Ricktloml

The Welfare State Legacy By Walter E. Williams

That the problem of today's black Americans are a result of a legacy of slavery, racial discrimination, and poverty has achieved an axiomatic status, thought to be self evident and beyond question. This is what academic and the civil rights establishment have taught. But as with so much of what's claimed by leftists, there is little evidence to support it.
The No.1 problem among blacks is the effects stemming from a weak family structure. Children from fatherless homes are likelier to drop out of high school, die by suicide, have behavioral disorders, join gangs, commit crimes, and end up in prison. They are also likelier to live in poverty-stricken households. But is the weak black family a legacy of slavery? In 1960, just 22% of black children were raised in single-parent families. Fifty years later, more than 70% of black children were raised in single-parent families. Here's my question: Was the increase in single-parent black families after 1960 a legacy of slavery, or might it be a legacy of the welfare state ushered in by the War on Poverty?
According to the 1938 Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, that year 11% of black children were born to unwed mothers, today about 75% of black children are born to unwed mothers. Is that supposed to be a delayed response to the legacy of slavery? The bottom line is that the black family was stronger the first 100 years after slavery than during what will be the second 100 years.
At one time, almost all black families were poor, regardless of whether one or both parents were present. Today roughly 39% of blacks are poor. Only 8% of black married-couple families live in poverty Among black families in which both husband and wife work full-time, the poverty rate is under 5%. Poverty in black families headed by single women is 37%. The undeniable truth is that neither slavery nor Jim Crow, nor the harshest racism has decimated the black family the way the welfare state has.
The black family structure is not the only retrogression suffered by blacks in the age of racial enlightenment. In every census from 1890 to 1954, blacks were either just as active as or more so than whites in the labor market. During that earlier period, black teen unemployment was roughly equal to or less than white teen unemployment. As early as 1900, the duration of black unemployment was 15% shorter than that of whites; today it's about 30% longer. Would anyone suggest that during earlier periods, there was less racial discrimination? What goes a very long way toward an explanation of yesteryear and today are the various labor laws and regulations promoted by liberals and their union allies that cut off the bottom rungs of the economic ladder and encouraged racial discrimination.
Labor Unions have a long history of discrimination against blacks. Frederickl Douglass wrote about this in his 1874 essay titled "The Folly, Tyranny, and Wickedness of Labor Unions", and Booker T. Washington did so in his 1913 essay titled "The Negro and the Labor Union," To the detriment of their constituents most of today's black politicians give unquestioning support to labor laws pushed by unions and white liberal organizations.
Then there is education. Many black 12th-graders deal with scientific problems at the level of whites in the 6th grade. They write and do math about as well as white 7th and 8th graders. All this means that an employer hiring or a college admitting the typical black high school graduate is in effect hiring or admitting an 8th grader. Thus one should not be surprised by the outcome.
The most damage done to black Americans is inflicted by those politicians, civil rights leaders, and academics who assert that every problem is a result of a legacy of slavery and discrimination. That's a vision that guarantees perpetuity for problems.


Walter E. Williams is a John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University

rebob14

LBJ actually bragged about the outcome of the civil rights act of 1964. The resultant civil rights industry has become a multi billion dollar juggernaut overseen by so-called black civil rights "activists" who are complicit in the continued destruction of the African American family. They are no different than the southern slave holders they use to maintain the rage of the uninformed!

private

LBJ was a real piece of shit that's for sure. For me the devotion of most black folks to the democrat party is just a mystery. I get that most democrats can't sustain any argument much beyond a sensational headline, but the number of verified circumstances over the last 50-60 years and beyond where the democratic party has forsaken the black voter is amazing. Oh, well whadya gonna do?

rebob14

Absent a "morally virtuous and informed" electorate, it's over.