A Quick Thought on Affirmative Action 2 (And, Yes, My Good Friends, Dmarks and John Myste, Are More than Welcome to Chime in Here)

Thomas Sowell wrote a powerful book in 1990 entitled, "Preferential Policies: An International Perspective". And, in it, he thoroughly examined the effects of affirmative action policies throughout a great number of countries that have attempted them. What was Mr. Sowell's overall assessment? He could not find one single instance of any group ever having gone from poverty to affluence predominantly through such political means (and even in the one instance - Malaysia - where there was a modicum of movement, that was more than offset by the violence which accrued). Yes, politics can and has played a pivotal role in other regards (voting rights, for example) but it is predominantly skills, industriousness, and savings which promulgate economic advancement. Thus spake Mr. Sowell anyway............................................................................................P.S. Here is one of the examples that Mr. Sowell pointed to in his analysis, underscoring his belief that affirmative action not only doesn't provide relief to minorities but can actually sometimes hold them back. He points to the affirmative action policy as practiced by the University of California at Berkeley (the Penn of the west coast). He followed the careers of all the affirmative action black students at Berkeley and found that a full 70% of them had eventually flunked out - not because they were stupid but because Berkeley simply wasn't a good fit for them. These same individuals, had they instead gone to Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, or Pacific, would have undoubtedly passed and gone on to respectable careers BUT because of a bunch of do-gooders in Washington and Sacramento trying to manipulate the situation, not quite so much.......Look, as I've stated before, I am NOT categorically opposed to affirmative action, but when I hear statistics such as this, it does in fact give me pause.

On the Fact that When Thomas Sowell Was a Kid Growing Up In Harlem In the 1940s, He Used to Go to the Store by Himself at Night, Walk His Dog In Morningside Park, and Sleep On the Fire-Escape When it Was Hot Out

Yeah, I guess that the past wasn't entirely awful after all. Even for blacks (Sowell also underscores how the black teen unemployment rate was actually lower than that of white teens during the late '40s).................................................................................................P.S. And, yes, I get it that there was some bad shit in the '40s, too (higher poverty rates, more discrimination, etc.), but being that safety is the most fundamental need of all (according to Maslow, at least), the past might not be the worst teacher here, I'm simply suggesting.

Racing the Race Backwards

When Thomas Sowell and Walter E. Williams were young boys growing up in Harlem and Philadelphia respectively, there were no police officers patrolling the hallways of the schools there, and they both got a really good education (good enough for Sowell to get into Harvard and the University of Chicago and Williams UCLA). Compare that to today; murders, drug trafficking, etc. (they could also go out after dark and not have to worry about catching a bullet) and you really have to ask yourself if the last 50 years or so of pouring trillions and trillions of dollars into these inner city bureaucracies and into the coffers of a totally bankrupt and corrupt public school system has at the very minimum prompted this disintegration (oh, and if you're gonna hit me with the "lack of economic opportunity" argument, a) it hasn't stopped the Asians from progressing and b) most of those businesses that left the inner city left AFTER the riots and not before them). If you're intellectually honest, that is.

On Having a Well Thought-Out Opinion and Being Denounced for it Simply Because of Your Race (AKA, Residing In the World of Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, John McWhorter, Shelby Steele, Coleman Hughes, Roland Fryer, Larry Elder, Jason Riley, Carol Swain, Glenn Loury, Deroy Murdoch, Candace Owens, etc., etc.)

Yeah, that's gotta' be tough being a black conservative these days, having to hear idiots like Biden telling you that you aren't black unless you vote for him. Thankfully we still have guys like Sowell, Williams, McWhorter, and Steele who don't give a shit what the Bidens of the world have to say. I just wish that we had a wee-bit more, that's all. 

On the Fact that (According to Esteemed Economist, Thomas Sowell) Laws Which Have Made it Illegal for Businesses to Run Criminal Background Checks On Prospective Employees Have Actually Resulted In Less Blacks Being Hired

Yeah, what these employers are doing here (prompted by the realization that blacks commit far more criminal acts than whites) is substituting race for the background check and passing on a lot of qualified black people. It's unfortunate that they're engaging in these tactics but maybe if the government had minded its own damned business for a change......

