I felt pressure to declare my minority status on college applications and ‘get the upper hand.’ But I refused to be currency in someone else’s power game.
You probably get this a lot... but I’d love to see a documentary about this very subject featuring yourself, Coleman Hughes, Glenn Loury, and John McWhorter, among others. Would gladly contribute to help crowdfund, keep up the great work!
“ Frankly these black elitists aren't much different than Hamas leveraging Palestinians for their end game.”
I think I see Hamas’ end game: kill all the Jews, own all the land, and virgins in paradise. I don’t understand the black elites end game. They are aware that blacks will have perpetual shame because of incompetence. Is their god just shallow and empty power and money?
End game? I suspect that unlike Eli Steele, whose own father is a man of independent thinking, made a choice that he learned from that dad early. Most people, white or POC, haven't the experience to avoid those temptations at an immature age. Most people are encouraged to put down whatever edge they think will benefit them.
Parents have an incredible responsibility to teach. Sadly, most do not or tech the wrong things.
I understand that, my question is not about individuals who take advantage of affirmative action. My question is about the Conspiracy (?) of those who have engineered affirmative action; and oppressor/oppressed world view; and socialism. I assume they can tell that all of those are antithetical to human flourishing. What do they want the world to look like.
Carter Crain I didn't understand this until I started reading Ayn Rand 35+ years ago. It was then that I realized that certain people with parasite tendencies could study psychology and philosophy and use it to manipulate others to gain power. In the past 30+ years the Clintons and Obamas have been some of the most successful practitioners of this skill who have used it to satisfy their insatiable thirst for power. Then net net of what they have achieved is to create people who think Israel is Satan by putting people like Claudine Gay in positions of leadership at institutions like Harvard.
I can’t figure that out either. They never define the “utopia” they are trying to bring about— do they just want to watch the world burn? Or do they just want to be in power regardless of what the world looks like when they have it?
I think your expanded question answers itself. They seek "socialism" or some group controlled tyranny variant thereof. Socialism, Marxism, Maoism, Stalinism, Islamism, whatever. IThey do not see it as a tyranny. It is the naive, but understandable, human fear of the risks that life presents, a belief that there is a small cadre of people who can undo the risks (if only that small group believes as they do), level them out, make life safer for them. History shows that cannot, will not ever work but will always fail. Nevertheless, the fear of the risks of life drives folks into seeking help from others rather than seeking the life that best serves their own - and their family's and neighbors' happiest and best lives. Freedom and liberty to live in the limited time one has on earth. Freedom to seek life, not be c owed and battered by it.
The answer to the last question in your comment can be found in Elllsworth Monkton Toohey's very long speech near the end of "The Fountainhead". I know, I know Ayn Rand shouldn't be taken too seriously. And her books aren't perfect. Yada Yada. In that segment she hits the nail on the head. Maybe why that book has been in print for 80 years.
Well...here's the thing...I believe they think that following the overthrow they will hold the reigns of power...sadly, since social scientists aren't generally known for their math skills they have not realized that 13% is not a very big number...therefore, their power will not improve but more likely be diminished because the powerful in dictatorship are not known for their tolerance of dissent or trouble makers...g.
But not antithetical to THEIR flourishing. OUR society, as constructed just five minutes ago, was the obstacle to them "flourishing". All we'd do is laugh and point at them; their deliberate ignorance; and their utter daft. They couldn't have that now could they?
I was looking for a conspiracy of people who were aware that these things prevented flourishing of the masses. I think the answer is that they may have believed that authoritarian socialism helped the poor, and if they came to understand that it did not they didn’t care because they had gotten power and money. That is what they care about. Those who have it have been overtaken by evil.
Their documentary on Michael Brown was brilliant and, for those unfamiliar, not available on the major streaming platforms during the 2020 Election. They moved it to Vimeo. It is very truthful and thoughtful, with an introspective edge I found both unsettling and hopeful. The Truth, and only the Truth, will set us free.
Like you I'm adding Eli Steele to this roster of heroes which also includes Thomas Sowell, Robert Woodson, Jason Riley and many others who thankfully reject identity politics.
Massive respect to you, Eli. Every single Fortune 500 job application not only asks about race, but now includes gender identity, pronouns, and sexual orientation. IBM's CEO was just exposed for enforcing an illegal and immoral quota system, using coercion to fire people unless they discriminate on the basis of race.
You've a funny idea of "Real Journalism", mate. There is a good deal of bullshit and delusion in there on the 'Atlantic's part, even if it isn't the near total bullshit that rag and "journalist" might put up today. It is a "Can't have been going to shit in the Clinton Era" narrative, when Mugabe was flushing "Zimbabwe" down the crapper even then.
" it felt like my identity, which I thought was defined by the choices I made and the responsibilities I accepted, had become a currency in someone else’s political power game." Thank you for this very wise insight. And for explaining how people like C. Gay hurt blacks even more than they hurt Asians and Jews.
Claudine Gay, Tanya Chutkin, Fani Willis, Muriel Bowser Letitia James etc hurt all of us - this is not America we need to get back to basics. 2024 is the election of our life time we need to choose the right President be wise with your choice.
Gay is on the Board of Trustees of the Phillips Exeter Academy, my alma mater. While Harvard condones plagiarism, Exeter traditionally does not. As opposed to Harvard, Exeter always held itself as a moral exemplar, despite producing graduates like Mark Zuckerberg. It is not clear to me how you keep a trustee who guilty of crimes that would result in the immediate expulsion of any of its students, but I am sure they will. Thus the breakdown of respect for a 300+ year old institution.
They dismissed the plagiarism concerns as "a few examples of improper citation" and in doing so, they confirm they have dramatically reduced the standards of what it takes to be a Harvard president.
Which is what socialists always do - they install incompetent loyalists for ideological reasons.
Sadly this is the outcome of 300 years of first slavery, then oppression of Black people, which even though they can be wrong, are the consequences of America’s original sin.
No, Cynthia, this is the outcome of white liberals trying to expiate their guilt. Black families were closing the gap in the 30s, 40s, and 50s… but then the libs stepped in to “help” and made welfare policies that encouraged black women to raise children alone (because they’d lose benefits if they had a man living in the house). Blacks had lower out-of-wedlock rates than whites until those changes destroyed black families… and being raised by a single parent (any race) dramatically decreases the likelihood of completing high school and going to college and dramatically increases the chance of going to prison.
