Look at the Broader Picture

I freely admit that I have no idea of the challenges black people in America face on a daily basis.  But at the same time, I don’t believe systemic racism is as pervasive as the Left would have us believe.  No one doubts that blacks have a tougher go in life in a society that’s demographically and culturally dominated by whites.  At the same time however, we live in the most demographically diverse and integrated society on earth.

So, when people talk about systemic racism in this country, what they’re really referring to is a systemic disadvantage that has kept blacks from climbing the socio-economic ladder.  Liberal pundits will place the blame squarely at the feet of Jim Crow and the legacy of slavery.  But these same pundits gloss over the fact that the black middle class was the fastest growing demographic in America during the 1940s, 1950s into the early 1960s.  So, what changed in the mid-60s?  Answer – the Johnson administration created “The Great Society.”

~Liberal Public Policy ~

The Great Society Act had a noble goal, i.e., the elimination of poverty and racial injustice; and the government launched a series of federal civil rights, education, medical care, urban problem, rural poverty, and transportation programs.  But as Ronald Reagan so eloquently told us many years ago, “I think you all know that I’ve always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.”

When the Left tries to mislead by correlating the impact of Jim Crow and slavery with the black community being held back economically, it should also cite that during the 1940s, 1950s and up until the government entered into the equation in mid-60s the single motherhood rate in the black community was roughly 25%  – today the figure stands at nearly 77%, begging the question of how much impact has that had on the black community?

Draw your own conclusions, but a 300% increase in single mothers couldn’t be the result of Jim Crow or the legacy of slavery because the black community was temporally even further removed from those situations.  Did America suddenly become more racist overnight?  Perhaps much the systemic racism that we’re told by the Left that’s holding black people back is actually more a matter of people being misled about the long-term effects of Jim Crow and more specifically slavery – a condition none of the proponents of this position has actually experienced.

I will not cite statistics because if you’re a regular reader of my blog you know I do my homework, but a significant portion of first-generation immigrants who didn’t even speak the language when they arrived, especially those from Asian nations, consistently move quickly up the socio-economic ladder begging another question.  Why is that so – what is it about Asians that they succeed so quickly?   Well, perhaps it’s because Asian immigrant communities have the highest rate of intact nuclear families of any demographic the  country,

The Left will rattle off reams of statistics about how black people doing worse than white people in America.  At the same time however, you’ll never hear the Left discuss the link between crime, poverty and fatherless homes; and the black violent crime rate speaks for itself.   I am not a sociologist but it’s not a stretch to think that fatherless homes just might have a greater influence on the black community than Jim Crow or slavery.

After the government began subsidizing single motherhood, America saw a significant deterioration of the nuclear family in the black community—which in turn was replaced by the welfare state – and nothing pleases the Left more than making people dependent upon government.  Like any type of tribalism, the discussion of race in this country if fraught with peril and the worst thing one can be called in America today is a racist; and I actually believe in some cases it’s worse than being labeled a child-molester.  So, the moral here is that before buying into the Left’s narrative on race, it might be wise to look at the broader picture first.

Quote of the day: “Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.”— Jerry Rice