… whose chief domestic imperative for 50 years has been ending racism and righting long-standing wrongs against blacks—with such success that we now have an expanding black middle class, a black secretary of state, black CEOs of three top corporations, a black Supreme Court justice, and a serious black presidential candidate—how can there still exist a large black urban underclass imprisoned in poverty, welfare dependency, school failure, nonwork, and crime? How even today can more black young men be entangled in the criminal-justice system than graduate from college? How can close to 70 percent of black children be born into single-mother families, which (almost all experts agree) prepare kids for success less well than two-parent families?
The legacy of slavery and racism isn’t the reason, economist Thomas Sowell has long argued. That legacy didn’t stop blacks from raising themselves up after Emancipation. By World War I, Sowell’s data show, northern blacks scored higher on armed-forces tests than southern whites. After World War II and the GI Bill, black education and income levels rose sharply. It was only in the mid-1960s that a century of black progress seemed to make a sudden U-turn, a reversal that long-past events didn’t cause. Beginning around 1964, the rates of black high school graduation, workforce participation, crime, illegitimacy, and drug use all turned sharply in the wrong direction. While many blacks continued to move forward, a sizable minority solidified into an underclass, defined by self-destructive behavior that all but guaranteed failure.
What was going on in the mid-sixties that could explain such a startling development? Political scientist Charles Murray gave the first answer to that question: welfare benefits sharply rose just at that moment. Offering more purchasing power than a minimum-wage job, the dole, he argued, provided an economic incentive for women to have out-of-wedlock babies and for their boyfriends to live off their welfare payments, too.
A decade after Murray, I suggested that, though welfare was part of the answer, the real explanation was larger. It was cultural, not economic. Begun by the elites, vast changes reshaped mainstream attitudes in the 1960s. Sex became fine outside marriage, and illegitimacy lost its stigma. Drugs were cool; social authority and tradition weren’t. America was deemed a racist, unjust society that victimized and impoverished blacks, who could rarely better their condition and who therefore deserved generous welfare benefits as reparations for past and present oppression. If blacks committed crime, the system that drove them to it, out of poverty or as an act of protest, was at fault: we shouldn’t blame the victim, as the saying went—meaning the poor criminal, not his prey. Since people shape their actions according to the ideas and beliefs they hold, when these new attitudes reached the inner cities, what could result but an epidemic of social dysfunction?
Well worth your time.
Social dysfunction…depravity..sickness…a gnawing sense that there is something better…spit..snot..blood and at the end of the day those who would stand in the way of knowledge…care taking rather than care giving…responsibility stolen and learning lost…maslow meets unconscience competence..they extract from those they profess to heal the force they can not generate themselves…
I feel sick..they don’t
Syncro
It seems to me that all cultures and races lived through the free loving 60’s. Welfare was also available to everyone then as well as now.
Another important read:
“Beyond What Bill Cosby Said”
By Theodore M. Shaw, director-counsel and president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
Bill Cosby is a beloved icon. So it gave me no pleasure to follow him to the stage at Constitution Hall on May 17, the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, after listening to his remarks.
For his philanthropy toward institutions that have worked on behalf of African Americans, Cosby was being honored by the three institutions, including the Legal Defense and Educational Fund, that share responsibility for winning the Supreme Court decision that broke the back of American apartheid. In his acceptance remarks, however, Cosby told the well-heeled, black-tie audience that “the lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal.”
Unlike the story of Brown, Cosby suggested, this was not about what white people are doing to us; it was about what black people are failing to do for themselves. His remarks excoriated poor black people for their failure to actively raise their children, to teach “knuckleheads” proper English and for spending hundreds of dollars for sneakers while refusing to spend $200 for the educational package “Hooked on Phonics.” Cosby also spoke of “people getting shot in the back of the head [for stealing] a piece of poundcake, and then we run out and we are outraged.” And he wondered why more people from these communities were not incarcerated. “God is tired of you,” he quipped, “and so am I.”
I knew, even before I reached the stage, that Cosby’s comments would be hijacked by those who pretend that racism is no longer an issue and who view poor black people with disdain. So, departing from my own prepared remarks, I embraced the notion of personal responsibility, at the same time calling attention to problems faced by African Americans that are not self-inflicted.