You touched on the surface but without citing other things that also had equal impact. One is housing projects, another liberal idea that turned things to hell. Blacks were integrating in white communities after desegregation. Then some liberal do-gooders had the brilliant idea of building projects to "help" low-income blacks. The effect was rather than lifting them out of poverty into middle class, the projects condemned them to remain segregated and isolated among themselves, and enabling gangs to recruit and flourish within buildings out of the eyes of law enforcement.
Another issue was the disproportionate number of black male youths sent to prison for petty crimes, making prisons the graduation centers for black men to become gang recruits upon release while everyone else went to universities. These men were prone to lifetime of repeated imprisonment, making them unfit and unavailable for fatherhood. For decades the libs who professed to care oh so much turned a blind eye instead of finding ways to help lift black youths out of this cycle, for fear of being accused of racism, and not daring to criticize blacks or pointing out their problems (because how dare you voice any opinion if you're not black), and more recently, an ideology where the "oppressed" can do no wrong and must be affirmed at all cost. And now, after turning a blind eye and doing nothing for decades, they decided to usher in the most unhelpful and harmful "solution" of defunding the police and dismantling prisons, and basically letting criminals go free.
Absolutely correct! I would say the initial welfare “reforms” I mentioned started the process, and the hits just keep coming. I look at the way progressives are destroying the institutions that make this country great and wonder how anyone could think unfettered crime, filth (SF, I’m looking at you), riots, and fatherlessness could be an improvement. It truly boggles the mind.
Thurgood Marshall's children were at Exeter the same time I was (Early to mid 1970's). Gay doesn't hold a candle like to people like Marshall. Gay diminishes other Black professionals.
I disagree. It didn't have to be this way. African American progress by every metric post WW II was rapidly accelerating, yes with some headwinds remaining. All of this collapsed along with the AA family following the Great Society and welfare disincentives. I'll leave it to others to decide whether the destruction of Black families was intentional, but as to the outcome there is no doubt.
MLK Jr: Communist; Rosa Parks: Communist. J. Edgar Hoover: cross-dresser & bent as a nine bob note. The Hen-House was "guarded" for fifty-odd years by a corrupt, venal, thing masquerading as human. A thing compromised to hell-and-back. I'm sure there were genuine folk involved; but it is stretching plausibility to think any of the "progressive" effort of the Civil Rights Era didn't have huge input from Moscow, and later, Peking.
The same thing happened to me for college in 1991. I did check the "hispanic" box and although I did have the grades and SATs to go to a Most Competitive University, once there, I was automatically placed in these racial clubs that have no reason for existing. I exited all of them voluntarily, but it wasn't that easy. I couldn't understand how they had so much money to be printing all these monthly high quality magazines (AHANA) brochures. There was each and every type of hispanic club imaginable, and AHANA stands for "African, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American" all grouped together, as if we had anything in common....just not being white.
And what were we supposed to talk about at the meetings? Our differences from everyone else? Our differences from those who founded the institution we were privileged enough to attend? Really? I wanted none of it and left.
But it wasn't that easy. They kept harassing and calling me back. Sending me emails, more brochures, I couldn't leave. But I did. They wouldn't stop sending me things. Even after graduation, they had my address and still kept sending me things for years, to talk to me about my "otherness." I want none of it.
When my daughter was applying to college, I suggested she check the "Hispanic" and "Native American" boxes - the majority of her ancestry. I thought it would add points to her applications and open doors. To my surprise and admiration, she refused. Though only about 30% "white", she applied to college and beyond as a white girl. She struggled hard through school and received her M.D. many years later.
Wow. It’s sad. And now high school kids are getting separated like that too... what a joke. My husband is of a different race and I was telling him how infantile and immature this is for such a “progressive” time. I’m said isn’t it sad when today it’s so bad that you want to go back in time to when it wasn’t as bad..
Yeah. True... you saw it before other people. I guess I just don’t remember any of this when I was a kid. We didn’t really know or care. And I grew up in a smaller town with a size-able refuge population. But in college (early 2000s) I saw it ... I was dating a black man and when we would walk around in the downtown of a US city ... black women would yell at us and ask him why he was with me.. I remember being really confused... I thought it would be what they would want...
I would’ve checked the box--“easier” is too tempting, which bothers me. You have deep character modeled by your family--the influence of family (positive & negative).
There are many causes of poverty, low education, low skills. Some are self arrived at. Become a drop out, live for the party life and it is doubtful you’ll achieve anything. Grow up in a household that doesn’t a culture of education you’ll end up the same way. Grow up in a household that constantly complains the world or some amorphous enemy is guiding your path to failure and you’ll fail.
America owes something to our black American citizens for 150 years of Jim Crow. Education for one but only if people accept it. You can build the finest, newest schools but if the culture of education isn’t followed up at home you’ll be incredibly lucky if you don’t fail. One of reasons that is NOT keeping people in poverty is the amount of melanin in your skin. Poor white kids in Appalachia don’t continue the path of poverty because their skin is white. If you look up poverty number for black immigrants, married blacks they are similar to white Americans.
The issue is poverty and if we can cure poverty we’ll go far in curing inequality and racial tension. The only sustainable way to cure poverty is thru education. Skin color doesn’t prevent one from learning to read, do math, do your homework, staying in school. Skin color has nothing to do with that. Skin color doesn’t cause you to have children when you are not ready.
Perhaps the most pernicious thing that we have been doing in our society is telling black Americans that you are not good enough to learn the same math the same way every other immigrant and native American. That you cannot take the same tests because they built for white people only. What does that means for Asians? It is all BS. Black Americans are no or no less capable of learning and anybody else. Not every Asian or White American is genius. Just listen to our politicians in DC and you’ll agree. If you expect somebody to fail they will fail. There are no aspiring black leaders asking black Americans to do better. There are only black Americans telling them they can’t do it because they are black....A shitty message if I have ever heard. This women, is doing more harm by plying her racial stereotyping. She is of the same mindset that said it is ok to discriminate against Asians. Now she is saying it is ok to crap on Jewish students and scare the shit out of them. She shouldn’t be anywhere near our children. All of them.
