HURTING THE DISADVANTAGED
By William Julius Wilson
June 24, 1984
In the year of the 30th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision against racial separation and of the 20th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the economist Thomas Sowell of Stanford University's Hoover Institution reconsiders actions taken in the name of ''civil rights'' since 1954. ''Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality?'' is a brutally frank, perceptive and important contribution to the national debate over the means to achieve equality and social justice for minorities and women.
...alternative explanations and hypotheses are not sufficiently explored by Mr. Sowell. This is perhaps most clearly revealed in his critique of affirmative action programs.
Mr. Sowell links the deteriorating plight of the most disadvantaged segments of the minority population to the era of affirmative action pressure. He argues that such pressure increases the demand for highly qualified minority members but decreases the demand for the less qualified because of the cost, particularly at times of discharge and promotion. However, the decline in the socioeconomic status of the less qualified may have had nothing at all to do with affirmative action programs. I say this because the truly disadvantgaged minority members have been particularly burdened by changes in the economy since the late 1960's.
Indeed, recent studies have revealed that minorities are disproportionately represented in industries that have had the largest number of job losses due to economic cutbacks, plant closings and the relocation of firms. Moreover, the harmful effects of the drastic decline in central city industries that employ a substantial proportion of young workers have been concentrated among black males. These changes were most evident during a period that just happens to coincide with ''the era of affirmative action'' - a period that was also plagued by recessions that intensified the miseries of disadvantaged workers. By mainly concentrating on cultural, demographic and geographic factors to challenge the cause and effect assumptions of the civil rights vision, Mr. Sowell ignores the problems of the American economy as it furthers the gap between the haves and have-nots. It could be that the most important criticism of the civil rights vision is that it fails to consider, as does Mr. Sowell, what is perhaps the gravest racial problem of all today - obstacles to the economic advancement of the truly disadvantaged created by the changing organization of our economy.
HURTING THE DISADVANTAGED (Published 1984)
www.nytimes.com
William Julius Wilson (born December 20, 1935) is an American sociologist. He is a professor at Harvard University and author of works on urban sociology, race and class issues. Laureate of the National Medal of Science, he served as the 80th President of the American Sociological Association, was a member of numerous national boards and commissions. He identified the importance of neighborhood effects and demonstrated how limited employment opportunities and weakened institutional resources exacerbated poverty within American inner-city neighborhoods.
Thomas Sowell’s Arguments on Race
Thomas Sowell has some weird arguments about race that he has spread to many people. His fans are dogmatic, no less so than SJW’s, and their views need to be confronted with the relevant facts instead of being ignored.
In Conclusion
Anybody concerned with the relevant science will not entertain such foolishness. This sort of argument is one made by people who know nothing about anything and merely wish to stall debate. This is what I call an attempted “epistemological filibuster.” There is no evidence to support the culture claims, but there are lines of evidence that suggest he is wrong. Such views must be debated. There is no room for absolutely pseudoscientific views to be welcomed in public discourse — there is no reason to hate the people that absorbed these bad views, but you do need confront the views for their complete lack of merit.
That article is 40 years old.