One example is the now infamous Tulia, Tex., drug sting. With no drugs, no money and no weapons recovered, 10 percent of the black population of this small town was arrested and convicted on the word of one corrupt undercover police officer. The sentences ranged from 20 to 341 years. Only after the Legal Defense Fund and other lawyers represented these individuals in post-conviction proceedings were they released.
Predictably, conservatives are applauding Bill Cosby for saying that the problems of the black community stem primarily from personal failures and moral shortcomings. But just as we in the progressive African American community cannot countenance the demonization of poor people, we must not cede the issue of personal responsibility to ideological conservatives. Most poor black people struggle admirably to raise their children well. Parents, including single mothers, work for low wages, sometimes in multiple jobs, to support their families. Recently Cosby recognized this in a press statement in which he emphasized that he was not criticizing everyone in the “black lower economic classes” but intended to issue a “call to action” and to foster “a sense of shared responsibility and action.”
Unlike much of the world, we ignore human rights protections against discrimination on the basis of economic status. As a nation, we wage war on poor people in this country, not on poverty. In many ways we are a nation struggling to maintain our moral compass. Violence and dysfunction in poor black communities are under an especially glaring spotlight. But many of the problems Cosby addressed are largely a function of concentrated poverty in black communities — the legacy of centuries of governmental and private neglect and discrimination.
Cosby’s observations about the senseless violence perpetrated within black communities are undeniable. I do not know anyone who does not condemn it. But Amadou Diallo, shot to death in a hail of 41 bullets by New York police, did not steal a poundcake. He and countless other innocent black people have been killed while unarmed in communities in which policing is driven almost entirely by a “war on drugs” that makes all residents presumptive targets.
Following a recent conversation, Cosby and I agreed on this much: To the extent that he is frustrated and angry about the failure of people to be responsible parents, and about senseless crime and violence, I stand with him; to the extent that we continue to be challenged by the systemic issues of race and racism that the Legal Defense Fund has confronted since the days of my predecessor, Thurgood Marshall, Bill Cosby stands with me.
There is no either/or for anyone who truly works in the interests of African Americans and our nation.
[Washington Post, Thursday, May 27, 2004; Page A31]
“What was going on in the mid-sixties that could explain such a startling development? Political scientist Charles Murray gave the first answer to that question: welfare benefits sharply rose just at that moment.”
Bingo.
Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Kruschev, Castro, and now Kim Jong Il and Chavez (and I suppose Turdeau too) are all rubbing their hands with glee and chanting:
“See comrade, our plan has worked perfectly. The best way to invade, destroy and take over capitalist countries is to do it through their so-called “education” system…..WHAT A BUNCH OF SIMPLE MINDED DUPES THEY ALL ARE! BWA HA HAHAHAHAHA!”
Andrew. Seems like a reasonable thesis to explain the problems of blacks in America. One problem. How does this apply to blacks in Canada? No legacy of slavery here. Generous welfare, education, health care, equity legislation etc. Why are the black youth of Toronto heading down the same path as inner-city Americans? I am not making any statements here, just asking a very simple question.
Same thing in the Caribbean, a woman has her husband that returns Friday or Saturday night takes her out and to church on Sunday then leaves Monday to spend time with his girl or girl friends. Meanwhile her boyfriend moves in and so goes the merry-go-round. That’s pretty normal down there, it is cultural.
You can blame it on the racist leftards. They keep telling the black community they are not responsible for their actions because they are victims, ditto for the natives. The leftards treat the native and black communities as if they were children, unable to take responsibilty. They have been told repeatedly by the left they will never amount to anything because of their skin colour. The leftards have made a fortune off of the backs of minorities, why would they give that up?
Sometimes a sense of “historical injustice” can define how a group identifies itself. Look at the ongoing First Nation debacle. Plus, it keeps those checks coming.
There is way too much money being made off the backs of the poor for the poverty pimps to ever give that up. I do believe there are more poverty pimps than there are poor people in Canada. It takes about 15 of them to cut a welfare cheque for one of their meal tickets each month.
But the government dole will rot your soul
Looks like Johnson should have listened to his Southern Democrat bretheren and withdrawn the Civil Rights legislation he rammed through Congress.No wonder George Wallace’s memory is revered in many parts of the US.
Blacks are not the only victims of the welfare state. Our own natives are free loaders of the worst sort; and the bloody fwenchmen in Queerbec have yet to run a provincial gov’t that can turn a profit.