"America owes something to our black American citizens for 150 years of Jim Crow."
Conveniently, what the United States owes to black citizens is the same thing it owes to citizens of every race, ethnicity, or self-identified subgroup: equality under the law; honest and functional public services, including schools; order and public safety; a society focused on opportunity rather than constraint.
Blaming lack of black success on "systemic racism," puts the blame only on society. When blacks, whites and others realize they are largely responsible for their own success, it empowers them to do what's necessary to achieve. That is not to excuse the sorry state of public schools in our inner cities. But rather than improve education, our leaders simply lower standards to promote "equity."
I agree. The sorry state of public schools in many places, not just inner cities, has a lot of causes and no real excuses.
In the past, black Americans as well as some other minority groups and, sometimes, poor people in general, were deprived, sometimes by racist intent, of "equality under the law; honest and functional public services, including schools; and order and public safety."
What is needed now is not special treatment for some people based on hereditary caste, but a better job at all these factors for everyone. In addition, if private individuals or organizations want to focus on helping a particular group, there's no reason they shouldn't.
You left out a major indicator of poverty- having children out of wedlock! The majority of children living in poverty are born to single mothers- black, white or any other skin color. We need to encourage educations and marriage before children
Bari Weiss had an interesting interview on Honestly where the researcher was shocked to learn that two-parent households were better at raising children than single parent homes. Listen in to hear their shock as the researcher lays out the data -- that has been in plain sight forever.
Read it and think it's BS. Oversimplification leveled at a huge group of people from all races, religions, socioeconomic status', etc. Good adults come from single parent families, bad adults come from two parent families. It's never so simple.
You know what the problem is with social science research? You can't tease out the confounding or random variables that influence outcomes. You want to pin the guilt on single parents but there are so many other variables that contribute. It's never as simple as it seems especially when you're dealing with people.
You are generalizing from individual data points instead of looking at the stats. An individual can overcome the disadvantages of a one-parent home, but the vast majority cannot. A two-parent, stable family can raise a bad kid, but the odds are against it. Most men in jail came from one-parent households. Most adolescents in drug abuse programs came from one-parent families. 80% of school shooters come from one-parent households. The stats are obvious. It's only a few on the left who are now seeing them.
"A few on the left," a few on the right. My God, can't you people stop with that already! You just can't wait to get your snarky little dig in. If we did the statistics, I wonder what the probability is that people who can't get away from the left/right thing were brought up in a two parent household because they have time to cogitate over things like that rather than cogitate over making a go of it day to day.
The sound of a golden ox being gored. The historical record is clear that the Right has said for years that the institution of marriage is vital to society, the Left said it didn't matter (until recently). The Right said that single parenthood should be avoided and the Left called them racists. The overwhelming evidence is that finishing school, joining in a stable relationship and delaying children until in that relationship reduces the chances of being in poverty by over 90%. But, you are welcome to discount the data even when it comes from people firmly set on the Left.
I've read that the only acceptable explanation is that black people can't get married because of the legacy of slavery, and therefore, it is everyone else's responsibility to mitigate all the negative outcomes experienced by the children of never-married mothers.
As Thomas Sowell has pointed out, rates of marriage among American black people were much higher in the generations following emancipation, and rates of unmarried motherhood were much lower, than they have been since the 1960s, when Federal government policy began targeting cash, housing, and other benefits toward unmarried mothers and their children.
This. This is probably the single most important issue impacting poor black communities (and poor communities in general). A culture of fatherless-ness has created a vacuum that gets filled by gang culture, disrespect of elders, etc. and it's got to stop.
I think some of the blame for fatherlessness is radical feminism. They have been preaching to women for a long time that men are unnecessary or trash. I remember the 1991-92 tv series 'Murphy Brown'. It was supposed to be 'groundbreaking'. However, it started us down a road of societal decay.
Single parents shouldn't be ostracized & in some circumstances deserve moral support. But to promote it as a lifestyle choice is deceptive. Not to mention the effect on the child.
Do you? 'Murphy Brown' ran from 1988 to 1998, and returned for 1 season 2018. It was a sitcom set in a newsroom. Are you sure you've got the right programme?
A one room schoolhouse in a cornfield will be effective if the students there are raised by parents who instill values in them, are engaged in their lives and who support them and the teacher. Oh, also, the teacher can't be an America-hating leftist that thinks her job is to push ideology.
Meanwhile a big new building with lots of union "educators" and support staff and computers and equipment will accomplish little when the students have no values and parents are missing or unengaged and the teachers are hacks.
The privilege of being raised in a two-parent household. And getting a high school good diploma, get a job, get married, then have children. Do this in order and escape generational poverty. And as stated learn to love learning.
There is a blindness of those working to improve the lives of the poor. The belief that America is systemically racist, is geared towards constraining people of color and POC have no shot. White people are privileged and it is their own fault if they are poor. Yes, America has had some historically systemic racism...a la red lining, mortgages. I’m know blacks were not admitted to Country clubs, and probably Wall St Brokerage houses with the refrain of those hiring saying to themselves or others “not our kind”. I believe that idiot JD Vance in his book, describe discrimination abasing himself coming from Appalachia. So that has made it harder....but that attitude is no longer tolerated. Black Americans in some cases have advantages that white Americans do not have and certainly have more than Asians when it comes to higher education in our privileged Universities. I find the “check the box” on your color to be offensive and I am white. WTF does it matter?
"Not our kind" rules were enforced on other "undesirables" as well. People were excluded from neighborhoods by banks AND home owner committees. Sadly, for African Americans especially, many were excluded from certain neighborhoods. But to be clear, it was not just racial. Try moving into the neighborhood I grew up in during the 70s. If you were not an established hetero couple, preferably a family with kids, white or a lawyer, good luck.
I thought of the committee poorly as a kid. Because my parents told me how wrong it was.
My folks were immigrants who fought their way up. They wanted young couples to have a chance. But the others just were protecting their housing investment. As a homeowner today, I get the urge to protect my home value, but morals have to play in.
Sounds to me as though you are living in the past. Look at the progress that was made and continues. Make judgements on what is now not what was then. The opportunities are available. It is up to the people to take advantage of them.
