Replies

Thought you guys might be interested in this debate between McWhorter and Wilkins.

Btw, I have a some great period news articles on Booker T. and W.E.B. (who was amazingly conservative in his early publications). I'm ever fascinated by race and the progressive period. I don't think anyone understands it. I sure don't, although I'm quite certain that no one else does, either, no matter how much they think they do... Here are two fascinating articles by Booker Washington and WEB Du Bois that appeared in the NY Times in 1909, in anticipation of the 50th anniversaries of the Civil War:

Negro Four Years Hence: Booker T. Washington Takes Look Ahead
Fifty Years Among Black Folks: Prof. Dubois Tells of Evolution of the Negro

Warning: PDF files!

A lot has to do with perceptions or "frames of reference." If you were Black in Birmingham or Jackson or Selma in 1965, you pretty much expected nothing from the police or local government or White society. If you lived in a Northern city like Detroit or Philadelphia your expectations would be higher: you had the vote, and politicians and the police ought to give your concerns the same respect as those of other citizens. If you lived in Los Angeles or Oakland, your expectations were higher still, and not so very different from those of local Whites. The different environment has a lot to do with what happened. Whether you want to attribute it to specific people or the times or the culture of the place is up to you.

I don't think Watts was the first riot of its kind. While the earliest race riots involved Whites attacking Blacks, Harlem had already seen disturbances of the sort that erupted in Los Angeles in 1965. The problem with debates about deeper causes, is that the most relevant factor was the behavior of the police. In general, you don't need massive programs or large scale changes to prevent such riots. You just have to make sure the police are well-equipped to deal with disturbances and do their job fairly and effectively without sparking such outbreaks.