The idiots on the political left do not understand that work is a requirement for life just like food and water and shelter. Deprive a man of work, and you rob him of his soul and self worth.
I have seen it so many times in the schools it just got comical. A leftard teacher gets a black or native kid in her class, and they take them under thier wing, and are amazed they have taught them not to eat the crayons. My kids are white, they ate crayons too, but the teacher would tell them to cut it out and ask them if they did that at home, threaten to call me, or send them to the principals office. It was like the teacher believed my white kids did that to be disruptive, but the native and black children did that because they had nothing to eat at home. The moral of the story is, all kids eat crayons.
For every Amadou Diallo (who officers had every reason to believe was pulling a gun on them) there are thousands of victims of black criminals, both black and white. Of course, Bruce Springsteen the pompous blowhard doesn’t write songs about ’em, so…
Blacks make up 8% of the US population but commit 40% of the violent crimes.
Compare the coverage of the imaginary Duke Rape Case (brought on by another sick lying black woman, a la Tawana Brawley) to these true stories you never heard about in the MSM:
***
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=20794
All four men are charged with the anal rape of Christopher Newsom. They did so in the presence of Channon Christian. They then shot him to death, wrapped him in bedding, soaked him in gasoline and set him on fire. He was the lucky one.
Channon Christian was a senior at the University of Tennessee. According to the charges and a source close to the investigation, she was repeatedly gang raped by the four men — vaginally, anally and orally.
***
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/michelle/malkin110802.asp
The perpetrators were black. The victims-including friends Jason Befort, Heather Muller, Bradley Heyka and Aaron Sander-were white. The Carrs were convicted of murdering these four young people, execution-style, on a frozen soccer field after a night of terror in Befort, Heyka, and Sander’s townhouse. After breaking into the residence, the Carrs forced Muller and Jason Befort’s unnamed fiancé to perform sexual acts on each other; the men were then forced to participate.
Next, the Carrs raped the women, drove all five victims to an ATM machine, forced them to withdraw money from their accounts, and headed to the soccer field.
The five victims were forced to kneel in the snow and beg for their lives before sustaining gunshots to the head. The Carrs then ran over their victims with their truck. Befort’s fiancé miraculously survived. She walked more than a mile, bleeding and naked, in the snow, before finding help.
An excellent link. Thanks, Kate.
“After integration in their neighborhood began around 1967, my late inlaws, being nice liberals (he was a classical musician and union leader, she a special-ed teacher), joined a pro-integration activist organization in their West Side of Chicago neighborhood to keep the neighborhood from going from part black to all black. All the members pledged not to sell.
“But within 18 months, the first wave of middle class black home buyers in their neighborhood had been driven out by underclass blacks pouring in and driving the crime rate through the roof.
“After their kids were mugged three times and the vast Martin Luther King riot occurred in their neighborhood in 1968, my inlaws finally sold out at a very low price, being just about the last whites to leave the neighborhood, losing much of their life savings because they had tried to make integration work.
“They moved to what are now the distant exurbs and voted Republican after that.”
Helpful charts and graphs included:
http://www.gnxp.com/MT2/archives/003904.html
kingstonlad: Andrew. Seems like a reasonable thesis to explain the problems of blacks in America. One problem. How does this apply to blacks in Canada? No legacy of slavery here. Generous welfare, education, health care, equity legislation etc. Why are the black youth of Toronto heading down the same path as inner-city Americans? I am not making any statements here, just asking a very simple question.
I assume you were addressing my comment (4:48 AM) and not Andrew’s (6:07 AM).
To answer, I’ll point first to this passage in the Shaw article: “As a nation, we wage war on poor people in this country, not on poverty. In many ways we are a nation struggling to maintain our moral compass. Violence and dysfunction in poor black communities are under an especially glaring spotlight. But many of the problems Cosby addressed are largely a function of concentrated poverty in black communities — the legacy of centuries of governmental and private neglect and discrimination…to the extent that we continue to be challenged by the systemic issues of race and racism that the Legal Defense Fund has confronted since the days of my predecessor, Thurgood Marshall, Bill Cosby stands with me.”
