percent to 80 percent of black households were two-parent. Dr. Thomas
Sowell has argued, "The black family, which had survived centuries of
slavery and discrimination, began rapidly disintegrating in the liberal welfare
state that subsidized unwed pregnancy and changed welfare from an emergency
rescue to a way of life."
As late as 1950, only 18 percent of black households were single
parent. From 1890 to 1940, a slightly higher percentage of black adults had
married than white adults. In 1938, black illegitimacy was about 11 percent
instead of today's 75 percent. In 1925, 85 percent of black households in New
York City were two-parent. Today, the black family is a mere shadow of its
past.
Let's ask a couple of questions about crime and education and
racial discrimination. It turns out that each year more than 7,000 blacks are
victims of homicide. That's slightly over 50 percent of U.S. homicide victims.
Ninety-four percent of the time, the perpetrator is another black person. Along
with being most of the nation's homicide victims, blacks are most of the
victims of violent personal crimes such as assault and robbery. At many
predominantly black schools, chaos is the order of the day. There is a high
rate of assaults on students and teachers. Youngsters who are hostile to the
educational process are permitted to make education impossible for those who
are prepared to learn. As a result, overall black educational achievement is a
disaster.
Here are my questions to those who blame racial discrimination
for the problems of black people: Is it necessary for us to await some kind of
moral rejuvenation among white people before measures can be taken to end or at
least reduce the kind of behavior that spells socioeconomic disaster in so many
black communities? Is it a requirement that we await moral rejuvenation among
white people before we stop permitting some black youngsters from making
education impossible for other black youngsters? Blacks were not the only
people discriminated against in America. While Jews and Asians were not
enslaved, they encountered gross discrimination. Nonetheless, neither Jews nor
Asians felt that they had to await the end of discrimination before they took
measures to gain upward mobility.
Intellectuals and political hustlers who blame the plight of so
many blacks on poverty, racial discrimination and the "legacy of
slavery" are complicit in the socioeconomic and moral decay. Black people
must ignore the liberal agenda that suggests that we must await government
money before measures can be taken to improve the tragic living conditions in
so many of our urban communities. Black and white intellectuals and politicians
suggesting that black people await government solutions wouldn't begin to live
in the same high-crime, dangerous communities and send their children to the
dangerous schools that so many black children attend.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason
University.
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