Umm. So I will give you that structural issues are not the problem per se. We have persistent poverty. It is not limited to black children only. It will be hard to change the culture of poverty. Crappy schools, poor parenting skills, the lure of street life, easy money....those are much harder. Unless the cultural messages heard are that you need to stay in school, do your homework and don’t let drugs and alcohol keep you from doing the former it will be a hard life in America. Not having money sucks..
For most of human history we didn't have the country telling people these things. It is self evident that you need to work hard to make a life for yourself. Having the excuse that you were delt a bum hand and now someone should fix it for you is why we are in this mess. Yes, it would be nice if we did a bunch of things to make stuff better...except we have been trying that for the entire 50 years I have been alive. And it has only gotten worse. Ultimately only you are responsible for your situation. No one owes us any help. Yes, being poor makes it all harder...always has. But it is still on the individual to do something about it.
Take a good look at poverty rates in this country and you may be surprised. Entitlement program payments, of which there are many, are not counted as income to the recipients. Therefore, the rates of poverty are inflated as compared to the actual income and living standards of those being included in the poverty segment.
Before we talk about what America owes the black community, let's talk about what it owes the Native American community. Jim Crow still exists for them. SCOTUS recently ruled that a Navajo kid isn't guaranteed a clean glass of water on a reservation because it wasn't spelled out in a treaty. What African American kid you know of doesn't have the right to a clean glass of water ?
I look at at the Reservation system probably different than most. I think of them as modern days Gulag’s. My preference is for our Native Americans to join our society fully. We have already given them the worst of our country. Drugs, Alcohol, fatherlessness, welfare, poor housing. Not every Indian is an owner of Gold Mine or Casino. They are totally entitled to stay by themselves but IMHO it hasn’t worked out well for every Native. My idea...admittedly a white mans idea is to make the reservations, sanctuaries. Cultural Heritage sanctuaries where Natives can study and learn. Much in the same way Jewish kids are sent to Israel to get in touch with their native land.
I see Reservations more like Williamsburg is for us descendants of of Colonists. We can see what life was life in the 1700’s. A place for Native children to visit to learn about themselves. They should be as welcome in to American life as are our other immigrants who have added so much to the quilt of American life.
In what way are reservations not sanctuaries already? I've been to countless reservations. The tribal councils decide most things. The one exception is the Great White Overlords in D.C. who are the "trustees" of Native American welfare and have the ultimate say. Now that's a connection that should be severed.
Yep we have done well on teen pregnancy....but generational persistent poverty is still around.
I look at our poverty programs as sustaining poverty rather than eliminating it. This is not to say SNAP or subsidized housing haven’t helped. But it is masking the core issue. Why do immigrants do so much better. Pick any color you want, immigrants tend to succeed. It may take a generation or two but they tend to do better.
All government programs weather its for poverty, obesity, homelessness, drug addiction, or the thousands of other programs are not meant to help. They are meant to perpetuate and create more problems, which equal more money
Intergenerational poverty is around 33%. Also poverty is something that people experience for periods of time, not a permanent feature of their lives. Those living in poverty generally are older or children. So single motherhood and sickness are primary causes of poverty. Next is economics. Are there jobs available and how much do they pay? Example is Appalachia where mining jobs (although dangerous) paying middle class wages disappeared or the rust belt where, again those decent paying jobs disappeared. Inner city poverty is what most people think about, but rural poverty is just as important to understand. Beyond single motherhood and the old and sick, overall economics drives inner city poverty too, with recessions and white flight destroying the job base. There is some evidence with the recent rising of the minimum wage and loss of overall workers pushing up wages that it has reduced poverty rates over the last 10 years. There are, of course, other issues effecting poverty rates too.
You have to remember, however, that U.S. statistical measures of poverty don't include most transfer payments. If included, the lowest quintile of earners is well over $40,000 in income, and the actual poverty rate is in the low single digits.
I would add that how people spend the cash portion of those transfer payments is up to them - it's a free society in that regard - and poor choices can exacerbate economic and health outcomes.
Funny how so many Black and Coloured folk who've achieved without, or in spite of. "Affirmative Action" and other race hustles think all that bullshit and your kind deluded arseholes at best.
I have stopped checking my race anytime I am asked for it, why should it matter anyways? Prior to COVID/George Floyd I really didn’t think it was that big of a deal, but now I see how certain groups on the left want to condense our value down to immutable
Characteristics like skin color and I want no part of that!
Which is why they screen using 30 minute video calls. I think I’ve had two dozen first (and only) “interviews” like that, usually featuring a 30 year-old who did check a box. I was polite, listened to their 15-20 minute monologue about their great and noble achievements, usually to discover their major in history vaulted them into tech.
Some of us find origin stories interesting--hence the highly rated "Finding Your Roots" TV show. Some of us find biology and genetics interesting. But people with negative motivations have to spoil it for the rest of us. It's happening on both the left and right: intersectionality by the former and genetic determinism by the latter. Sad stuff.
Eli, I’m a white woman and I too refuse to check the boxes anymore because there is too much emphasis on these parameters. Congratulations on holding on to being a more robust person.
Wow! Eli Steele combines eloquence and reality like one rarely sees today. Every day I am more and more grateful for The Free Press who gives voice to such people, free of the hatred and propaganda of MSM rags like WaPo and the New York Times. Thank you Eli, Bari and Nellie.
My black father and white mother married in the 1960s, for which my mother was disowned. Like most American blacks, my father is himself mixed (from many generations earlier), and half Chickasaw Freedman. I'm genetically 1/3 black but passing, and can choose whatever box I like. My preferred boxes are first "Mixed race" and second "Black". Why? Because I think my ethnic background story is cool, and I like to display it and talk about it. I first came to understand that there are other perspectives when someone told me, "You got into CalTech? Oh, that's right--you're black." Decades later, here in Berlin, I've come across a new type: young, generally leftist, and ethnically marked by a dark-skinned parent (usually a father) that the person isn't happy about. Such people react with surprising (to me) hostility to questions about their ethnic origins. BTW, the East Europeans here, though of a lower status, always answer such questions, cautiously but with some pride.
It's an annoying minefield. One can sympathize with Scott Adams' suggestion to just stick with one's own kind and avoid hostile others. Diversity flourishes when people feel safe, and retreats when they don't.
