THOMAS SOWELL, SYSTEMIC RACISM, AND STATISTICS

 

 

Thomas Sowell is an American economist, turned social theorist, political philosopher, and author. He is currently Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford. (Wikipedia)

 

Disparities in outcome do not prove systemic racism (SR). Instead, Sowell argues that statistics have been erroneously invoked to make charges of SR. One example is that blacks have been turned down for loans twice as much as whites. However, the charge of racism can only be made if certain other stats are ignored. Sowell writes:

 

·       If such data are included, it turns out that, in 2000, black applicants were turned down for prime mortgage loans twice as often as white applicants—and white applicants were turned down nearly twice as often as Asian American applicants. (Intellectuals and Race)

 

Sowell reasons that since it cannot be that whites are turned down twice as often as Asians because of racism, then there is no clear grounds to assume SR in regards to the rejection of blacks. Besides:

 

·       black-owned banks turn down black mortgage loan applicants at an even higher rate than do white-owned banks, and it seems equally unlikely that this is due to racial discrimination.

 

The Left can point to disparities to erroneously use them to prove SR and to inflame blacks against the system. Sowell demonstrates that the misuse of statistics doesn't stop there:

 

·       It is much the same story in the public schools, where black students are disciplined for misbehavior more often than white students—who in turn are disciplined more often than Asian American students.

 

Therefore, these simple disparities do not constitute evidence of white discrimination against blacks.

 

Sowell credits the paternalistic Left and its “I know better than you” attitude for the problems in his community:

 

·       At the heart of the Left’s vision of the world — and of themselves — is that they know better what is good for other people. This means that the Left sees itself as having both a right and a duty to take away other people’s options.

 

Sowell had experienced this “I know what’s better for you” attitude in many ways:

 

·       Many years ago, in a debate on William F. Buckley’s program Firing Line, I was told by a left-wing lawyer that black parents without a good education themselves could not make wise choices for their children’s education. But hard evidence says otherwise. There are whole chains of charter schools, such as the KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) schools and the Success Academy schools, where ghetto kids have academic achievements equal to those of children in affluent suburbs — and sometimes higher achievements…Black parents who enroll their children in charter schools have apparently made better choices than the know-it-alls on the left.

 

Sowell also claims that the “I know best” Left has also hurt and marginalized by denigrating law-enforcement:

 

·       When it comes to crime and violence, the political Left, including much of the media, are having a great time demonizing the police. Blacks are the biggest victims of the sharp upturn in murders that has followed. But, yet again, hard evidence carries very little weight when the Left is feeling good about themselves, while leaving havoc in their wake. The absurdity to which this kind of media frenzy about the police can lead is shown by the fact that a black policeman in Charlotte, North Carolina, shooting a black suspect who had a gun, has been blown up into a racial issue across the nation. Have we become so gullible that we are so easily manipulated and stampeded? http://www.nationalreview.com/article/441176/california-ballot-proposition-58-shows-left-taking-school-choices-away-parents

 

 

The “divide and conquer” Leftist strategy has hurt whites as well as blacks:

 

·       None of the most popular political panaceas for helping black communities has a track record of making things better, and some have made things much worse. (Sowell)

 

This should raise the question, “Who really cares, who is truly our friends, and who is just using us are a pawn to support their political agenda?” According to Sowell:

 

·       Many things that are supposed to help blacks actually have a track record of making things worse. Minimum wage laws have had a devastating effect in making black teenage unemployment several times higher than it once was.

 

·       In later years, as the minimum wage was repeatedly raised to keep up with inflation, black teenage unemployment from 1971 through 1994 was never less than 3 times what it was in 1948, and ranged as high as more than 5 times the 1948 level. It also became far higher than the unemployment rate of whites the same age.

 

Ironically, the Left continues to unfold their charges of SR and the alleged racist attempts to maintain “white privilege,” creating hatred, distrust, and polarization However, the Left’s attempts to replace the present system might have done more to un-privilege the black community than anything else. Sowell charges:

 

·       The relations between the police and the black community are another issue that has gotten a lot of attention, and produced counterproductive results. After all the rhetoric and all the efforts towards more tightly restraining the police, the net result has been that murder rates have soared in cities where that policy has been followed — and most of the people killed have been black.

 

Our culture of blame and shame refuses to compare the status of blacks before and after the institution of their liberal policies. However, Sowell wants us to see the larger picture:

 

·       In my own life, I was very fortunate when I left home in 1948, at age 17 — a high school dropout with no skills or experience. At that time, the unemployment rate of black 16- and 17-year-old males was 9.4 percent. For white males the same ages, it was 10.2 percent. http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell091316.php3#4KH2HlYyLYYSVZxU.99

 

The Left has little interest in such statistics, only those that they can twist to show that our entire system is so corrupt that it must be removed.