The pathology of the urban underclass is not explained by slandering African culture or by slandering the culture of the Celtic borderlands.
The shiftlessness, laziness, criminality and violence we see today was not in evidence in the 1940s and 1950s. Poor white and poor black Southerners at that time both believed in the virtues of hard work and Christian living and abided by them as well as any other Americans.
What happened was the rise of socialist ideology in the 1960s - the false ideology of pan-Africanism, the idolization of Third World Communist movements, the sexual liberation movement, the victim culture and the paternalism of the Great Society.
Poor black and white Southern men before the 1960s generally married the mothers of their children, avoided drug abuse and crime and went to church on Sunday.
Then race hustlers and poverty pimps encouraged illiteracy, disrespect for law and order, rejection of the work ethic and disdain for traditional Christianity.
The cultural plight of the black underclass was created by white Northerners in universities, not by white sharecroppers on the farm.
Excellent point. I might add it was abetted by government busibodies building and "inventory" of people that they just had to help not to mention race activists that have turned civil rights into a multi-billion dollar industry.
>>What happened was the rise of socialist ideology in the 1960s<<<
i agree.... and even a little before that in the North East.
True (it is all the Yankees' fault!), but I think the point Thomas Sowell is trying to make is that the gangsta culture and Ebonics are not "black things," and the black community needs to stop acting like they are. However, African society on the continent of Africa was and is quite tribal, territorial, and fully capable of engaging in wars and criminal behavior.
Memo to Thomas Sowell: Black people suffer from the fallen human condition just as much as any other race, sorry to say. We all have the obligation and challenge to rise above our inherent sin nature.
But before the 60s there was segregation, and yet...blacks were better off. Not because of desegregation but because of everything else during that time period.
Your post #15.............BINGO!!!
I'd bet that even when those lower-class black and white men of times past engaged in violence, it was often structured with rules that men violated at their own peril. I wouldn't be surprised if it was considered shameful to hit a woman, hit a man when his back's turned, kick a man when he was down, and so forth. In urban centers, the would-be-shamed can find people like themselves and insulate themselves from well-deserved cultural animosity. If basic ethics can't get into the heads of the urban criminal elements, maybe a revival of shame could do the job. Has sowell written about this, or am I thinking of James Bowman?
I'd even bet that a lot of ghetto music speaks against the stupidity of violence, but we only hear about the trigger-happy songs. Some people on this thread compare rap to country, and yes, Johnny Cash himself has a few songs glorying in viciousness. He has also sung "Don't take your gun to town." I would hope that rap is similarly multi-faceted, and not simply one long "kill the piggy, niggaz" rant. I can't stand computer-generated heavy beats, so I never listen to the stuff.
I do wonder whether middle-class folk have other less socially damaging ways of getting out their violent impulses. Look at all the XBox gamers out there shooting the avatars of people they don't know, and of course there are always those suburban gangsta wannabes whose own music, when it's not rap, is put-a-bullet-in-their head rock.
You nailed it.
Now if only Sowell had had your input before embarking on a ridiculous "Redneck Culture" is the root of urban black social problems.
I still remember when growing up the strong Christian values of black people in rural Virginia. They were a strong moral force.
My great-Aunt born in 1892, died in 1978 lived in Washington D.C. all her life. As a young boy she would take me on picnics to revolutionary war fort ruins and to civil war battleground parks. In those places she would lecture me on American history.
I will never forget how she claimed Eleanor Roosevelt inadvertantly ruined the lives of hundreds of thousands of blacks and ruined the quaint charm of the nation's capital. She said it was Eleanor who pushed to transport blacks from the south during the Great Depression to Washington D.C. where they were put on government support. She wanted to show compassion. Before three decades passed, my aunt said their moral character and values had been destroyed and Washington D.C. was nearly destroyed as well.
We all learn eventually that the 'road to Hell is lined with good intentions'.
I think you stated it clearly and concisely. Can't see how anyone could argue your points.
Very well put and very well written, Wideawake.
That's a good analysis. Much better than Sowell.