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Sowell: It's Not Black History Month, It's Sins of White People Month
www.townhall.com | Feb. 26, 2002 | Dr. Thomas Sowell

Posted on 02/26/2002 3:28:30 AM PST by Mean Daddy

What is called Black History Month might more accurately be called "the sins of white people" month. The sins of any branch of the human race are virtually inexhaustible, but the history of blacks in America includes a lot more than the sins of white people, which are put front and center each February.

Obviously, there is current political mileage to be gotten from historic grievances. At a minimum, politicians and activists get the media attention that is the lifeblood of their careers. Then there are racial quotas, money for special minority programs and hopes for reparations for slavery. If nothing else, some people get excuses for their own shortcomings -- and excuses are very important.

One of the many penetrating insights of the late Eric Hoffer was that, for many people, an excuse is better than an achievement. That is because an achievement, no matter how great, leaves you having to prove yourself again in the future. But an excuse can last for life.

Those black achievements which did not involve fighting the sins of white people get little attention during Black History Month. Indeed, many of those achievements undermine the blanket excuse that white sins are what prevent blacks from accomplishing more. How many people have heard of Paul Williams, who became a prominent black architect long before the civil rights revolution, or about successful black writers in the 19th century?

There was also an outstanding black high school in Washington, D.C., which had remarkable achievements from 1870 to 1955. For example, most of its graduates during that period went on to college, even though most white high school graduates did not make it to college during that era. As far back as 1899, this school's students scored higher on standardized tests than two of the three white academic high schools in the District of Columbia.

Given the terrible educational performances of so many ghetto schools, you might think that there would be great interest in how this particular school succeeded when so many others failed. But you would be wrong. Where there was any reaction at all from the black establishment to an article I wrote about the history of this school, that reaction was hostility.

Dunbar High School was an achievement, but it destroyed a thousand excuses. The prevailing dogma is that all the failures of black schools were due to the sins of white people, including inadequate funding and racial segregation. But Dunbar was inadequately funded -- its class sizes were 40 or more -- and it was racially segregated for more than 80 years. Its history of success was therefore not welcomed by black "leaders."

Another big problem with Black History Month is its narrowness. You cannot understand even your own history if that is the only history you know. Some explanations of what has happened in your history might sound plausible within the framework of just one people's history, but these explanations can collapse like a house of cards if you look at the same factors in the histories of other groups, other countries, and other eras.

Shelby Steele has pointed out that whites are desperate to escape guilt and blacks are desperate to escape implications of inferiority. But, viewed against the background of world history, neither group of Americans is unique. Nor are the differences between them. Both their anxieties are overblown.

Black-white differences in income, IQ, lifestyle or anything else you care to name are exceeded by differences between innumerable other groups around the world today and throughout history -- even when none of the factors that we blame for the differences in America was present.

For example, when the Romans invaded Britain, they came from an empire with magnificent art, architecture, literature, political organization and military might. But the Britons were an illiterate tribal people. There was not a building on the island, and no Briton's name had ever been recorded in the pages of history.

The Britons didn't build London. The Romans built London. And when the Romans left, four centuries later, the country fragmented into tribal domains again, the economy collapsed, and buildings and roads decayed. No one would have dreamed at that point that someday there would be a British Empire to exceed anything the Romans had ever achieved.

Maybe we need a British History Month.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: thomassowelllist
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To: Mean Daddy
Shelby Steele has pointed out that whites are desperate to escape guilt

Wait a minute. Now I really feel guilty. Since I'm white and I believe in hard work, self determination, the Christian work ethic, and I strive to build a better more prosperous life for myself as well as my children (while at the same time instilling these self same principles in them), then I'm supposed to feel guilty about that? Wow... I had no idea.... now I really feel guilty (saracasm). Thats it, I'm quiting my job, leaving my wife & kids, going to hang out on the corner, bum smokes & generally do whatever it is I want to do. To ease my guilt, I feel it necessary to turn my back upon all that I have held sacred and live as a dredge of society. Once my "sins" have been atoned for & my "oppression" has been done away with, then I'm sure everything will be perfect in this country, right?
21 posted on 02/26/2002 4:38:24 AM PST by Sword_of_Gideon
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To: Mean Daddy
I think that the accomplishments of blacks is wildly overlooked - introduction of the watermelon, state welfare, single parent families, crime, really stupid TV sitcoms - the list goes on and on.

Whites did NOT institute slavery. African blacks rounded up and sold their native black enemies to WHOEVER would buy them - whites as well as other blacks. Ask Mary Francis if she has ever heard of blacks owning black slaves. They did and still do.

22 posted on 02/26/2002 4:52:34 AM PST by sandydipper
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Comment #23 Removed by Moderator

To: 4ConservativeJustices
The inferiority complex Sowell speaks about is rooted in cultural changes in the ghettos that have occurred over the last several decades. As Sowell pointed out, black high school students in Washington D.C. performed as well if not better than the white students during the period from 1870-1955. And certainly American whites didn't especially love American blacks during this period. What has happened since that time? What happened was the creation of all those great society war on poverty progams. Those failed liberal programs which paid people not to work and to stay home and raise out of wedlock babies removed all self esteem and triggered the development of the inferior culture of crime, drugs and illigitamacy.
24 posted on 02/26/2002 5:07:45 AM PST by majordivit
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To: Fintan
Personally, I'd like to see an "American History Month".

Just imagine the socialists in the news media having a coronary over that one...

Maybe they'll riot and destroy their own presses so we won't have to put up with their propaganda anymore.

