QUOTE: According to the Left, the economic hardships blacks face are largely due to latent racism. According to Ben Carson, and many other conservatives (Larry Elder also comes to mind), big-government policies, not racism, are the primary force suppressing black advancement. History shows Ben Carson is right, and Jesse Jackson is wrong. Let’s go back 50 years. According to economist Walter Williams, “[f]rom 1900 to 1954, blacks were more active than whites in the labor market. Until about 1960, black male labor force participation in every age group was equal to or greater than that of whites … As early as 1900, the duration of black unemployment was 15 percent shorter than that of whites; today it’s about 30 percent longer.” According to economist Thomas Sowell, “[t]he poverty rate among black families fell from 87 percent in 1940 to 47 percent in 1960, during an era of virtually no major civil rights legislation or anti-poverty programs … In various skilled trades, the incomes of blacks relative to whites more than doubled between 1936 and 1959.” .... In 1950, only 9 percent of black families with children were headed by a single parent (today, roughly two-thirds of black children are now raised in single-parent families). ... .... Yet the point here is that black economic progress was advancing steadily during the first half of the twentieth century, but proceeded to flat-line in the 1960s and 70s. ... What happened, then? Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1960s-era big government happened. Welfare laws were constructed that didn’t view black men and women as human beings in the image of God, but as useless children and at best tools for political gain.
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 15:30:24 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015