Posted on 09/16/2008 3:50:52 PM PDT by jazusamo
Sometimes you don't know when you are lucky. Certainly I did not consider myself lucky when I left home at seventeen and discovered the hard way that there was no great demand for a black teenage dropout with no experience and no skill.
In retrospect, however, those days of struggling to earn money to pay the room rent and buy food left little time or energy for navel-gazing over things like "identity."
All this came back to me recently when I saw a font-page story about middle-class blacks worrying about their racial identity. There, on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, was a picture of a black teenager whose mother was fixing his bow tie as he was getting dressed in a tuxedo, in preparation for a cotillion.
I never had the problem of wearing a tuxedo to a cotillion, so it was hard for me to empathize with their angst.
When I was that kid's age, I had real problems that taught me real lessons to remember when times got better, not navel-gazing problems that can distract you from reality for a lifetime.
Apparently there are middle-class blacks who spend a lot of time and energy worrying about losing their roots and losing touch with their black brothers back in the 'hood.
In one sense, it is good that there are people who think about others less fortunate than themselves. That's fine but, like most good things, it can be carried to the point where it is both ridiculous and counterproductive for all concerned.
In a world where an absolute majority of black children are born and raised in fatherless homes, where most black kids never finish high school and where the murder rate among blacks is several times the national average, surely there must be more urgent priorities than preserving a lifestyle and an identity.
During decades of researching racial and ethnic groups in countries around the world— with special attention to those who began in poverty and then rose to prosperity— I have yet to find one so preoccupied with tribalistic identity as to want to maintain solidarity with all members of their group, regardless of what they do or how they do it.
Any group that rises has to have norms, and that means repudiating those who violate those norms, if you are serious. Blind tribalism means letting the lowest common denominator determine the norms and the fate of the whole group.
There was a time when most blacks, like most of the Irish or the Jews, understood this common sense. But that was before the romanticizing of identity took over, beginning in the 1960s.
Back in 19th century America, the Catholic Church took on the task of changing the behavior of the poverty-stricken Irish immigrants, in order to prepare them to rise in American society. As this transformation succeeded, employers' signs that said "No Irish Need Apply" began to disappear in the 20th century.
The Jewish community likewise made many efforts to change the behavior of immigrants from Eastern Europe, to enable them to better fit into American society— and to rise in that society.
The Urban League and other black uplift groups made similar efforts to prepare their fellow blacks to rise in American society. In fact, those efforts began to pay off in dramatic reductions in poverty among blacks, even before the civil rights laws of the 1960s.
The unanswered question is why an approach with a proven track record, not only in American society but in various other countries around the world, has been superseded by a philosophy of tribal identity over-riding issues of behavior and performance.
Part of the problem is the "multicultural" ideology that says all cultures are equally valid. It is hard even to know what that means, much less take it seriously as a guide to living in the real world.
Will time and energy spent on rap music and wearing low-riding baggy pants like guys in prison— as badges of identity— provide as good a future for young people as learning math, computers and the English language?
Romantic self-indulgence and self-deception are things that some people can afford when they reach the point where they can afford identity angst. But millions of other people will remain mired in poverty if they believe such notions.
When the Democrats discovered the could buy votes with taxpayer dollars by promising to end poverty, they needed either a constant source of new victims or they needed to keep the victims (voters) down on the farm.
They’ve continued to play this card again and again.
I wonder if Bill Cosby reads Thomas?
Though I have no idea I would bet money he does.
Amen Dr. Sowell, amen. I find it sad that these self-destructive behaviors are tolerated and accepted by civil rights “leaders” as a way to keep it real.
“Romantic self-indulgence and self-deception are things that some people can afford when they reach the point where they can afford identity angst. But millions of other people will remain mired in poverty if they believe such notions.”
I love you, Dr. Sowell! Marry me! :)
Man, that is SO true. My garden center is on the edge of ‘the hood’ and once in a great while we get a kid from that area that wants to apply for a job. We take his application, then never hear from him again because, well, we expect him to WORK.
