A people with a stronger collective sense of worth might not have been so vulnerable.
I believe this is precisely what happened.
It began in earnest with FDR's New Deal, and continued with LBJ's Great Society welfare programs. These government entitlement industries were largely directed at blacks, and served to undermine their self-worth, and to atrophy their ability to fend for themselves. In time Uncle Sam replaced the father in many black homes, which resulted in the breakdown of the basic family unit among blacks.
Today, fully 70% of black children are born out of wedlock, blacks are greatly over-represented in the prison population, and there is a high percentage of black single parent households. This is cultural destruction on a massive scale, yet Democrats, liberals, and most blacks have their eyes firmly glued shut to these facts.
I believe that once blacks were given the right to vote, they were targeted as a potential voting bloc which could be manipulated into monolithically voting for "the hand that feeds", i.e., the Democrats.
Most folks may not know this, but blacks had to be pried away from the Republican party. Until FDR's time, most blacks voted with "the party of Lincoln". My grandparents were all lifelong Republicans.
Many blacks of my grandparents' generation resisted the temptation to switch parties, and saw through the transparent snake oil sales of FDR's time, but their kids fell for it across the boards. JFK and LBJ went on to solidify the Democrat lock on the black vote.
There’s got to be more to the problem of black failure than mere liberalism, however. Look at Africa: before colonialism, it was a place of tribalism, warfare, and poverty. Then the Euros came. During colonial times, order was imposed at gunpoint, schools were established, and prosperity increased for the majority of Africans. Yes, there were plenty of abuses during the colonial years (e.g. Leopold of the Belgians, one of history’s greatest bastards) but all in all the Europeans improved the lives of most black people in Africa during their period of domination. But the white man left. Within a few years, Africa was back to tribalism, warfare, and poverty. Why?
It can’t be that the African nations were unprepared for self-rule. The Euros dumped all their colonies, yet those outside of Africa went on to become reasonably successful. Singapore, for example, seemed to bounce back fairly quickly from its captivity within the British Empire. Belize is a reasonably civilized nation today as well sans British support. Indonesia has made a go of things without the Dutch. The Filipinos have their problems, yes, but all in all they’ve done all right since the Spanish and Americans left. The former French colonies in the South Pacific seem to have done okay. Vietnam is still recovering from being a battleground of World War III, but the future looks bright. Lebanon is a downright nice place as long as the neighbors aren’t interfering. And India had it tough for a couple of decades after the Raj packed it in, but they’re launching moon rockets today. But I can guarantee you that Nigeria or Togo will never launch a moon rocket. Why?
The fact is that no black society on earth has ever been a success. There were prosperous tribes and even kingdoms in Africa prior to the coming of the Europeans, but these were still hunter-gatherer tribes, not civilizations in the European or Asian sense. The pre-colonial tribes of Africa were more or less integrated into their various environments, yes, but despite the continent’s unbelievable bounty of water, fertile land and other natural resources, no real material or social progress was ever made by any social group in sub-Saharan Africa until outsiders came. Why?
I don’t know why. But I do know that whatever the reasons may be, native and diaspora Africans are simply not succeeding in the modern world. Yes, we all know black people who have done well, and we hope that many more will follow their examples; but until we identify and address the root causes of black failure, whatever they may be, we are all in for more suffering and heartbreak.
I hope I haven’t offended you, but facts are facts. Care to offer any ideas in response?