A regular topic on the board is racism, where it's hiding and where it's coming from...
Jason Riley writes an interesting column in the WSJ, which includes:
1. Analysis of this issue launched Mr. Williams's career as a public intellectual, and in 1982 he published his first book, "The State Against Blacks," arguing that laws regulating economic activity are far larger impediments to black progress than racial bigotry and discrimination. Nearly 30 years later, he stands by that premise.
2. "Racial discrimination is not the problem of black people that it used to be" in his youth, says Mr. Williams. "Today I doubt you could find any significant problem that blacks face that is caused by racial discrimination. The 70% illegitimacy rate is a devastating problem, but it doesn't have a damn thing to do with racism. The fact that in some areas black people are huddled in their homes at night, sometimes serving meals on the floor so they don't get hit by a stray bulletthat's not because the Klan is riding through the neighborhood."
3. "...about race. "A Man of Letters," Thomas Sowell's fabulous book of correspondence, includes a letter the Stanford economist sent in 2006 to Mr. Williams, whom he's known for four decades. "ack in the early years," writes Mr. Sowell, "you and I were pretty pessimistic as to whether what we were writing would make an impactespecially since the two of us seemed to be the only ones saying what we were saying. Today at least we know that there are lots of other blacks writing and saying similar things . . . and many of them are sufficiently younger that we know there will be good people carrying on the fight after we are gone."
4. Asked if he shares his friend's optimism, Mr. Williams responds that he does. "You find more and more black peoplenot enough in my opinion but more and morequestioning the status quo," he says. "When I fill in for Rush, I get emails from blacks who say they agree with what I'm saying. And there are a lot of white people questioning ideas on race, too. There's less white guilt out there. It's progress."The Weekend Interview with Walter Williams: The State Against Blacks - WSJ.com
I see similar progress in the posts on this board, with fewer folks behaving as though the calendar said '1950.'
Jason Riley writes an interesting column in the WSJ, which includes:
1. Analysis of this issue launched Mr. Williams's career as a public intellectual, and in 1982 he published his first book, "The State Against Blacks," arguing that laws regulating economic activity are far larger impediments to black progress than racial bigotry and discrimination. Nearly 30 years later, he stands by that premise.
2. "Racial discrimination is not the problem of black people that it used to be" in his youth, says Mr. Williams. "Today I doubt you could find any significant problem that blacks face that is caused by racial discrimination. The 70% illegitimacy rate is a devastating problem, but it doesn't have a damn thing to do with racism. The fact that in some areas black people are huddled in their homes at night, sometimes serving meals on the floor so they don't get hit by a stray bulletthat's not because the Klan is riding through the neighborhood."
3. "...about race. "A Man of Letters," Thomas Sowell's fabulous book of correspondence, includes a letter the Stanford economist sent in 2006 to Mr. Williams, whom he's known for four decades. "ack in the early years," writes Mr. Sowell, "you and I were pretty pessimistic as to whether what we were writing would make an impactespecially since the two of us seemed to be the only ones saying what we were saying. Today at least we know that there are lots of other blacks writing and saying similar things . . . and many of them are sufficiently younger that we know there will be good people carrying on the fight after we are gone."
4. Asked if he shares his friend's optimism, Mr. Williams responds that he does. "You find more and more black peoplenot enough in my opinion but more and morequestioning the status quo," he says. "When I fill in for Rush, I get emails from blacks who say they agree with what I'm saying. And there are a lot of white people questioning ideas on race, too. There's less white guilt out there. It's progress."The Weekend Interview with Walter Williams: The State Against Blacks - WSJ.com
I see similar progress in the posts on this board, with fewer folks behaving as though the calendar said '1950.'
