When discussing the racial disparity and systematic racism as a major set back for the black community in America, there is a reason why the likes of Thomas Sowell nearly always never leave the comfort zone that reinforces their narrow arguments about the realities of African Americans.
For one, it is not that other commentariats never acknowledged some of his views which; as are accepted to a degree, it’s because his school of thought, much like those who reinforce his claims hook, line and sinker fall in the face of even more efficient and empirical research that is obtainable today.
I will give you a couple of examples.
One of his prevailing arguments is that the absence of fathers in homes is significant to be blamed for the impoverishment in and lack of progress in African American homes.
If you read the study; Race and Economic opportunity in The United States, led by researchers at Stanford, Harvard, and the Census Bureau, income inequality between blacks and whites is driven entirely by what is happening among these boys and the men they become.
This is despite the backgrounds African American men come from – which is to say irrespective of their parents being in the top 1% – millionaires – or not. This is also to say whether they are intelligent, hardworking or as dedicated as their White, Asian, or Hispanic counterparts.
Another very insightful finding in this broad research of 20 million people across 30 years shows that differences in family characteristics – parental marriage rates, education, wealth – and differences in ability explain very little of the black-white gap.
When the study compared the outcomes of Black and White men who grow up in two-parent families with similar levels of income, wealth, and education, they continued to find that the Black men still have substantially lower incomes in adulthood. Hence, differences in these family characteristics play a limited role in explaining the gap.
These findings clearly blow out into the waters the weak claims by the likes of Thomas Sowell that disparities in income can be attributed in significant part to the fact that Black children are much more likely to grow up in single-parent homes.
Another controversial claim, perhaps most controversial, that some have proposed is that racial disparities might be due to differences in innate ability.
Well, guess what? This hypothesis does not explain why there are Black-White intergenerational gaps for men but not women. Moreover, Black-White gaps in test scores – which have been the basis for most prior arguments for ability differences – are substantial for both men and women.
You know why? Simple, the fact that Black women have outcomes comparable to White women conditional on parental income despite having much lower test scores suggests that standardized tests do not provide accurate measures of differences in ability (insofar as it is relevant for earnings) by race, perhaps because of stereotype anxiety or racial biases in tests.
I can continue to list all the things that this study and findings blow out of the water, all the weak excuses used; “Maybe it is their intellect, maybe it is because they don’t have a father figure at home, maybe it is this, maybe it is that…”
All of them destroyed by this detailed research. Yet you know the one thing that these gangs of “maybes” turn out on their blindfolds like Sandra Bullock in Birdbox? The fact that policies in America and institutional structures are designed to disadvantage these Black men.
Understand that it is not the lack of intellect – because in areas where there ability and field has be a little fair – a little – Blacks have matched or even excelled more than their peers.
Take sports, for instance. African Americans excelled mainly in sports because the tools you need are nothing but a field, track or a basketball court next to your social housing estate – so these boys and men practice, and train, and hone their skills and become great.
Take music entertainment. The moment the internet liberalized the platform, making it a little bit fairer, Blacks worked, learned, mastered it, and now, without the mighty hand of systemic oppression on their neck, they took a genre from the streets to world domination in under two-decades.
Since at least 2016, Hip Hop has officially been the largest genre of music in the world. Men who they claimed had no innate ability, built a culture that has overtaken every single one that came before it.
Men and women of African descent who were not listened to when they walked into meetings, asking for an opportunity, decided to – by hook or crook – raise the money needed and built record labels that have sold hundreds of millions of records.
About five years ago, Omari West – with his flaws and all – screamed at everyone who cared to listen, that he wants his opportunity. He was ridiculed, bullied, dismissed, and laughed at – nearly always because of his skin color.
Then, perhaps out of exacerbation, he was given a chance, in no more than half a decade, Omari West built a billion-dollar empire. His story is not uncommon in the Black community. I challenge you to show me any sector where the opportunity has been made slightly – slightly – open for Blacks, and let us see what the Black people who were given the opportunity have done.
Look at Robyn Fenty, and look at her rapid rise. Look at the opportunity given to Blacks to own and grow their ideas – from health and beauty to tech, to finance and international trade.
Do not listen to these people. The data does not support their claims. The facts do not support their claims. I used to follow these arguments, trying to be as balanced as possible, but the balanced view does not support their claims.
If you really want to understand why Blacks – African Americans historically – have struggled to be as successful on average as Whites or Asians, for instance, the truth lies in the policies of the United States of America.
On January 31, 1865, the US Congress passed the 13th Amendment that freed slaves. Abraham Lincoln’s government, after negotiations with abolitionists, have freed slaves the right to own 40 acres of land and a mule. However, after Lincoln’s death, his successor, President Andrew Johnson, explicitly reversed and annulled these proclamations.
Fast forward to the 1930’s after the Great Depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt passed the New Deal, a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations to spur the economy back after World War II. Millions of Americans were given cheap loans to buy houses and rebuild their wealth.
Of all the Americans who got it, would you like to guess which group did not have access to those loans?
If you understand how wealth grows, then you will understand what it means for a certain group of people to not begin their race when the race announcer said “go”, for over 300 years. They were standing since 1865, while everyone else was running – immigrants who came from Europe were given lands to settle, cultivate and build generational wealth we see today, but this group was refused land.
When the economy tanked, and it wanted to be rebuilt, this same set of people were not given a chance to start their own race. Eventually, when they did, people refused to sell them properties – please read about Redlining; understand this systemic racist policy and how it impacted Blacks.
At the risk of counting every significant disadvantage, fast forward to 2008 during the depression, African Americans were disproportionality affected, yet they never got a proportionate bailout – not for their business, nor for anything.
Today, African Americans are dying proportionally more from this pandemic; their small businesses have been shattered. Of the bailout funds released by the government, again, African Americans received the least proportion to help their business.
Then there is the issue of over-policing, with grounded in institutional segregation, racial profiling, use of excessive force, unlawful killing, and the disproportionate attempt to put a lot of African Americans through the system meaning they are nearly always going to struggle to get credit, employment, student loans or even a decent job beyond what we now refer to – during this pandemic – as essential work—exposing them to more risk of death from this awful illness.
–
So no, I reject the likes of Thomas Sowell and his 1950’s blind assessment of today’s world. Americans are ashamed and scared of confronting the stark reality that they have second class citizens in that country, and they are African Americans, and Black and Brown people.