The legacy of governmental and private neglect and discrimination is broader than the legacy of slavery. Such “systemic issues of race and racism” implicate Canada as much as the US. We know that equity legislation on paper does not necessarily translate into equity in our society. As one example, we know that discriminatory hiring & promotion practises — particularly among senior positions — continue to exist (and not only against blacks specifically). As another, we also know that racial profiling exists. I trust you’re aware of the ground-breaking steps initiated by your own city’s police force to stop the practise of racial profiling there. It’s one small but important part of a much larger and far more complex “solution.” What else that solution might involve, I’m not sure. But I know it’ll require change from everyone on multiple fronts, and will involve more than simplistic notions like “Expand the welfare state” or “Reduce the welfare state.”
“Systemic” is the right word here, as it implies that fully understanding the causes of the problem, and working towards their solutions, requires “systems thinking.” Shaw is absolute right on his last point: “THERE IS NO EITHER/OR FOR ANYONE WHO TRULY WORKS IN THE INTERESTS OF AFRICAN AMERICANS AND OUR NATION.”
So, A’dam, do you have an excuse on standby for Nigeria?
Kathy: After integration in their neighborhood began around 1967…
It may be worth noting that Kathy’s quotation comes from this Steve Sailer.
So much of the pathology we see today had it’s roots in the indulgent narcissistic 60’s. Personal responsibility was scorned, victim politics took root.
Knight 99, welfare was directed at Blacks, it was initiated with Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs that were the largest social expenditure ever in the US. Billions were wasted with grants given out to any race hustler with a hand out. The way welfare was structured males were marginalized. You didn’t qualify for your public housing, food stamps and services with an employed husband, hence marriage was a liability. The legacy of marginalized black males that have no exposure to consistent nurturing male role models continues to play out in the inner cities.
If you examine African culture there is plenty of pathology regarding marriage and monogamy rooted in black culture even without their experiences in American history.
A’dam, the NAACP rebuke of Bill Cosby is viewed for exactly what it is by anyone with a brain, a victim hustling organization threatened by a dissenting black public figure whose message is one of personal responsibility rather than the pathology of victim games and excuses for failure.
Adam, Sailer’s describing the lives of his inlaws. Regardless of what you think of his research and his outspokenness, are you accusing him of making up that particular story? You’ve never heard hundreds of stories just like it?
Luckily the NAACP has started shuttering lots of its regional offices. Folks are starting to realize, very belatedly, that they contribute more to the problem than the solution.
Would you like to address the Tennessee and Witchita massacres for a sec, or are you too ashamed to?
And can you provide some proof about those discrimanatory hiring practices? Is it that stuff about blacks named N’keesha not getting hired as fast, out of Freakanomics?
Hey, here’s a plan: give your kids normal people’s names!!
Can you also explain how blacks were doing so well in the era closer to the end of slavery but before all that civil rights legislation (the 30s and 40s — see the Harlem Ren.) but then got _worse_ the further away slavery got? (The 60s onward), and as affirmative action took over. Weird, huh?
It is all explained in the article which I doubt you read.
I agree with you Adam. It really is all the fault of society. White Liberal Society. Take up your beef with them — we conservatives had little to do with your problems, since we weren’t in charge at the time. Democrats voted against the Civil Rights Act of 64, not GOPs. Why not go bug them with your tiresome talking points?
The welfare system was put in place to keep the blacks and other minorities in their place. It makes sure they will never succeed, or be self reliant individuals. As soon as they figure that out they will truly be equal.
Until this issue loses it’s charge the inherent problems will remain systemic. The best news is that we are evolving towards equalibrium at a good clip.
Systemic, pisstemic:
http://www.city-journal.org/html/6_2_my_black.html
>Reviewing the evidence in 1994, Professors Stanley Rothman and Stephen Powers concluded that after controlling for all relevant variables, one finds simply no evidence of racial disparities in post-1972 capital sentencing. The crucial variable is the severity of the crime. Though the vast majority of murders are committed by someone of the same race as the victim, black-on-white murders are more likely than black-on-black murders to be cases of strangers killing strangers and to “involve kidnapping and rape, mutilations, execution-style murders, tortures, and beatings,” according to Rothman and Powers. “These are all aggravating circumstances that increase the likelihood of a death sentence.”
>Even the raw statistics don’t show much sign of racism. From the day the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 through the end of 1993, more than 400,000 Americans were murdered. Over the same period, only 226 killers were executed, 38 percent of them black. In 1993, blacks were 40 percent of the 2,716 prisoners on death row and 36 percent of the 38 convicted murderers executed.
