IMMEDIATELY RACE COMES TO MIND. IT’S ALWAYS ABOUT RACE. RACIAL DISCRIMINATION. ABOUT THE FOUNDING OF THE NATION. WHITE DOMINANT SOCIETY SO FORTH AND SO ON. YOU MADE THE CASE YOU’VE MADE THIS CASE THROUGHOUT YOUR LIFE AND IT’S VERY POIGNANT IN YOUR BOOK. IT’S A WAY TO MINUTE AND STUFF
THE ONLY THING THAT HAS AN IMPACT. FIRST ABOUT WHAT OTHER THINGS HAVE AN IMPACT? PROBABLY AN INFINITE LIST OF THINGS. AND SECONDLY WHY DO THEY ONLY FOCUS ON RACE ON THE LEFT? >> I GUESS THAT’S PROVEN TO BE A POLITICALLY POPULAR THING TO DO. BUT IN POINT OF FACT ONE OF THE
THINGS THAT’S MENTIONED IN THE BOOK IS A STUDY DONE BY THAT “NEW YORK TIMES” OF ALL PEOPLE SOME YEARS AGO. THEY TRIED TO SHOW THE 10 POOREST COUNTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. THEY MENTIONED WHICH ONES THEY WERE AND SO ON. AND IT TURNS OUT SIX OF THE 10 COUNTIES HAD A POPULATION THAT
WAS 90% — ONE 100% WHITE. THAT WHEN THE “NEW YORK TIMES” HE DID NOT MENTION THE RACE OF THE PEOPLE AT ONCE HE TOLD ME THE COUNTIES AND IT LOOKED IT UP. IN FACT I FOLD THE AVERAGE INCOME IN THOSE SIX COUNTIES OVER A SPAN OF 50 YEARS.
IN ALL OF THOSE 50 YEARS ALL SIX OF THOSE COUNTIES HAD AT MEDIAN INCOME LOWER THAN THE MEDIAN INCOME OF BLACK AMERICANS. SO THE PEOPLE IN THOSE COUNTIES HAVE FACE ZERO RACISM BECAUSE THEY WERE WHITE INK DISTINGUISHABLE. THEY DID NOT HAVE A LEGACY OF SLAVERY. AND YET THERE THEY WERE.
YOU HAVE TO ASK THEN, CLEARLY THERE MUST BE OTHER THINGS THAT CAUSE POVERTY. WE CANNOT JUST ASSUME PEOPLE OF A GIVEN RACE HAVE MORE POVERTY THAN SOME OTHER PEOPLE THAT RACE MUST BE THE REASON. THIS HAS BECOME AN AUTOMATIC KIND OF THING. I THINK MOST PEOPLE WOULD BE QUITE SURPRISED.
ONE OF THE THINGS THAT HAPPENS IS THAT BEHAVIOR MATTERS. YOU SEE THAT IN SO MANY DIFFERENT WAYS. FOR EXAMPLE, I THINK MOST PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO LEARN DESPITE THE FACT BLACKS AS A WHOLE HAVE A HIGHER POVERTY RATETHAN WHITES AS A WHOLE. WHITE MARRIED COUPLE FAMILIES
HAVE FOR MORE THAN A QUARTER OF A CENTURY EVERY SINGLE YEAR HAD A POVERTY RATES UNDER 10%. AND IN MOST OF THOSE YEARS THE NATIONAL POVERTY RATE WAS NOT AS LOW AS 10%. AND YOU SAY THIS IS DUE TO INSTITUTIONAL RACISM. ON THAT CASE DOES IT MEANS THAT RACES MAKE AN EXCEPTION FOR
BLACKS WHO ARE MARRIED? DO THEY CARE WHETHER BLACKS ARE MARRIED? NONE OF THESE EXPLANATION STANDS UP TO THE SLIGHTEST EMPIRICAL STUDY. MARK: LET’S TALK ABOUT THIS WHEN IT COMES TO MINORITIES GENERALLY. AN AGING POPULATION OF THIS COUNTRY ACHIEVES A LOT INTELLECTUALLY, EDUCATION WISE. THEY ARE DISCRIMINATED AGAINST THESE IVY LEAGUE COLLEGES WE HAD
A HARVARD WE HAD A SUPREME COURT DECISION AND SO FORTH THEIR WEIGHT JEWS WERE BY HARVARD, YALE, PRINCETON AND SO FORTH. SO PEOPLE WHO PUSH THE RACE ISSUE, IS IT THAT THEY REALLY CARE ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE OR ASIAN PEOPLE OR JEWISH PEOPLE OR IS IT JUST A NETHER WEDGE ISSUE TO TRY
TO DESTROY THE CULTURE AND DESTROY THE SOCIETY? >> THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE WHO ARE BOTH. SOME REALLY BELIEVE IT AND I FOR SORRY FOR THEM. BUT THERE ARE SOME WHO REALLY DON’T CARE. IF IT GETS THEM ELECTED, THAT IS WHAT MATTERS. THIS IS ONE OF THE TRAGEDIES WHF TRYING TO POLITICIZE RACE.
