‘Please Stop Helping Us’ and ‘Shame’ (Review of books by black conservatives)

NY Times ^ | 02 March 2015 | ORLANDO PATTERSON

[NRx]

One of the few things conservatives and liberals agree on about the ’60s is that it was a decade of radical change in the nation’s politics, ethnoracial and gender relations, popular culture and international policies. For liberals, the decade marked the nation’s greatest transition toward a new era of personal, socioeconomic and political liberation and inclusion, especially for blacks, initiated by the courts, the civil and voting rights acts and the Great Society programs. To most conservatives, the period, with few exceptions, was a terrible turn for the worse. And for African-­American conservatives like ­Jason L. ­Riley and Shelby Steele, beyond the ending of formal discrimination in voting, education and civil rights, the era was for black Americans an unmitigated disaster, the consequences of which persist to this day.

[NRx]

Adding both books to my reading list.

[Misterioso]

As usual, the author doesn’t take into account the dumbing down of American culture—especially politics—in the past 50 years. The conclusions become irrelevant.

[Mears]

I read Riley’s book a while back......terrific.

.

[ExCTCitizen]

Me too...

[Steve_Seattle]

" [he says] that “having a black man in the Oval Office is less important than having one in the home,” a curious thought from a successful black man whose father, though having left home when Riley was a small child, nonetheless conscientiously managed to parent him. A thoroughly misinformed chapter on culture not only trots out the usual inaccuracies about hip-hop’s influence but, failing to recognize the diversity of African-American cultures, proceeds to libel the entire group with the assertion that “black culture today not only condones delinquency and thuggery but celebrates it.”

1. The fact that his father was an exception to the rule somehow disproves the rule? It's a "curious thought" that fatherless families breed delinquency and crime?

2. What are the "usual inaccuracies" about hip-hop's influence?

[Steve_Seattle]

It sounds like the author is all-in for black dependency.

[Steve_Seattle]

There are indeed various "black cultures" within America, but most of the ones that are not dysfunctional are either the cultures of recent immigrants (who are often traditionally religious), the culture of the Black (Christian) church, and the culture of Black Islam. They are all struggling against the same destructive tendencies that the authors of these books are talking about.

They are relatively small subcultures within the larger culture of black America, and it is in that larger, secular, post-modern, rap-influenced culture, where most of the problems lie.

[logitech]

To most conservatives, the period, with few exceptions, was a terrible turn for the worse.

A lie from the pit of hell!

[NRx]

Really? Maybe I misread it, but I thought that was one of the few honest lines in the article.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

My take, too. He seems to think everything is fine and the authors of the books are hyperbolic kooks.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Slightly OT, but all fans of Thomas Sowell will enjoy his December 10,2014 podcast interview with Peter Robinson of The Hoover Institution. It is full of wisdom and a fair amount of great humor as well:

Thomas Sowell Brings the World into Focus through an Economics Lens

http://www.hoover.org/research/thomas-sowell-brings-world-focus-through-economics-lens