On the Fact that Change.org and Various Other Leftist Sites Are Trying to Get CNN's Don Lemon Off the Air Simply Because He Refuses to Drink the Cyanide-Laced Purple Kool-Aid Which States that All Black People Must Think a Certain Way

These people are so fucking ignorant. There has NEVER been a unanimity of thought in the black community (and, yes, I hate that term); from Frederick Douglass confronting his critics, to Booker T. Washington debating with W.E.B. Dubois, to Martin Luther King disagreeing with Malcolm X, to Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, and Robert Woodson confronting liberal orthodoxy in the '70s and '80s. And, while, yes, the black vote has largely gone Democratic over the past four decades or so years, nowhere is it written that it must continue that way and I have to ask these assholes - so, who was it that died and made your opinion THE opinion of black people, and until they do answer it, flock 'em........................................................................................................P.S. And, yes, I DO like Don Lemon. The fellow is fair, open-minded, and a role-model not just for African-Americans but gay folks (it's not easy being gay in the black community - just ask Lemon), too. 

On Why Africa Became the Western Hemisphere's Primary Source for Slaves Starting In the 16th Century (Prior to that the Slavic People of East Central Europe Were the Major Target for Europeans, Iranians, and Turks)

 According to Thomas Sowell, it had little to do with bigotry and much more to do with the emergence of nation-states and empires in Eastern Europe which made it much more difficult for raiders and marauders to capture their Slavic (and sometimes non-Slavic) victims. Africa, being a far more primitive region replete with people all-too willing to sell off their brethren, quickly become one of the few remaining viable options for slavers of all stripes (white Europeans, Africans, and Muslims predominately) and so they took full advantage of it. And how.

On the Fact that (According to Thomas Sowell's New Book, "Discrimination and Disparities") the I.R.S. Tracked the Top 400 Income Earners In the U.S.A. for 23 Years and it Turned Out that 4,584 Different People Comprised Those Slots During that Period

Yeah, this one of the things that the left does that drives me crazy. They see these income categories as these immutable things where rich folks are ALWAYS getting richer when in fact the categories change from year to year, decade to decade, etc.. And the strong likelihood is that this turnover would be even more huge if the government stopped fucking things up with minimum wage laws, stupid regulations, civil asset forfeiture, eminent domain, dumb occupational licensing requirements, government monopolies in education, etc., etc..............If only, huh?

Steven Pinker on What Thomas Jefferson DIDN'T Mean When He Said that "All Men Are Created Equal"

That we're all clones with identical abilities, aptitudes, etc., and that an equality of outcome between various groups could ever be secured (as Thomas Sowell has pointed out on numerous occasions, there has NEVER been a society in which the composite ethnic groups have achieved at the same rate and so, yes, an affirmative action program whose goal it is to achieve this is result is doomed to fail).

On the Fact that (According to Economist, Thomas Sowell) On the Eve of the 1997 Economic Crisis In Indonesia (Which Was Actually a Regional Crisis but I Digress), the Chinese Minority In that Country Was Only 5% of the Population and Yet They Owned 80% of the Capital - this, Despite the Fact that They Had Been Badly Treated by the Majority for Decades

Needless to say, the Chinese were blamed for the crisis and because of that the violence got even worse (a short-sighted tactic in that it prompted a lot of the Chinese to flee the country, causing the markets to tank even more).............Oh, and do you think that the Indonesians being predominantly Muslim and the Chinese predominantly Buddhist and Christian may have played a role here? I do.

On Living Fully with a Slight Uptick In Risk Versus a Barren Existence In Which You're Likely to Die Early Anyway from Stress, Isolation, and Financial Hardship

To quote the great Thomas Sowell, "there are no solutions, only tradeoffs." And, yes, the tradeoffs here were one hell of a bitch.

On the Fact that Taking a Tiny Sample of Events and Extrapolating from Them a Wider Theory Is About as Low-IQ as it Gets......and Yet this Is Exactly What Black Lives Matter and the Entirety of Their Enablers (the Media, Political Establishment, Academics, Hollywood Shits, etc.) Have Been Pushing Lately with this Virulent Anti-Cop Jihad of Theirs (Taking a Handful of Questionable Police Killings and Trying to Tar the Whole Profession with Them)

The lack of critical thinking, maturity, and perspective in this country is frightening, and unless we start electing some serious individuals who can bring to the table these attributes, we're screwed (the downside of course being that the smartest people usually don't go into politics; folks like Thomas Sowell and Heather MacDonald, and so it's extremely hard to be optimistic here). Full stop.      