>The scandalous truth is, most of the thousands of murderers behind bars don’t face too harsh but too lenient a punishment. Most get out of prison. Murderers released from state prisons in 1992 served an average of only 5.9 years. There is no evidence that black murderers get out any less quickly than comparable white ones.”
“Systemic Discrimination” = “there is no discrimination but we’re not getting the results we want, and there cannot be any issues with the ‘inputs’ (ie people, population group) involved”.
I agree with the comments re: “systemic” discrimination. Circumstantial evidence, at best, of racism. Taking a snapshot of today’s demographics and expecting conformance in society is silliness.
The more important point is we tend to become what we think about. When this was pointed out at a seminar, this guy once said, “oh my God, I’m a woman.” Seriously, though, if you think of yourself as a victim of this or that, if someone wants to advocate for your victimization, that’s what you will believe and become. If you think prejudice keeps you poor, then likely you will be poor unless you change your thinking.
Don’t get me wrong, discrimination borne of racism is still in our societies. Rather than telling people they are helpless victims, we should do two things: tell people that, regardless of their situation, they are ultimately responsible for their own life. Secondly, where discrimination exists, in all forms, get rid of it. That means dealing with those who discriminate illegally have consequences, with real preponderance of evidence, rather than kangaroo court human rights councils or taxpayer funded groups dependent on victims, and therefore keeping people down.
Discourage, reduce, punish ALL illegal discrimination, against women, gays, blacks, and yes, even angry white guys. Utopian, yes, but also necessary. IOW, quit whining, find ways to overcome prejudice, just like many groups before, then GOYA (get off your anatomy).
It was in the early seventies that the U.S. started a program,ADC,Aid for Dependent Children. This program was to ensure that children would not go hungry and had a chance. It also started the baby boom among the non-working class. We have the same in Canada,esp. on the reserves where children are treated as currency. That is why the birth rate amongst natives is double the rest of Canada. Why work when you can double your income by laying back and spreading your legs again.If you are a man, the woman with the biggest “mattress money” cheque is very desirable.
The 60s ushered in the era (that continues today) of accepting arcane Marxist class struggle dogma as “hip” and “enlightened”. Marxist class struggle ALWAYS needs an repressed underdog class to fawn over and worship as a unjustly repressed disadvantage sub culture AND to justify revolutionary deconstruction.
It was 60s deconstructionist Dems who latched onto this Marxian concept of putting black culture/population on the chronic disadvantaged “welfare plantation” of leftist class struggle ideology.
In spite of the strides Black America had made in the new deal and post WWII in deploying their own leadership resources they were relegated to being disadvantaged lefty mascots with the disability of being black and needy of “extra help” from white urban liberals romancing the utopian Marxian class struggle fantasy.
Essentially the left deemed Blacks to be too wretched and incapable of their own salvation or amelioration without help from white liberals.
Degrading the natural capacity of the black man to achieve gave white class struggle liberals a purpose/cause.
In contrast there were Constitutionalists and Libertarians like James Bevel, Charlton Heston and others who saw all the Black Man needed to make his way in America was a level legal playing field so they marched in the south for equal voting rights and encouraged Blacks to be politically involved and get their people into office to bring apout systemic change and prosperity in the black community…they knew Black people were capable of competing and succeeding in America if they took the opportunity guaranteed them as Americans by law.
Meanwhile the collective left ( who always need a disadvantaged class to gain funding for their class system polity, had, through Democratic party legislating, constructed an inner city welfare “plantation” for Black America which encouraged the worst instincts in human nature and promotes reliance and continuous need…it has been the single most destructive policy that has plagued the evolution of Black culture in America.
The first nations are using this as a template with similar results, right down to first nations gangsta rap.
As long as we use colour as the only identiy of a person racism will continue. Any program that focuses on colour as their reason for being is essentially racist. Racism is a self-perpetuating ideal. All humans should be judged on what they are rather than what colour they are. Our governments with their race based hiring etc. are the most racist of us all.
PS Adam, can you quote anything that doesn’t come from Wikipedia? We keep making fun of you and you keep doing it. Are you a bit slow…?
Kate,
Re: Nigeria.
