[jazusamo]

*PING*
Thomas Sowell

Recent columns
The Scandal of “Scandals“
Random Thoughts
Aftermath of the 1960s?

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[dcwusmc]

He just hit another one out of the park!

[To Hell With Poverty]

He is spot on. Nonetheless, I almost wish they’d stock his book in both sections, because so many black people (overwhelmingly liberal) would benefit greatly from his words and example. He might get more exposure to the “black community” if his books were displayed in the “African American” sections.

[GATOR NAVY]

"A Man of Letters" is a collection of excerpts from letters I have sent and received since 1960...

In '97 or '98, I was liaison from Sasebo Naval Base for a USS BLUE RIDGE port visit to Kagoshoma, Japan. The morning the ship left, 7th Fleet staff gave a letter to mail when I returned to Sasebo. It was from Commander 7th Fleet (I think it was VADM Natter at the time) to Dr. Thomas Sowell at the Hoover Institution. I had a couple of his books and I remember thinking how cool this was. I always wondered what the subject of the letter was-maybe it's mentioned in this book...

[verum ago]

Sowell speaks of "symbolism." For someone who's usually such a straight shooter, I'm surprised he didn't call it what it is: racism. Classifying people by race is purely and simply RACISM. It disgusts me so much today to see hypocritical "civil rights" leaders urging special treatment for blacks, and viciously smearing anyone who opposes them by wrapping themselves in the names of truly great men, especially the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr..

"...I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'...
"...I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Ask yourself, does putting black authors in their own section and judging university and job applicants to be better than their peers because they're not white fit the above statements, or do they more invoke

"All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others."

and

"We consider the underlying fallacy of the plaintiff's argument to consist in the assumption that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority."
?

So long as we judge people by race, even for their benefit [of course, that just means a different race becomes the one discriminated against], we're sustaining the notion that people of different races are somehow fundamentally different in either their innate abilities or how far they can advance in life. Black leaders today capitalize not on trying to empower blacks, but by bombarding them with the notion that they cannot succeed without help. What is the message of affirmative action anyway? It's "You can only succeed if you get special treatment because your race is special." No wonder inner city minority youth are so disillusioned- no one's ever told them they can do what they want in life.
To be fair, I know black people often do have it harder as a matter of their circumstances. But we shouldn't use that as justification to defile what so many gave their lives for as slaves, in the Civil Rights movement, and even the Revolutionary War. Blacks, and minorities in general, today are still treated as a second class of citizens just as they were when they were slaves or suffering under Jim Crow laws. That must stop.

It is one of my most fervent hopes that some day race statistics won't be keep for lack of need. But moreover I wish attitudes based upon race would go away. Ask a child too young to know who the president is nowadays who is in this photo:

and the response will be "a black man and a white man." When will that response be merely "two men" ?

[Knitting A Conundrum]

When I was a senior in high school, I had a history teacher introduce me to Thomas Sowell, back in 72-73....been reading him a long, long time....He was always a breath of wisdom and fresh air....