THERE ARE SO MANY FALLACIES IT’S HARD TO KNOW WHICH ONE TO TAKE UP. BUT FOR EXAMPLE THE GREAT NARRATIVE BLACKS ROSE FROM POVERTY. GOT INTO PROFESSIONAL OCCUPATIONS AS A RESULT OF THE 1960 SOCIAL WELFARE PROGRAMS. AND THIS IS THE BIG BENEFIT. ONE OF THE PROBLEM WITH THIS WAY OF LOOKING AT THINGS IS
EVERYTHING DEPENDS UPON WHEN YOU PICK AS THE START OF THIS TREND. IF YOU GO BACK TO 1948 THAT IS 20 YEARS BEFORE THESE WONDERFUL THINGS SUPPOSED TO HAVE HAPPENED IN THE 1960s AND YOU DISCOVER THE DEGREE TO WHICH BLACKS WERE IN POVERTY DECLINED FROM 80% IN 1940 TO 47% IN 1960.
IT WENT DOWN BY 40 POINTS IN THOSE 20 YEARS. NOW YOU LOOK AT THE 20 YEARS FOLLOWING 1960. THEY WENT DOWN 18 POINTS. AND SO THE TREND DID NOT BEGIN IN THE 1960s. THE TREND WAS THERE BEFORE THEM THE TREND DID NOT EVEN ACCELERATE AFTER 1960. MANY PEOPLE THINK IT WOULD ALL
BE GIVE THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964. THAT WAS A FINE ACT TO GET RID OF THE SEGREGATION LAWS IN THE SOUTH. BUT THE COLD FACT IS THE PERCENTAGE OF BLACKS WHO HAD PROFESSIONAL OCCUPATIONS DOUBLED FROM 1954 UNTIL 1964. THAT IS THE DECADE ENDING AT THE TIME THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF
1964 WAS PASSED. IF YOU LOOK AT THE THINGS THAT ARE NEGATIVE. FOR EXAMPLE BLACK CHILDREN BEING RAISED IN SINGLE-PARENT HOUSEHOLDS. IN 1940 JUST UNDER 17% OF BLACK KIDS WERE RAISED IN ONE PAIR FAMILIES. BUT AFTER THE 1960s BEFORE THE END OF THE CENTURY FOUR TIMES THAT MANY, 68% OF BLACK KIDS
WERE BEING RAISED IN ONE PARENT FAMILIES. THAT DOES NOT DEPEND ON A RACISM OR ANY OF THE OTHER THINGS THEY TALK ABOUT PRETTY DEPENDS UPON THINGS THAT HAPPEN DUE TO THE POLICIES OF THE 1960s WHICH ARE STILL GOING FORWARD. NEXT THE DISSOLUTION OF THE FAMILY JUST UNBELIEVABLE. DR. THOMAS SOWELL WHEN WE RETURN
RETURNED MY BIG QUESTION FOR YOU IS, AS A NATION WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? AND HOW DO WE STAR
