When Black Scholars Deal in Forbidden Knowledge
When Black Scholars Deal in Forbidden Knowledge
Why The Woke Pretend The Black Community Is Monolithic
When Black Scholars Deal in Forbidden Knowledge
“Thomas Sowell is our greatest contemporary philosopher." - playwright David Mamet
Jason L. Riley is a Wall Street Journal journalist and author of such books as 2014’s Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed, and 2017’s False Black Power, and he has written a biography of one of the most important voices of our times, the intellectual force of nature Thomas Sowell.
In an interview regarding his new book, Maverick: A Biography Of Thomas Sowell, he laments about the injustice of woke authors like Ibram X. Kendi, Robin DiAngelo, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Cornel West and Nikole Hannah-Jones, enjoying praise on the successes of their highly questionable “scholarship,” while Thomas Sowell remains largely unknown.
Larry Elder
American libertarian radio host Larry Elder has been quoted:
“The exclusion of people like Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams explains why there's no serious discussion in the black community about government dependency; school choice; the damage done by high taxes, excessive regulation and laws like minimum wage; and why blacks should rethink their allegiance to the Democratic Party.”
Demonstrating the intolerance of woke “anti-racist” types, and the severity by which they condemn conservative perspectives, in October Ibram X. Kendi effectively called Larry Elder a minstrel, when he tweeted: “Only in America can Black people become wealthy by telling White people they have 10 times the median wealth of Black people because they are superior—and not racism. No need to finance minstrel shows any more when they can finance Larry Elder.”
Larry Elder responded - “Only in America can black victicrats like @DrIbram become wealthy by telling white people how they prevent black people from becoming wealthy. Is this a great country or what?”
Who are these men?
Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams and Clarence Thomas are three black men who have reached the pinnacle of excellence. They are just three examples among many, of black men who are not only among the most intelligent humans on the planet, but who were both prolific and nothing short of awe inspiring in their careers and output. These men have made lasting and important contributions in their respective disciplines. Why would the “black community” snub them?
Walter Williams
Walter Williams was an economist known for classical liberal and libertarian views. He was an esteemed author and professor of economics at George Mason University. Unlike other scholars that discuss race, he believed that racism and the legacy of black slavery is overstated and not productive for the black community. He had outspoken views against government interventions in the affairs of people through social programs. Walter Williams believed laissez-faire capitalism to be the most moral, most productive system humans have ever devised.
With such views so thoroughly at odds with the prevailing orthodoxy, and with the renewed interest in interventions in the name of “diversity, equity and inclusion,” it's no wonder the marxist-leaning modern left had no interest in engaging with his work.
His case illustrates, through the intolerance of his typical classical liberalism, both just how far left many liberals of today have moved, and how effectively they ignore and suppress dissenting voices even from within their own ranks.
Clarence Thomas
Since 2018, Clarence Thomas has been senior associate justice, and the longest-serving member of the U.S. Supreme Court with a tenure of 29 years. He is only the second black man ever to serve in such a role.
Every year, the black monthly magazine Ebony lists its "Power 100," defined as those "who lead, inspire and demonstrate through their individual talents, the very best in Black America." Each year Clarence Thomas is conspicuously absent. Apparently, as a sitting black justice on the Supreme Court of the United States, Thomas does not "lead, inspire and demonstrate ... the very best in Black America.”
Clarence Thomas’ case is easy to assess. He has conservative views. The woke ones say - “As a black man, how dare he. Doesn’t he realize the harm he is causing the black community by holding conservative views?” When a black person doesn’t act the way the woke say black people should, they blame “internalized racism.” Reasonable people of course know this is ridiculous. But in today's world, black people are expected to be liberals or democrats. It makes sense when you consider that without black people accepting — even embracing — victimhood, it becomes rather difficult for “anti-racists” to continue their incessant virtue-signalling.
Thomas Sowell
“Success is neither randomly or evenly distributed among individuals, groups, institutions or nations in most meaningful endeavours with multiple prerequisite” - Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social theorist, and senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He served in the American Marine Corps during the Korean war. He is the author of more than thirty books and a National Humanities Medal recipient for innovative scholarship which incorporates history, economics and political science.
His book Discrimination and Disparities makes the case that differences in socioeconomic outcomes between groups does not imply either biased treatment (discrimination) or genetic differences (eugenics). He further states that any difference in economic benefits not due to individual merit presents no justification for having politicians redistribute those benefits.
He quotes Fernand Braudel: “In no society have all regions and all parts of the population developed equally.”
Success in most endeavours, according to Sowell, is dependent on meeting a number of prerequisites simultaneously. When an otherwise smart or skilled person fails, often times the assumption is discrimination. But more often than not, a careful consideration of the requirements of success in any particular endeavour show that success is not as straightforward as being skilled or smart or any other narrow collection of attributes. Sometimes the winning formula for success is a broad collection of attributes that go far beyond what surface examinations lead one to assume. When the reason for a failure, or undesired outcome, is not understood, the assumption that discrimination must be the culprit can be tempting.
The dismissal and/or disregard of Thomas Sowell is caused by the same cultural forces that snub Clarence Thomas and Walter Williams. People on the far left are hostile to anything that isn’t social program oriented or flat out Marxist. An assumption that the West is systemically racist prevents them from considering any other explanation for the plight of certain groups. This leads them to falsely assume, for example, that all socioeconomic disparities are due to discrimination. Further, the idea that market forces operating in an unfettered climate may solve many of the problems that social programs only make worse is an impossible idea to inhabit for many of them. This is an enormous problem. When people can’t see the good in the free market and its self-correcting qualities, their go to solution for everything is government intervention and social programs.
People who find themselves the most offset from the political center, the further left of the left-of-center crowd, are too often making these assumptions about economic dynamics and markets. Clinging to stories that make people feel good - “We are going to raise the minimum wage because of discrimination against low income earners” - while actively ensuring they never encounter any information that suggests the “feel good” thing might not work. It might even makes things worse.
There is so much incentive to suppress anything that contradicts woke beliefs - like claims of systemic racism in Canada and the west - especially when it comes to sacred gestures of goodwill that make people feel like the kind and “anti-racist” thing is being done. Black men and woman are expected to be obedient “de-colonizers” committed to dismantling systemic racism. When they disagree, you will most likely not hear about it. Who are the woke really helping by ignoring the view-point diversity of the black community?
This is the Ninth installment of “The Woke West: The Identity Politics, Cancel Culture, Radical Activism And Forbidden Knowledge Dividing The West...And What You Can Do About It!” - A book by James Pew, published serially to The Turn Substack.
Thanks For Reading - Next Up, The Cancelling Of Canadian White Men: And A Rebel Who Fights Back