On the Fact that Smart Folks Like Thomas Sowell, Heather MacDonald, and Jeff Greenfield Never Run for Office and We Always Seem to Get Stuck Instead with Dolts Like Bush, Obama, Trump, and Hillary

Yeah, I think that Hayek pretty much summed it up best when he stated that people of higher intelligence and integrity have a proclivity to want to engage the private sector and that only folks with low self-esteem would ever want a job that quite literally forces you to grovel for the support of both the docile and the gullible and to do so for your entire tenure. That would be my theory at least.

On the Fact that Some White Intellectuals Apparently Believe that a Black Person Flunking Out of Cornell, M.I.T., or Stanford Is Preferable to that Same Black Person Graduating with Honors from Stony Brook, UMass-Lowell, or Cal-State Fullerton

Yes, their intentions are noble but at some juncture accountability must also come into play. The fact of the matter here is that affirmative action has probably done significantly more harm than good and a reassessment is definitely in order........................................................................................P.S. Two exceptional sources on the matter are "Mismatch" by Richard Sander and Stuart Taylor and "Affirmative Action Around the World" by Thomas Sowell. I highly recommend that everybody (white intellectuals, especially) read them.

Shelby Steele, Thomas Sowell Being Too Much of a Hawk

What would be my answer to the question, "So, who's your all-time favorite black conservative?"

On the Fact that (According to Economists, Thomas Sowell and Mark W. Hendrickson), While the Steel Tariffs of the 1980s Saved 5,000 Jobs in the Steel Industry, They Ended Up Costing 26,000 Jobs in the Steel-Using Industries

And you can find similar examples. Sugar tariffs, for example, while these tariffs ended up saving some jobs in the sugar-growing industry, they ultimately destroyed many multiples more in the various confection industries (candy, soda, cookies, etc.)....And don't you just want to bitch-slap Trump for being too stupid to realize that there are unintended consequences for this protectionism shit? I do (not that I'm calling for violence here, mind you).

My Mount Rushmore of Minds

1) H.L. Mencken - says more in a sentence than most "intellectuals" do in an entire volume. He's also a cynic and so am I. 2) Thomas Sowell - not simply an economist but a philosopher and sociologist as well. Just keep the guy away from foreign policy, that's all. 3) Richard Feynman - a much lauded Nobel prize winner in physics but it's his insightful social commentary and irreverent view of "experts" that does it for me. 4) Frederic Bastiat - the man's clarity of thought is only rivaled by his originality and wit. My personal favorite is "The Candlemaker's Petition" but randomly picking a page here and there would likely work, too. 

On the Fact that Maybe You Need to Figure Out How to Beat a 14 Year-Old Boys Team In Your Own Profession Before You Try and Debate Thomas Sowell In Economics, I'm Just Sayin' (the Chick Recently Dusted Off that Million Times Debunked Gender Pay Gap Bullshit)

While I've never been a strict proponent of having folks "stay in their lane", neither do I throw the baby out with the bathwater. Now you know why.

 

On the Fact that Any Physician or Administrator Will Tell You, Private Insurance Is Significantly Subsidizing Medicare and Medicaid......and, so, Yeah, if You Do Away with the Former and Rely Just On the Latter (and Congressman Delaney Adroitly Pointed this Out In One of the Debates) Hospitals and Practices Will Go Out of Business en Masse

Like the great Thomas Sowell has pointed out on numerous occasions, leftists have never been good at asking that critical question; then what? And, yep, this is a pitch-perfect example of it (only this time the consequences will be dire and possibly even cataclysmic).

On the Fact that Beyonce Can Do One Fucking Minstrel Show After Another (Buck-Dancing and Jiving with Some Idiotic Blond Weave) and Not Be Called a Coon (Her Fist in the Air Stunt Evidently Giving Her Some Street-Cred) but Ben Carson, a Noteworthy Pediatric Neurosurgeon, Gets Called One Simply for Having an Opinion

Yep, this unfortunately passes for logic among groups such as the New Black Panther Party, Black Lives Matter, etc.. And the thing is, they don't even understand what cooning is, for Christ sakes (the fact that it involves behavior and NOT opinions)! How embarrassing and quite a drop-off from Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Ed Brooke, Thomas Sowell, etc., wouldn't you say?