Wow, Eli. You have articulated what white people cannot say (lest we be accused of racism). Racial essentialism harms black people, tells them they cannot succeed on their own merits, and damages the fabric of society by driving a wedge between the races. Well said, Eli, well said.
I want to know more about Eli Steele. Why? Because dignity, honor and truth are color blind. As we should be. Because you know in your heart that the Claudine Gay's of the world are racial frauds. And that colors your view of every decent, good hard working "black" man or woman who made it through hard work, brains and ability. Whether you like it or not. There are millions of them. Let's end the Potemkin Village that these racist frauds have turned America into.
Honorable. I saw Ms Gay's deplorable performance before congress and thought to myself "yep that is a DEI hire". But to be fair, white university administrators I have observed closely are nearly as pathetic. To get to that level, one usually has mastered politics and the politics of capitulation. I once challenged a University Chancellor friend with the comment, why don't we rebel and become the best conservative public university in the nation? I got a laugh. The rules of the game are rigged. Federal funds are liked to political agenda's. You have to submit to the leftist orthodoxy and explain how your project will impact DEI or global warmer or what not to get funded. The administrative state has written much of that into the rules of the game. Do you think that every public university in the nation would have gotten same stupid idea to hire a high level DEI administrator and a million(S) in staff independently? There is no evidence these units increase recruitment, retention, or minority success on campus. So why do they exist? I also don't check race or gender boxes anymore. We can only be free if we deny those trying to manipulate us for politic the data they use to manipulate. When I am forced to comment on my DEI work at every annual report I simply quote Matthew 22 Verses 34 to 40 [37] Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. [38] This is the first and great commandment. [39] And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Those words are over 2000 years old and it really is that simple. You don't need 2-3 million dollars worth of DEI nonsense to get along and live with dignity. I really do think if a public university embraced conservatism, merit based education, personal responsibility and worked with faith based organizations on campus to allow religious study minors in the students own faith, they could become a huge national asset and inspire others to do the same. We must lobby congress to get virtue signaling out of the grant process and grants should be based on science and discover and go to teams with merit and reserve some for those that challenge orthodoxy. Our biggest discoveries are often outside the lines by scientist that are ridiculed in their time.
I’ve never understood how a poor black kid in North Philly is helped when a black doctor’s kid from the suburbs gets into Penn because of his skin color. Ms. Steele points that out nicely. Historians will marvel at the hypocrisy behind affirmative action and its supporters. Erasing race as a criteria and replacing it with class would make sense. I can see Trump taking that on. Maybe DeSantis. Haley not so much.
I remember some of the original debates around affirmative action. One of the reasons against it was the concern that its recipients will be assumed less competent than societal norm. The AA recipients capabilities will always be questioned.
In your heart of hearts, would you allow a Affirmative Action student of the last 10 years to perform surgery in you? Or run a major educational institution like Harvard? Ooops. I guess the last question has already been answered and we have seen the results.
Wow. What an indictment of black racialism. And what a beacon of what should have been instead of The Obama’s politics of race (which he is still at BTW)
You probably get this a lot... but I’d love to see a documentary about this very subject featuring yourself, Coleman Hughes, Glenn Loury, and John McWhorter, among others. Would gladly contribute to help crowdfund, keep up the great work!
Add Thomas Sowell to that conversation
Sowell is a treasure and another proof of American exceptionalism!
And Jason Riley at WSJ.
And Kmele Foster!!
Took the words right out of my mouth!
Eli collaborated with his father Shelby on What Killed Michael Brown https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13056736/. Shelby https://www.hoover.org/profiles/shelby-steele also wrote A Bound Man: a book warning us about what an Obama presidency would bring America. https://www.amazon.com/Bound-Man-Excited-About-Obama/dp/141656067X. Obama's wins gave the Claudine Gay's of the world a license to forever to keep a poor and imprisoned black class to use as a tool for their agenda. Frankly these black elitists aren't much different than Hamas leveraging Palestinians for their end game.
“ Frankly these black elitists aren't much different than Hamas leveraging Palestinians for their end game.”
I think I see Hamas’ end game: kill all the Jews, own all the land, and virgins in paradise. I don’t understand the black elites end game. They are aware that blacks will have perpetual shame because of incompetence. Is their god just shallow and empty power and money?
End game? I suspect that unlike Eli Steele, whose own father is a man of independent thinking, made a choice that he learned from that dad early. Most people, white or POC, haven't the experience to avoid those temptations at an immature age. Most people are encouraged to put down whatever edge they think will benefit them.
Parents have an incredible responsibility to teach. Sadly, most do not or tech the wrong things.
I understand that, my question is not about individuals who take advantage of affirmative action. My question is about the Conspiracy (?) of those who have engineered affirmative action; and oppressor/oppressed world view; and socialism. I assume they can tell that all of those are antithetical to human flourishing. What do they want the world to look like.
Carter Crain I didn't understand this until I started reading Ayn Rand 35+ years ago. It was then that I realized that certain people with parasite tendencies could study psychology and philosophy and use it to manipulate others to gain power. In the past 30+ years the Clintons and Obamas have been some of the most successful practitioners of this skill who have used it to satisfy their insatiable thirst for power. Then net net of what they have achieved is to create people who think Israel is Satan by putting people like Claudine Gay in positions of leadership at institutions like Harvard.
If Israel is Satan, Palestine is failing miserably at being Job.
I can’t figure that out either. They never define the “utopia” they are trying to bring about— do they just want to watch the world burn? Or do they just want to be in power regardless of what the world looks like when they have it?
I think your expanded question answers itself. They seek "socialism" or some group controlled tyranny variant thereof. Socialism, Marxism, Maoism, Stalinism, Islamism, whatever. IThey do not see it as a tyranny. It is the naive, but understandable, human fear of the risks that life presents, a belief that there is a small cadre of people who can undo the risks (if only that small group believes as they do), level them out, make life safer for them. History shows that cannot, will not ever work but will always fail. Nevertheless, the fear of the risks of life drives folks into seeking help from others rather than seeking the life that best serves their own - and their family's and neighbors' happiest and best lives. Freedom and liberty to live in the limited time one has on earth. Freedom to seek life, not be c owed and battered by it.
A very good question for James Lindsay.
