Black Rednecks and White Liberals PDF
Preview Black Rednecks and White Liberals
Black Rednecks and White Liberals Thomas Sowell Encounter Books SAN FRANCISCO Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Sowell All rights reserved, Encounter Books, 665 Third Street, Suite 330, San Francisco,California 94107-1951. First edition published in 2005 by Encounter Books, an activity of EncounterforCultureandEducation,Inc.,anonprofitcorporation. EncounterBookswebsiteaddress:www.encounterbooks.com FIRSTEDITION LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Sowell,Thomas. Blackrednecksandwhiteliberals / ThomasSowell. p.cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN 1-59403-127-4 Stereotype (Psychology).2.Ethnic relations—History.3.Racerelations— History.I.Title. HM1096 .S683 2005 305.8’00973—dc22 2005041506 10987654321 We do not live in the past, but the past in us. —U.B.Phillips Contents Preface ix Black Rednecks and White Liberals 1 Are Jews Generic? 65 The Real History of Slavery 111 Germans and History 171 Black Education: Achievements,Myths and Tragedies 203 History versus Visions 247 Notes 293 Index 357 Preface R ACEAND RHETORIC HAVE GONETOGETHER for so long that it is easy to forget that facts also matter—and these facts often contradict many widely held beliefs. Fantasies and fallacies about racial and ethnic issues have had a particularly painful and deadly history,so exposing some of them is more than an academic exercise. The history of intergroup strife has been written in blood in many countries around the world and across centuries of human history. The purpose of this book is to expose some of the more bla- tant misconceptions poisoning race relations in our time. The reasons for these misconceptions range from simple,innocent igno- rance to reasons that are far from simple and far from innocent. Many of the facts cited here may be surprising or even startling to some readers,but they are not literally unknown to scholars; they have simply not been widely discussed in the media or even in aca- demia. Too much has been assumed for too long and too little has been scrutinized. It may be optimistic merely to suggest that racial or ethnic issues can be discussed rationally.Evidence to the contrary is all too abundant in the strident and sweeping condemnations directed against many who have tried to do so. Yet there is also evidence in recent years of a growing willingness to consider views that differ from the racial orthodoxy that has prevailed largely unchallenged from the 1960s onward in intellectual circles and in the popular media. In any event,these essays summarize the conclusions of more than a quarter of a century of my research on racial and cul- ix x Black Rednecks and White Liberals tural issues,as well as drawing on the work of innumerable other scholars around the world. These writings do not pretend to be definitive.If they provoke thoughts on a subject where clichés and dogmas too often prevail, then this book will have achieved one of its major goals. However,even a work seeking primarily to untangle a com- plex set of historic social issues can provoke the fashionable question: “But what is yoursolution?” Yet there is not the slightest danger that there will be a shortage of solutions.On the contrary, an abundance of uninformed solutions has been one of our biggest social problems. Any serious consideration of social problems is likely to involve trade-offs rather than neat“solutions,”and trade-offs depend on values which can vary from one individual to the next. What trade-offs others might make after considering what these essays have to offer is not something that can be predicted,nor is such a prediction necessary. There is still much to be said for the ancient adage: “With all your getting,get understanding.” If this book can contribute to understanding on a subject where misunderstandings abound,then it will have done its work. Because this book is written for the general public,it does not feature long,convoluted sentences with escape clauses designed to prevent words from being twisted to mean something that they were never intended to mean. Common sense can be more readily expected when writing for the general public than when writing for the intelligentsia. To prevent the words in the essays that follow from being stretched,twisted,or given clever meanings,let me state here and now that these essays do not mean that (1) all Southern whites were or are rednecks,that (2) all black Americans today or in the past were or are black rednecks,that (3) Jews are exactly the same as the other groups with whom they are compared,or that (4) slavery is somehow morally acceptable because everyone was guilty of it. One cannot predict, much less forestall,all the clever misinterpretations that others might put on one’s words. The most that can be done is to alert honest people to the problem. While this book is not particularly large in bulk,its scope is worldwide and it goes back through centuries. No one can write a book of such scope without incurring many debts to others. These
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