The Family Way [Impact of Fatherless Families]

On the deepest matters of cultural and social affairs, the best guide is to reflect on human experience. This means looking backward at those experiences, and conservatives are more inclined to do this than are liberals. Conservatives get a lot of grief for this. After all, looking backward sometimes means failing to endorse bold and desirable changes.

Enslaved blacks were never allowed to form families at all so that, when emancipation finally came, there was no lasting tradition of family life that could support newly freed people who were cast out into a still-segregated society.

I like this article very much. It seems obviously true. However, I think that the except above is inocorrect. I believe Thomas Sowell frequently points out the low illiteracy rates of blacks in the early 20th century. And the high rate of marriage of blacks in the early 20th century. And the low incidence of illegitimacy among black families in the 20th century.

Blacks came out of slavery and were able to do "all the right things" within a generation or two. But something changed in the middle of the 20th century which set blacks back quite substantially. It's common to blame the legacy of slavery, but this is wrong on it's face. It's the Great Society and the concept of entitlement which has put blacks where they are today. Slavery should be condemned for what it was, but not blamed for what it did not do. If we make that mistake, we allow the real culprits (leftists) to escape the blame they deserve.

I've seen those observations from Sowell as well. I think Charles Murray may have made similar points as well, though of course in today's world it is seen as much more credible coming from someone who is black. I italicize because this should not be the case, but sadly is.

This is more false than true. Even under slavery, far, far larger shares of the black population were MARRIED than are so today. In the period from 1920 to 1950, about 75% of the adult over-18 black population was married, as compared to some 35% today.

In fact, it is obvious that the problem is moral and social degeneracy of the TOTAL population, since a larger share of WHITES are now born out of wedlock, than were of BLACKS in the 1940-65 era, when the black rate was enough to scandalize the former Democrat senator, Moynihan...

African-Americans were doing all the right things up through the early 20th century becasue they were mainly implementing the philosophy of Booker T. Washington. Then quasi-communist WEB DuBois came along with his siren song of fostering victimhood and demanding government entitlement, and it has been all downhill from there. ALL of the current crop of Black "leaders" -- Jackson, Sharpton, etc. -- are disciples of WEB DuBois.

This more false than true ... it is obvious that the problem is moral and social degeneracy of the TOTAL population

Read what the article says:

the Family disorganization is more important than either race or income in explaining violent crime.

You and the author agree more than you think.

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