The answer to the last question in your comment can be found in Elllsworth Monkton Toohey's very long speech near the end of "The Fountainhead". I know, I know Ayn Rand shouldn't be taken too seriously. And her books aren't perfect. Yada Yada. In that segment she hits the nail on the head. Maybe why that book has been in print for 80 years.
Well...here's the thing...I believe they think that following the overthrow they will hold the reigns of power...sadly, since social scientists aren't generally known for their math skills they have not realized that 13% is not a very big number...therefore, their power will not improve but more likely be diminished because the powerful in dictatorship are not known for their tolerance of dissent or trouble makers...g.
But not antithetical to THEIR flourishing. OUR society, as constructed just five minutes ago, was the obstacle to them "flourishing". All we'd do is laugh and point at them; their deliberate ignorance; and their utter daft. They couldn't have that now could they?
I was looking for a conspiracy of people who were aware that these things prevented flourishing of the masses. I think the answer is that they may have believed that authoritarian socialism helped the poor, and if they came to understand that it did not they didn’t care because they had gotten power and money. That is what they care about. Those who have it have been overtaken by evil.
Good question. Humans do love power.
I think it's mostly white elites, along with a few black grifters like Al Sharpton.
💯
Their documentary on Michael Brown was brilliant and, for those unfamiliar, not available on the major streaming platforms during the 2020 Election. They moved it to Vimeo. It is very truthful and thoughtful, with an introspective edge I found both unsettling and hopeful. The Truth, and only the Truth, will set us free.
Or all the AA prosecutors and attorney generals going after President Trump especially AA women.
Great film
Like you I'm adding Eli Steele to this roster of heroes which also includes Thomas Sowell, Robert Woodson, Jason Riley and many others who thankfully reject identity politics.
Shoot. Don't forget the best one of all, Barak Obama, and how his father saved him from a life in Kenya.
Have you seen the documentary “Uncle Tom?”
Pretty diverse group.
Fair point, who would you include to round it out?
Same. I’d send some$$
YES 🙌
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt9708358/
Massive respect to you, Eli. Every single Fortune 500 job application not only asks about race, but now includes gender identity, pronouns, and sexual orientation. IBM's CEO was just exposed for enforcing an illegal and immoral quota system, using coercion to fire people unless they discriminate on the basis of race.
As the tragic case of Zimbabwe teaches us, it’s about elites taking control over the rest - not race: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/how-to-kill-a-country-zimbabwe-mugabe-decolonize
Wouldn't all those things be illegal or discriminatory on a job application? Not doubting you, just bewildered.
It's why we don't put pics on a resume, why give people a chance to make assumptions before they meet you?
This is just crazy that’s why America is such a mess!
I put down "Decline to identify" on everything but my veteran status.
You've a funny idea of "Real Journalism", mate. There is a good deal of bullshit and delusion in there on the 'Atlantic's part, even if it isn't the near total bullshit that rag and "journalist" might put up today. It is a "Can't have been going to shit in the Clinton Era" narrative, when Mugabe was flushing "Zimbabwe" down the crapper even then.
" it felt like my identity, which I thought was defined by the choices I made and the responsibilities I accepted, had become a currency in someone else’s political power game." Thank you for this very wise insight. And for explaining how people like C. Gay hurt blacks even more than they hurt Asians and Jews.
Claudine Gay, Tanya Chutkin, Fani Willis, Muriel Bowser Letitia James etc hurt all of us - this is not America we need to get back to basics. 2024 is the election of our life time we need to choose the right President be wise with your choice.
Gay is on the Board of Trustees of the Phillips Exeter Academy, my alma mater. While Harvard condones plagiarism, Exeter traditionally does not. As opposed to Harvard, Exeter always held itself as a moral exemplar, despite producing graduates like Mark Zuckerberg. It is not clear to me how you keep a trustee who guilty of crimes that would result in the immediate expulsion of any of its students, but I am sure they will. Thus the breakdown of respect for a 300+ year old institution.
They dismissed the plagiarism concerns as "a few examples of improper citation" and in doing so, they confirm they have dramatically reduced the standards of what it takes to be a Harvard president.
Which is what socialists always do - they install incompetent loyalists for ideological reasons.
They've reduced the standards of what it takes to be a woman or black woman president of Harvard.
More precisely, this is the new standard for "intersectional, oppressed, marginalized" people.
The Woke left is great at playing language games, changing definitions of words, and moving goal posts.
Sadly this is the outcome of 300 years of first slavery, then oppression of Black people, which even though they can be wrong, are the consequences of America’s original sin.
No, Cynthia, this is the outcome of white liberals trying to expiate their guilt. Black families were closing the gap in the 30s, 40s, and 50s… but then the libs stepped in to “help” and made welfare policies that encouraged black women to raise children alone (because they’d lose benefits if they had a man living in the house). Blacks had lower out-of-wedlock rates than whites until those changes destroyed black families… and being raised by a single parent (any race) dramatically decreases the likelihood of completing high school and going to college and dramatically increases the chance of going to prison.
You touched on the surface but without citing other things that also had equal impact. One is housing projects, another liberal idea that turned things to hell. Blacks were integrating in white communities after desegregation. Then some liberal do-gooders had the brilliant idea of building projects to "help" low-income blacks. The effect was rather than lifting them out of poverty into middle class, the projects condemned them to remain segregated and isolated among themselves, and enabling gangs to recruit and flourish within buildings out of the eyes of law enforcement.
Another issue was the disproportionate number of black male youths sent to prison for petty crimes, making prisons the graduation centers for black men to become gang recruits upon release while everyone else went to universities. These men were prone to lifetime of repeated imprisonment, making them unfit and unavailable for fatherhood. For decades the libs who professed to care oh so much turned a blind eye instead of finding ways to help lift black youths out of this cycle, for fear of being accused of racism, and not daring to criticize blacks or pointing out their problems (because how dare you voice any opinion if you're not black), and more recently, an ideology where the "oppressed" can do no wrong and must be affirmed at all cost. And now, after turning a blind eye and doing nothing for decades, they decided to usher in the most unhelpful and harmful "solution" of defunding the police and dismantling prisons, and basically letting criminals go free.
Absolutely correct! I would say the initial welfare “reforms” I mentioned started the process, and the hits just keep coming. I look at the way progressives are destroying the institutions that make this country great and wonder how anyone could think unfettered crime, filth (SF, I’m looking at you), riots, and fatherlessness could be an improvement. It truly boggles the mind.
