I don't mind the laughter. But I am deadly serious.
Posted on 05/11/2005 3:55:44 AM PDT by The Great Yazoo
Ministers Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Washington, D.C.'s Mayor Anthony Williams and others recently met to discuss plans to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the October 1995 Million Man March. Whilst reading about the plans, I thought of an excellent topic for the event: how not to be poor.
Avoiding long-term poverty is not rocket science. First, graduate from high school. Second, get married before you have children, and stay married. Third, work at any kind of job, even one that starts out paying the minimum wage. And, finally, avoid engaging in criminal behavior. If you graduate from high school today with a B or C average, in most places in our country there's a low-cost or financially assisted post-high-school education program available to increase your skills.
Most jobs start with wages higher than the minimum wage, which is currently $5.15. A man and his wife, even earning the minimum wage, would earn $21,000 annually. According to the Bureau of Census, in 2003, the poverty threshold for one person was $9,393, for a two-person household it was $12,015, and for a family of four it was $18,810. Taking a minimum-wage job is no great shakes, but it produces an income higher than the Bureau of Census' poverty threshold. Plus, having a job in the first place increases one's prospects for a better job.
The Children's Defense Fund and civil rights organizations frequently whine about the number of black children living in poverty. In 1999, the Bureau of the Census reported that 33.1 percent of black children lived in poverty compared with 13.5 percent of white children. It turns out that race per se has little to do with the difference. Instead, it's welfare and single parenthood. When black children are compared to white children living in identical circumstances, mainly in a two-parent household, both children will have the same probability of being poor.
How much does racial discrimination explain? So far as black poverty is concerned, I'd say little or nothing, which is not to say that every vestige of racial discrimination has been eliminated. But let's pose a few questions. Is it racial discrimination that stops black students from studying and completing high school? Is it racial discrimination that's responsible for the 68 percent illegitimacy rate among blacks?
The 1999 Bureau of Census report might raise another racial discrimination question. Among black households that included a married couple, over 50 percent were middle class earning above $50,000, and 26 percent earned more than $75,000. How in the world did these black families manage not to be poor? Did America's racists cut them some slack?
The civil rights struggle is over, and it has been won. At one time, black Americans did not have the same constitutional protections as whites. Now, we do, because the civil rights struggle is over and won is not the same as saying that there are not major problems for a large segment of the black community. What it does say is that they're not civil rights problems, and to act as if they are leads to a serious misallocation of resources.
Rotten education is a severe handicap to upward mobility, but is it a civil rights problem? Let's look at it. Washington, D.C. public schools, as well as many other big city schools, are little more than educational cesspools. Per student spending in Washington, D.C., is just about the highest in the nation. D.C.'s mayors have been black, and so have a large percentage of the city council, school principals, teachers and superintendents. Suggesting that racial discrimination plays any part in Washington, D.C.'s educational calamity is near madness and diverts attention away from possible solutions.
Bill Cosby had the courage to speak out against individual irresponsibility. Surely those who profess to have the best interests of blacks at heart should be able to summon the courage to do so as well.
©2005 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Walter E. Williams bump!
This man gets it. :-)
I don't know if you're serious or not but you're sure making me ROFL.
I don't mind the laughter. But I am deadly serious.
Very true: If my (white) kids can grow up to match the achievements of any of these guys I'll be very, very proud. Hence calling them "black" role models is limiting because it can be taken to mean that they are suitable role models ONLY for blacks, which is madness.
However: Leftist identity politics has so successfully sold the idea that being sucessful, self-disciplined, and/or conservative is somehow "unblack", that at times it's necessary to emphasize the blackness of these high achievers -- Williams, Sowell, Thomas, Rice, et al -- if only to show the liberal position to be wrong. Hopefully someday that will no longer be necessary.
So, you feel that it is ok for everyone to be IRresponsible?
Nam Vet
Yeah, kinda figured you were but your responses just struck my funny bone.
Noted. Noted. Don't stop now.....just hit me in the right spot. :-)
No offense meant. I have been reading your posts for a couple of years now. Your responses are usually so short but so succinct! :-)
I think I might need new reading glasses.
Apology to Mr. Williams.
I crack up when he talks about his gift giving towards Mrs. Williams.
I was floored one year when my brother gave his wife a shrimp trawl for her birthday.
P.S. She LOVED it! :-)
Bump. Great read.
Love your tagline!
bravo!!
No offense was ever taken. I post mostly how I code. No fluff, just get the job done.
Oh? So YOU'RE one of the guys who put all of those bells and whistles in sofware that never work, huh?
Oops!
I used to code, too! :-)
Well, OK, how about these are two smart guys, not so smart as to be accused of pandering, but pretty darn smart, which isn't to say they are any smarter or less smart than any two other really smart guys (or gals) with equivalent intelligence without respect to race, creed or color.
I will take the Fifth Amendment on the grounds that my answer may incriminate me...
I guess I am just knee-jerking, but whenever we hear from a prominent black guy, or intelligent woman, there are usually automatic references to "oh, he/she's the smartest in the world".
It is great to celebrate these people, but the ideas are what got them their recognition! Most of the ideas are found in the common converstions, we all have, but are honed by their presentation skills. We love them because they are like us.
I love Walter, Thomas, Clarence, Condoleeza and all the other black conservatives, who put their lives in the limelight, and are ridiculed by their bigoted brethren. But, they are like anybody else. They are individuals trying to make the best life, with what God has given them...
Discuss their ideas. These people will get the proper credit!
Thanks. Sadly, President Bush hasn't done much to stop tornadoes and earthquakes, either.
Hogwash. I would suggest that you read the book "The Economics of Politics and Race" before you suggest that Thomas Sowell is just your average conservative that is being moved to the front of the class just because he is black. His grasp of economic principles and his ability to put them in terms I can understand go far beyond the "obvious".
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