Book Report

By Sam Brown

Black Rednecks and White Liberals

by Thomas Sowell

President Richard Geno Addresses The Conservative Forum

Dr. Sowell is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.  An economist by trade, Dr Sowell has become a celebrated author in conservative circles due to his many books on various conservative causes, not just economics.  This latest book has created a firestorm among both conservative and liberal circles.  Liberals are furious and conservatives have one more weapon in the arsenal against liberal special interests in this country.

1.  Black Rednecks and White Liberals

Dr. Sowell provides evidence that the modern urban hip hop ghetto Black culture that has hurt and held back so many is actually a remnant of Southern redneck culture, which is itself a remnant of British culture brought with English immigrants in the 16th and 17th centuries to the American south.  These “poor white trash,” most of which originated in certain distinct areas of the British Isles, had all the makings of the same social disasters that plague many urban African Americans these days.

Quick to take murderous offence, disrespect for society in general, sexual promiscuity, absentee fathers,  gang lifestyles, “Black English,” non pursuit of education, and many other urban ghetto African American social problems in fact originated with these white rednecks.  As slaves, African Americans were exposed to and assimilated into this culture.  Later, after emancipation, this “redneck” culture was maintained by certain blacks and accompanied them both west and north when they moved away from the south in search of jobs. 

Maintained in the twentieth century and beyond by blacks in its leadership and religion and popular culture, this redneck culture which, ironically, is disappearing among whites, continues to plague African Americans, even the ones who do not identify with it.  Conservative black politicians, community leaders, celebrities, and middle class individuals all are expected to act “black,” and by that is meant the urban black ghetto values and speech, etc.  The term ‘Uncle Tom’ and ‘oreo’ are but two insults that have been levied against black individuals for “acting” white.  Black students have been assaulted for studying too hard as that is considered a white trait.

We, as conservatives have all been shocked by this anti social behavior but we have been told by liberal social engineers that this is “black” culture brought with the slaves from Africa, and who are we to deny their culture and values.  This belief has been the justification behind so many social programs that have failed miserably.  The perpetuation of this negative culture that has hurt so many people, black and white, needs to be understood for what it is and where it really comes from.  Perhaps then it can be honestly dealt with and eradicated.  

2.  Are Jews Generic?

“In any given country, a particular minority may be hated for any of a number of reasons peculiar to that country or that group.  However in a worldwide perspective, the most hated kinds of minorities are often not defined by race, color, religion, or national origin.  Often they are generically “middleman minorities” who can be of any racial or ethnic background, and in fact are of many.”

Some examples of these “middleman minorities” include the Jews in Europe through history, the Chinese minorities of southeast Asia, the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire, and the Ibos of Nigeria.  These “middlemen” were forced into particular occupations and business by laws and customs.  They are often the intermediaries between producers and consumers in a given country. 

Unfortunately these middlemen have served as scapegoats when the majority populace seeks someone to blame for political or social problems.  Germany and the abuse of the Jews is one example we are fairly familiar with, but Dr Sowell writes about many others.  His theme of finding a convenient scapegoat to blame for one’s problems and reducing those minorities down to virtual slave status and mercilessly exploiting those people is something that has happened in many places to many different people.

3.  The Real History of Slavery

Dr Sowell covers a brief history of slavery here with many important points to make.  One, very important point being the universality of slavery.  Virtually every civilization has had institutionalized slavery at one time or another including today, and when we study slavery it is important to understand this.

Dr Sowell points out that we need to study slavery as it really happened in this country.  But we must also understand the real history of slavery in the rest of the world, as it was in the past and in the present, so that we can work to finally rid ourselves of it.

It is important to note that Dr. Sowell does not mitigate American slavery. He simply wants the history that we read to reflect the facts and for us to understand what really happened, both here and abroad.

4. Germans and History

This section continues on his theme of facts over popular misconception discussing the history of the Germans from ancient times to modern history, and how that history, with enormous contributions all over the world suffers under the one time disgrace of Nazism.  This one act of inhumanity, however evil it may be, is but one aspect of the Germans and he discusses many other things about the German people that we should also be aware of, and thereby learn that people are not one dimension or a single aspect and that we need to understand all aspects of a complicated picture in order to judge it fairly.

For instance we hear about Germans during World War II dislocating and of course murdering millions of Jews, Poles, Czechs, and so many others but we rarely hear about the millions of innocent Germans that had lived in other parts of Europe, many for hundreds of years, and that after World War II were forced to return to Germany under extremely harsh conditions with many thousands dying on the trip.

5. Black Education: Achievements, Myths and Tragedies

This article discusses the misconception that the 60’s civil rights movement brought more equality to Black education in this country.  Dr. Sowell presents a very important argument reflecting that misconception.  He shows that blacks in this country were making strong gains in education all during the first half of the twentieth century.  More African Americans that attended certain black public schools before 1960 graduated high school and attended college on a per capita basis than after 1960.  Rather than learn from these successful schools and emulate them, many powerful educators, with agendas and visions of their own, ignored and closed many of these all black schools leaving black students to the mercy of a failed system instead. 

This has enormous ramifications for the public programs put into practice in the 60’s and 70’s that were supposed to help blacks because they very likely damaged them instead.  African Americans today as a whole under-perform in education.  This has been explained as a artifact of slavery by some.  But other blacks who came here from other parts of the world, like the Caribbean and Africa, who also have history of slavery in their background, do as well as other students (of all races?) both in high school and college.

What is the difference between the two groups?  Dr Sowell posits that the difference is how the “new” social programs designed to help have in fact created a system that does not value education or respect those who do well in school.  Black children often receive mixed signals as various fashionable programs come into play to replace old fashioned ones.  Some of these teach the culture of entitlements that we have heard so much about.  Some are social experiments that do not hold up under close objective scrutiny.  One experiment might be the whole “ebonics” issue that has been argued the last ten years.

Dr. Sowell makes powerful arguments against the whole government run education system.  Black children in this country need to speak English and read and write as much as any other child and before 1960 most of them did.

6. History versus Visions

Dr. Sowell discusses the difference between vision and reality.

To quote from the book “Nowhere has history been more in thrall to belief systems -visions- than in the history of racial and ethnic groups.  Too often the past has been twisted to fit the visions and the agendas of the present.  Much of the history written about minority groups has in fact been a history of how others treated these groups, more so than a history of the groups themselves.  This bias has distorted both the histories of racial and ethnic groups and the histories of the societies in which they have lived.”

“Multiculturalism” has not meant warts-and-all portraits of different societies around the world.  For many, it has meant virtually a warts-only portrait of the West and a no-warts portrait of non-Western peoples.”

Summary:

Dr. Sowell’s theme for this book seems to be that we as a society will have a better future if we are not dissuaded away from facts. History can be self serving and falsehoods can be taught so we must remain vigilant and stand up for and tell the truth.  One example:  If we know what really happened and is happening in the world with slavery we are better prepared to stamp it out and keep it from returning.  If we accept a myth we risk repeating bad history and that helps no one.

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