25 posted on 02/26/2002 5:19:06 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
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To: Mean Daddy
Maybe we need a British History Month.

Most definitely!

26 posted on 02/26/2002 5:23:20 AM PST by bvw
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To: Mean Daddy
Bump for later reading.....
27 posted on 02/26/2002 5:26:48 AM PST by SolitaryMan
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To: rebelyell
Cherokee blood here: your right you know, Native Amerians were treated less than human and hunted down like dogs. If my g-grandmother had not married my g-grandfather (Irish) she would have been herded from North Carolina along with the rest of her tribe and maybe, just maybe, she might have survived the "Trail of Tears".

But we have found a better way to fight back, complaining is for the weak, it's called "Education". We have educated our children and we give credit where credit is due, to all men but we have deep respect and gratefulness to the brave White men and women that did stand-by and stand-up for my people.

Blacks cannot claim ignorance when it comes to cruelty and injustises, their damn Buffalo Soldiers were out there hunting down and killing my people, we would like to hear their pathetic excuses for that barbarism. No white man "forced" them to kill my people, slavery was over.

Black leaders and Black organizations have given their people something they will never let go of, it's called "Excuses for Failure", they will never run out of excuses as to why their sorry a*** can never get ahead, even though it has been their since the first black man learned to read under the threat of death, it's called "Education" and they throw it back in everyones face today with both hands, we have no sympathy for these people that will not try.

Thank you

Mom_Grandmother

28 posted on 02/26/2002 5:58:49 AM PST by Mom_Grandmother
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To: Jimer
Americans did not "institute" slavery. Slavery was a standard part of most societies for most of human existence. There were slaves in America long before there was a United States.

The remarkable thing about Europeans and slavery is that, due to the enlightenment, they got rid of it.

29 posted on 02/26/2002 6:26:51 AM PST by stop_fascism
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To: majordivit
"Those failed liberal programs which paid people not to work and to stay home and raise out of wedlock babies removed all self esteem and triggered the development of the inferior culture of crime, drugs and illigitamacy."

B I N G O.

30 posted on 02/26/2002 7:04:35 AM PST by 4CJ
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Comment #31 Removed by Moderator

To: stop_fascism
Americans did not "institute" slavery.

Institute is commonly used by many as a fancy synonym for begin, but actually that's a secondary definition of the word institute. The primary definition of institute, according to my dictionary, is "to establish, organize, and set in operation." I would conclude that Jimer's use of the word institute is correct.

32 posted on 02/26/2002 7:38:39 AM PST by willieroe
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To: mcook4
Hey Watch It! I'm a Native American and I don't want a month of oppression!
33 posted on 02/26/2002 7:43:56 AM PST by kapn kuek
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To: Mean Daddy
Now you're going to be labeled a racist.
34 posted on 02/26/2002 7:45:48 AM PST by paul51
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To: Mean Daddy;Thomas_Sowell_list
Bump List
35 posted on 02/26/2002 7:47:11 AM PST by Free the USA
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To: Lumberjack
Cynical?....Nah, say it ain't so brother, say it ain't so.

Some say I'm cynical too, but I doubt it.

Sowell has forgotten more wisdom and common sense than most of the "Wise Men" shooting off their mouths will ever know.

36 posted on 02/26/2002 7:50:30 AM PST by Mr Ducklips
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To: Mean Daddy
This morning I watched black conference in Philadelphia on CSPAN2 called "African American Policy after 9/11: Where do we go from here?"

Tavis Smiley was the moderator. Panelists included Lani Guiniere, the CEO of Urban League, Cornel West (the gangsta rappa "professor" from Harvard), a woman who headed the NAACP Legal Defense Team, etc., etc. You get my drift on what this panel was REALLY about. If Dr. Sowell had shown up at a conference like this, the crowd would have jumped him and tried to beat him to death.

Let it suffice to say that this conference was a three hour "Amercia Sucks" and "I Hate Whitey--Let's Take to the Streets" orgy.

On the topic of 9/11, Do you know what the biggest beef these Clymers seem to have? Not making this up: The fact that after 9/11, the federal government has had to increase defense spending, which means money is being "stolen" from their "social programs" (read: government hand-outs).

Black History month, black "policy conferences," and black political activism in general have deteriorated to nothing more than exercises in "Why we hate America," "Why we deserve reparations," and "Why it's TOTALLY not my fault that I'm a drug addict, career criminal, and/or have five babies out of wedlock."

God bless Dr. Sowell! Unfortunately, for every Dr. Sowell there seem to be a thousand Jesse Jacksons.

37 posted on 02/26/2002 8:09:05 AM PST by RooRoobird14
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To: No More Gore Anymore
I wonder if any nation has practiced slavery for fewer years than America. (Some have never practiced it, of course.) The American flag only flew over slave-owners from 1776 to 1865... and there were movements going from the 1820's for abolition. Anyone have the statistics on this? I know Brazil ended theirs in 1888, and Saudi Arabia in the 1970's.
38 posted on 02/26/2002 8:15:43 AM PST by Teacher317
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To: willieroe
It would be correct if after achieving independence from Great Britain, Americans suddenly instituted a new institution, slavery. However, that did not happen. Slavery had already been instituted in the new world by the English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.
39 posted on 02/26/2002 11:30:02 AM PST by stop_fascism
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To: Mean Daddy
See also:

Booker T. Washington & W.E.B. DuBois

40 posted on 02/26/2002 4:13:20 PM PST by mrustow
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