The British West Africa Company engaged in the slave trade. At the time Nigeria was in constant civil/tribal war. Instead of massacring the losers they were sold for gold to the British. Those tribal leaders who took the majority of the profits in Africa for the slave trade were able to maintain their positions of power because they had money and access to goods that win wars.
Those same warlord families/tribes are still in constant civil war.
I don’t think we can blame rap music.
Also: White rappers (Eminem) often rap about killing their families, raping girls who are passed out, or killing people with drugs.
The key leftard line in the post by Adam:
“…the legacy of centuries of governmental and private neglect and discrimination.”
It’s always someone else’s fault. Always playing the victim card.
Personal/parental responsibility is a non-issue to lefties. Cosby’s point was that it is THE ISSUE.
Rob,
Honestly, what does Bill Cosby know about being black? Adam obviously has his finger on the pulse of minorities…
(rolls eyes)
Great to see a lot of concern over the plight of Black people over here at SDA.
Still the master of the four second hate, Jose!
when Jose says “concern” he means “hand wringing.” We mean “truth telling.”
Jose the race pimp just drove by in his purple 83 Eldorodo with the Ace of Spades rear window.
THE POVERTY PIMPS’ POEM
Let us celebrate the poor,
Let us hawk them door to door.
There’s a market for their pain,
Votes and glory and money to gain.
Let us celebrate the poor.
Their ills, their sins, their faulty diction
Flavor our songs and spice our fiction.
Their hopes and struggles and agonies
Get us grants and consulting fees.
Celebrate thugs and clowns,
Give their ignorance all renown.
Celebrate what holds them down,
In our academic gowns.
Let us celebrate the poor.
Penny: …message is one of personal responsibility (EITHER) rather than the pathology of victim games and excuses for failure (OR).
Honeypot: The welfare system (EITHER) was put in place to keep the blacks and other minorities in their place. It makes sure they will never succeed, or be self reliant individuals (OR).
Dudley Morris: Systemic Discrimination” (EITHER) = “there is no discrimination but we’re not getting the results we want, and there cannot be any issues with the ‘inputs’ (ie people, population group) involved” (OR).
Rob: It’s always someone else’s fault. Always playing the victim card (EITHER). Personal/parental responsibility (OR) is a non-issue to lefties.
Sigh…
Wow Adam, way to address all the facts and stats.
No Wikipedia entry for “instant progressive talking points” yet?
Jon: Honestly, what does Bill Cosby know about being black? Adam obviously has his finger on the pulse of minorities…
Jon, have you actually read/listened to what Dr. Cosby has said about the problems in the black community? And not just the more provocative bits regurgitated by the media and blogosphere, but the entire “Pound Cake” transcript, interviews, etc. I actually agree with a lot of what he says.
Like almost everyone here, he focuses on the need for stronger parenting and role modeling, and for black communities themselves to “take their neighbourhoods back.” But there are two key differences between his argument and the standard position taken on SDA:
(1) he also recognizes that systemic racism remains a problem; and, more tellingly
(2) he’s actually committed to helping solve the range of problems plaguing black communities, instead of just complaining about and judging them from the safety of his computer.
Puts me in mind of the study that was done in New Jersey by some Left leaning university to see why such a large proportion of people stopped on the turnpike for speeding were black. You know, the whole “driving while black” thing.
Turns out more blacks were getting pulled over because more blacks were speeding. Common sense would tell you that, because a cop can’t tell who’s driving the car until he gets it pulled over. But since common sense isn’t big in the Ivory Tower, they did the study.
And having done the study and discovered that the NJ Turnpike cops aren’t a bunch of drooling n—er hatin’ rednecks, what do you think they did? They BURIED IT.
I only know about it from Rush Limbaugh, some ferret of his unearthed it on the web. No wonder the Lefties hate his guts, eh?
Now to A’dam and his ilk, I unearthed something myself in times past that supports the issue at hand here. In of all places, the gun control literature. If you look at the origional Rushforth anti-gun paper waaaaay back in the 1970’s, and you check out his graphs, you’ll notice something interesting. He charts black and white, suburban and urban gun accidents from the 1950’s to the mid-70’s. In the middle 1960’s the urban black rate goes asymptotic, while suburban black and all white crime stays fairly flat. Meaning some serious s–t happened to the black kids in the urban area, and it happened -fast-. Like, in a year or two.