I made the same arguments nearby.
Thurgood Marshall's children were at Exeter the same time I was (Early to mid 1970's). Gay doesn't hold a candle like to people like Marshall. Gay diminishes other Black professionals.
Yes she is one who was and is too tempted by the benefits offered to her because of her race alone.
I disagree. It didn't have to be this way. African American progress by every metric post WW II was rapidly accelerating, yes with some headwinds remaining. All of this collapsed along with the AA family following the Great Society and welfare disincentives. I'll leave it to others to decide whether the destruction of Black families was intentional, but as to the outcome there is no doubt.
MLK Jr: Communist; Rosa Parks: Communist. J. Edgar Hoover: cross-dresser & bent as a nine bob note. The Hen-House was "guarded" for fifty-odd years by a corrupt, venal, thing masquerading as human. A thing compromised to hell-and-back. I'm sure there were genuine folk involved; but it is stretching plausibility to think any of the "progressive" effort of the Civil Rights Era didn't have huge input from Moscow, and later, Peking.
I think his whole argument is that these policies don't actually lift anyone up.
Is that sarcasm?
As an alma mater, can you protest to Exeter?
She is a graduate of Exeter!
What class? I didn't see in her biography.
The same thing happened to me for college in 1991. I did check the "hispanic" box and although I did have the grades and SATs to go to a Most Competitive University, once there, I was automatically placed in these racial clubs that have no reason for existing. I exited all of them voluntarily, but it wasn't that easy. I couldn't understand how they had so much money to be printing all these monthly high quality magazines (AHANA) brochures. There was each and every type of hispanic club imaginable, and AHANA stands for "African, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American" all grouped together, as if we had anything in common....just not being white.
And what were we supposed to talk about at the meetings? Our differences from everyone else? Our differences from those who founded the institution we were privileged enough to attend? Really? I wanted none of it and left.
But it wasn't that easy. They kept harassing and calling me back. Sending me emails, more brochures, I couldn't leave. But I did. They wouldn't stop sending me things. Even after graduation, they had my address and still kept sending me things for years, to talk to me about my "otherness." I want none of it.
Who is paying for all of this? I still wonder.
That is really interesting, I had no idea, being a White Satan and all. Thanks for sharing your experience.
When my daughter was applying to college, I suggested she check the "Hispanic" and "Native American" boxes - the majority of her ancestry. I thought it would add points to her applications and open doors. To my surprise and admiration, she refused. Though only about 30% "white", she applied to college and beyond as a white girl. She struggled hard through school and received her M.D. many years later.
Super proud. For actual equality, those boxes should not even exist.
Wow. It’s sad. And now high school kids are getting separated like that too... what a joke. My husband is of a different race and I was telling him how infantile and immature this is for such a “progressive” time. I’m said isn’t it sad when today it’s so bad that you want to go back in time to when it wasn’t as bad..
But it was that bad. I noticed it, but none of my friends did. I explained how the effects would be catastrophic, but nobody would listen.
Yeah. True... you saw it before other people. I guess I just don’t remember any of this when I was a kid. We didn’t really know or care. And I grew up in a smaller town with a size-able refuge population. But in college (early 2000s) I saw it ... I was dating a black man and when we would walk around in the downtown of a US city ... black women would yell at us and ask him why he was with me.. I remember being really confused... I thought it would be what they would want...
Thanks for sharing this!
I would’ve checked the box--“easier” is too tempting, which bothers me. You have deep character modeled by your family--the influence of family (positive & negative).
There are many causes of poverty, low education, low skills. Some are self arrived at. Become a drop out, live for the party life and it is doubtful you’ll achieve anything. Grow up in a household that doesn’t a culture of education you’ll end up the same way. Grow up in a household that constantly complains the world or some amorphous enemy is guiding your path to failure and you’ll fail.
America owes something to our black American citizens for 150 years of Jim Crow. Education for one but only if people accept it. You can build the finest, newest schools but if the culture of education isn’t followed up at home you’ll be incredibly lucky if you don’t fail. One of reasons that is NOT keeping people in poverty is the amount of melanin in your skin. Poor white kids in Appalachia don’t continue the path of poverty because their skin is white. If you look up poverty number for black immigrants, married blacks they are similar to white Americans.
The issue is poverty and if we can cure poverty we’ll go far in curing inequality and racial tension. The only sustainable way to cure poverty is thru education. Skin color doesn’t prevent one from learning to read, do math, do your homework, staying in school. Skin color has nothing to do with that. Skin color doesn’t cause you to have children when you are not ready.
Perhaps the most pernicious thing that we have been doing in our society is telling black Americans that you are not good enough to learn the same math the same way every other immigrant and native American. That you cannot take the same tests because they built for white people only. What does that means for Asians? It is all BS. Black Americans are no or no less capable of learning and anybody else. Not every Asian or White American is genius. Just listen to our politicians in DC and you’ll agree. If you expect somebody to fail they will fail. There are no aspiring black leaders asking black Americans to do better. There are only black Americans telling them they can’t do it because they are black....A shitty message if I have ever heard. This women, is doing more harm by plying her racial stereotyping. She is of the same mindset that said it is ok to discriminate against Asians. Now she is saying it is ok to crap on Jewish students and scare the shit out of them. She shouldn’t be anywhere near our children. All of them.
"America owes something to our black American citizens for 150 years of Jim Crow."
Conveniently, what the United States owes to black citizens is the same thing it owes to citizens of every race, ethnicity, or self-identified subgroup: equality under the law; honest and functional public services, including schools; order and public safety; a society focused on opportunity rather than constraint.
Blaming lack of black success on "systemic racism," puts the blame only on society. When blacks, whites and others realize they are largely responsible for their own success, it empowers them to do what's necessary to achieve. That is not to excuse the sorry state of public schools in our inner cities. But rather than improve education, our leaders simply lower standards to promote "equity."
I agree. The sorry state of public schools in many places, not just inner cities, has a lot of causes and no real excuses.
In the past, black Americans as well as some other minority groups and, sometimes, poor people in general, were deprived, sometimes by racist intent, of "equality under the law; honest and functional public services, including schools; and order and public safety."
