I count Walter Williams as one of the Black people I wish more Black people would listen to.
And his latest column, titled “Fiddling Away the Future”, is a classic example of why.
A few key excerpts:
Let\’s list major problems affecting black Americans. Topping the list is the breakdown in the black family, where only a third of black children are raised in two-parent households. Actually, the term “breakdown” is incorrect. Families do not form in the first place. Nationally, there is a black illegitimacy rate of 72 percent. In some urban areas, the percentage is much greater. Blacks constitute more than 50 percent of murder victims, where roughly 7,000 blacks are murdered each year. Ninety-five percent of the time, the perpetrator is another black. If a black youngster does graduate from high school, it is highly likely that he can read, write and compute no better than a white seventh- or eighth-grader. These are the major problems that face black Americans.
Let\’s look at some of the strategy since the beginning of the civil rights movement. The black power movement of the \’60s and \’70s held that black underrepresentation in the political arena was a major problem. It was argued that the election of more black officials as congressmen, mayors and city council members would mean economic power, better neighborhoods and better schools. Forty-three years ago, there were roughly 1,500 black elected officials nationwide. According to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, by 2011 there were roughly 10,500 black elected officials, including a black president. But what were the fruits?
By most any measure, the problems are worse. There is the greatest black poverty, poorest education, highest crime and greatest family instability in cities such as: Detroit, St. Louis, Oakland, Calif., Memphis, Tenn., Birmingham, Ala., Atlanta, Baltimore, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Buffalo, N.Y. The most common characteristic of these predominantly black cities is that, for decades, all of them have been run by Democratic and presumably liberal administrations. What\’s more is that in most of these cities, blacks have been mayors, chiefs of police, school superintendents and principals and have dominated city councils. Political power has not lived up to its billing.
Mr. Williams goes on to ridicule – among other things – banning of the confederate flag, and Memphis Mayor A. C. Wharton\’s idea to exhume Confederate General/KKK founder nathan bedford forrest and his wife and remove them from a city park. Williams\’ point is not that the confederate flag or nathan bedford forrest are positive images for Blacks (or anyone else). His point is that feel-good actions such as these are nothing but political opiates (my words, not his) which divert attention away from the real problems Black people are facing in their everyday lives.
Is he right? You\’re damn right he\’s right. And it takes one gutsy Black man to say it.
How I wish more Black people would listen to Black people like Walter Williams.