Dr. Sowell may be right about what keeps black poverty in place, but a u-turn in one particular social segment like that indicates something new and nasty has been added. My guess is drugs, probably heroin given the timing. Rushforth and company try to make the case than guns are the cause, but their own graphs show that’s impossible.
In the fantastically unlikely event that any of you Lefties want to broaden your minds, the Rushforth paper is Am J Epidemiol. 1974 Dec;100(6):499-505 “Accidental firearm fatalities in a metropolitan county (1958-1973)” Rushforth NB, Hirsch CS, Ford AB, Adelson L.
The paper is all over the web, and it exemplifies the kind of crap that passes for “evidence” in the wrld of gun control. Take yourselves over to Google and look it up.
Of course racism and discrimination exist. They always have been with us and always will. It is not the exclusive domain of any culture, sex or race. It is a universal human characteristic that can be minimized but never eliminated. Too much time and money is focused on endless hand wringing over its existence. Instead just prosecute blatant acts, accept that it will not be eliminated entirely and teach coping skills and for affected groups. Humor, wit, assertiveness and a thick skin can often have better outcomes than the HRC.
Back to the article. The author has some very good points. Let’s say that racism is the initial cause of US blacks, Cdn natives or UK Irish problems. Their current state of dysfunction has continued for other reasons. Ghetto culture, welfare economics and family dysfunction. No matter how many reparations are made for historic wrongs, it will not cure today’s problems.
To help today’s problems requires modern solutions. Like Cosby said, the disadvantaged have to meet us halfway. It does no one any good to impose a solution on a people that are not receptive to improving themselves. The first step in that is to throw off the victimhood mindset and actually do things that will improve yourself. Move out of the ghetto and its culture to save your kids. Get an education to become employable. Quit having babies you can’t afford. Governments place should be to help by rewarding these positive behaviours instead of assisting failure.
Sure Adam, me and my white friends will be RIGHT OVER to Jane & Finch to personally help them out.
Not.
Adam,
Yes, I have followed the Cosby saga quite closely. It’s interesting to note (in case you missed it) that I assume that you are some progressive white teen/20-something from Toronto. If not I believe that there is a quote from Winston Churchill that you should check out: “Show me a young conservative and I’ll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old liberal and I’ll show you someone with no brains.”
If I were you I wouldn’t try to lump the SDA readers into one group. Unlike lefties we get our news from many sources, not just the CBC and RAbble.
With the utmost contempt,
Jon
PS I just found out recently (by reading Company of Explorers) that Churchill, Manitoba was named after Winston Churchill’s ancestor, interesting no?
I’m just a honky remember? Cosby can go where ever he wants, although even Jesse Jackson admits that if he turns around and sees a bunch of white kids walking behind him rather than black ones,, he breathes a sigh of relief.
See, Adam, my role is to bitch, moan and shame you into doing something, and black people’s job is to actually DO something about it. Themselves. For. A. Change. What is this white person to the rescue stuff–hasn’t that done enough damage?
Yes, from the safety of my computer. See the Witchita and Tennesse massacres, above.
The video that got Rush into trouble for a little while but speaks Truth to Leftist Dogma on thi very issue (it’s hilarious to boot)
“The idiots on the political left do not understand that work is a requirement for life just like food and water and shelter. Deprive a man of work, and you rob him of his soul and self worth.” by Jim
Exactly!!! Now if we just started depriving the useless of welfare cheques, they’d get a bloody job. Sometimes you have to force people to move out of their comfort zone, get off the booze and drugs, and off their lazy arses. When they realize the alternative is to be living on the streets, they’ll get their acts together, and the biggest bonus is they will feel great about themselves in the end. The rest who can’t get it together should be put into the military to clean toilets.
And as for Quebec, these people receive subsidized everything and don’t even come close to pulling their own weight. It is time to pull their plush rug from under their butts and force them to realize their free ride is over; Quebec will never leave Canada because they know it would mean just this.
The lack of morality and fathers is the problem in the black community, not poverty. Many people belong to the working poor, and they are not committing acts of violence or trafficking drugs and their bodies. A hand up is better than a hand out, just like it is better to teach a man to fish, than to feed him fish. People who blame everyone else other than themselves for choices they make are simply losers, and it won’t be until they take responsibility for their own choices that they will ever be able to change and make a difference in their lives.