I had a black lady in the store a few weeks back complaining that we have no ‘people of color’ working in our garden center. She was being very obnoxious about it, complaining loudly and bothering other customers.
I took her aside and asked for the names and numbers of youth in her neighborhood who would like an entry-level job (because that’s all we offer to ANYONE) as a cashier or a stock person, and I would personally contact them to come in to fill out an application...just like all of the people who currently work there did to GET the job in the first place.
She left without giving me any names, but of course made a racket all the way out the door.
Sometimes it’s the way your MAMA raises you that screws your chances for success in this world, too.
I love you, Dr. Sowell! Marry me! :)
I see you're in a great mood after making some bucks today. :)
I pray for health and long life for this man every day.
It’s the ‘entitlement attitude’ that’s prevalent where I work in ‘The People’s Republik of Madistan.’ What? Take the proper STEPS to GET a job? Why aren’t employers knocking down MY door and BEGGING me to work for them?
And this isn’t necessarily a color thing. I remember my own pasty-faced son when he got his first job. They worked his @ss off, and he came home after that first day and said, “They don’t pay me NEARLY what I’m worth.” I totally fell out. What a doofus. You’re sixteen! You have no skills aside from manual albor. Get used to it or change your life!
Now, he’s working his way through college toward an electronics/ computer degree just like his Dear Old Dad. His attitude at 21 is much better than it was at 16. ;)
And, yes. I AM in a good mood after earning some cash today! :)
(Guess I’d better go see to that other article I bumped earlier this morning...)
Bootstraps BUMP
As a white male I was able to break into the work force with outstanding jobs like raking leaves, mowing lawns, washing dishes, pumping gas, and pushing loafs of bread through an unguarded bread slicer for two years during and after High School before I joined the Air Force...
Puts me in mind of a guy, I think a politician, who once said of his own early identity struggles, "Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it."
Am I the only one who thinks one of the candidate’s wives has an attitude similar to that woman’s? I suspect not.
The village created by liberalism bleeds its young of an individual identity in order to posit itself as an authority.
In the real world, we'd call these leaders extremely insecure and of having too much self-esteem.
How many people read "Clan of the Cave Bear" and despised that young, nasty, insecure eventual leader of the Clan - but seemed totally unable to see the leadership of the Tribal "Black" Clan in the same light.
"We'll shun you if you get good grades - that would be acting "white"
"We'll shun you and punish you if you vote any other way but the way we tell you to vote".
Ad nauseum.
For young white kids, I call it the James Bond syndrome. Everything comes easy to the guy or gal who was born with a pretty face...
I will have to ask the question. I’m not sure if Obama actually understands Thomas Sowell’s philosophy. Clarence Thomas did. Condi Rice and Powell and Bill Cosby and many others do. But what can Sarah Palin and John McCAin when asked, bring to the table to solve this problem?
I really think the first black president will be a conservative. If Obama truly had the knowledge...the simple secret that Sowell talks about in this article, he would have had people of all backgrounds flocking to him.
Fact is, that he suffers from the same laziness that the rap society espounds. Let’s not kid ourselves. The real achiever in his family is Michelle.
I bought the bio of Clarence Thomas. The section with regard to him discovering the writings and thinking of Thomas Sowell was one of the best parts, (the section on
Biden was good too.) Before then he was preoccupied with navel watching...and trying to find his identity.
The black “leaders” in this country are NOT the Cosbys, Condi Rices, J. C. Watts, Thomas Sowell etc. They’re self proclaimed preachers and rappers...and very little distinction between the two.
Don’t forget the 20 million black abortions. The liberals of this country are killing this race, and the sad thing is, people like Oprah should know this.
I think the biggest loser in this election is going to be Oprah. I can’t stand to watch or listen to her. In one giaNT swoop, America now knows what a utter phony she is.
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