What is needed now is not special treatment for some people based on hereditary caste, but a better job at all these factors for everyone. In addition, if private individuals or organizations want to focus on helping a particular group, there's no reason they shouldn't.
Bravo - well-said!
Thank you.
You left out a major indicator of poverty- having children out of wedlock! The majority of children living in poverty are born to single mothers- black, white or any other skin color. We need to encourage educations and marriage before children
Bari Weiss had an interesting interview on Honestly where the researcher was shocked to learn that two-parent households were better at raising children than single parent homes. Listen in to hear their shock as the researcher lays out the data -- that has been in plain sight forever.
Read it and think it's BS. Oversimplification leveled at a huge group of people from all races, religions, socioeconomic status', etc. Good adults come from single parent families, bad adults come from two parent families. It's never so simple.
Of course they do but statistically the odds are infinitely better for children raised in a two-parent household.
Overwhelmingly so. Yes, Ken, some great kids come from single parents, but the case for two parents is incontrovertible.
You know what the problem is with social science research? You can't tease out the confounding or random variables that influence outcomes. You want to pin the guilt on single parents but there are so many other variables that contribute. It's never as simple as it seems especially when you're dealing with people.
You are generalizing from individual data points instead of looking at the stats. An individual can overcome the disadvantages of a one-parent home, but the vast majority cannot. A two-parent, stable family can raise a bad kid, but the odds are against it. Most men in jail came from one-parent households. Most adolescents in drug abuse programs came from one-parent families. 80% of school shooters come from one-parent households. The stats are obvious. It's only a few on the left who are now seeing them.
"A few on the left," a few on the right. My God, can't you people stop with that already! You just can't wait to get your snarky little dig in. If we did the statistics, I wonder what the probability is that people who can't get away from the left/right thing were brought up in a two parent household because they have time to cogitate over things like that rather than cogitate over making a go of it day to day.
The sound of a golden ox being gored. The historical record is clear that the Right has said for years that the institution of marriage is vital to society, the Left said it didn't matter (until recently). The Right said that single parenthood should be avoided and the Left called them racists. The overwhelming evidence is that finishing school, joining in a stable relationship and delaying children until in that relationship reduces the chances of being in poverty by over 90%. But, you are welcome to discount the data even when it comes from people firmly set on the Left.
Shit Listed.
But it is so simple. If you look at a large sample size the data are compelling. Doesn’t mean there aren’t outliers, but the are statistical anomalies
Yeah a 72% out of wed lock birth rate for black Americans is unsustainable. It is a highway to poverty.
Even Obama said that, or rather he used to. It's clear and obvious.
I've read that the only acceptable explanation is that black people can't get married because of the legacy of slavery, and therefore, it is everyone else's responsibility to mitigate all the negative outcomes experienced by the children of never-married mothers.
I'd love to hear someone try to explain how that makes sense.
As Thomas Sowell has pointed out, rates of marriage among American black people were much higher in the generations following emancipation, and rates of unmarried motherhood were much lower, than they have been since the 1960s, when Federal government policy began targeting cash, housing, and other benefits toward unmarried mothers and their children.
Bingo.
This. This is probably the single most important issue impacting poor black communities (and poor communities in general). A culture of fatherless-ness has created a vacuum that gets filled by gang culture, disrespect of elders, etc. and it's got to stop.
I think some of the blame for fatherlessness is radical feminism. They have been preaching to women for a long time that men are unnecessary or trash. I remember the 1991-92 tv series 'Murphy Brown'. It was supposed to be 'groundbreaking'. However, it started us down a road of societal decay.
Single parents shouldn't be ostracized & in some circumstances deserve moral support. But to promote it as a lifestyle choice is deceptive. Not to mention the effect on the child.
Do you? 'Murphy Brown' ran from 1988 to 1998, and returned for 1 season 2018. It was a sitcom set in a newsroom. Are you sure you've got the right programme?
The episodes/season where she had the baby by herself were circa 1991-1992. Remember how VP Dan Quayle was mocked for commenting on it.
While I agree about out of wedlock births, we should also look at the unsafe and ineffective intercity schools.
A one room schoolhouse in a cornfield will be effective if the students there are raised by parents who instill values in them, are engaged in their lives and who support them and the teacher. Oh, also, the teacher can't be an America-hating leftist that thinks her job is to push ideology.
Meanwhile a big new building with lots of union "educators" and support staff and computers and equipment will accomplish little when the students have no values and parents are missing or unengaged and the teachers are hacks.
👏👏👏
The privilege of being raised in a two-parent household. And getting a high school good diploma, get a job, get married, then have children. Do this in order and escape generational poverty. And as stated learn to love learning.
What’s this we stuff? Those messages are coming from left wingers. Any conservative message gets labeled racist.
Thank you for pointing out Appalachia, etc. Many rural, poor whites are suffering from jobs moving overseas, opioids, etc.
Every grant application I look at for work asks how you serve POC's. Nothing about the overall community.
There is a blindness of those working to improve the lives of the poor. The belief that America is systemically racist, is geared towards constraining people of color and POC have no shot. White people are privileged and it is their own fault if they are poor. Yes, America has had some historically systemic racism...a la red lining, mortgages. I’m know blacks were not admitted to Country clubs, and probably Wall St Brokerage houses with the refrain of those hiring saying to themselves or others “not our kind”. I believe that idiot JD Vance in his book, describe discrimination abasing himself coming from Appalachia. So that has made it harder....but that attitude is no longer tolerated. Black Americans in some cases have advantages that white Americans do not have and certainly have more than Asians when it comes to higher education in our privileged Universities. I find the “check the box” on your color to be offensive and I am white. WTF does it matter?
"Not our kind" rules were enforced on other "undesirables" as well. People were excluded from neighborhoods by banks AND home owner committees. Sadly, for African Americans especially, many were excluded from certain neighborhoods. But to be clear, it was not just racial. Try moving into the neighborhood I grew up in during the 70s. If you were not an established hetero couple, preferably a family with kids, white or a lawyer, good luck.
I thought of the committee poorly as a kid. Because my parents told me how wrong it was.
My folks were immigrants who fought their way up. They wanted young couples to have a chance. But the others just were protecting their housing investment. As a homeowner today, I get the urge to protect my home value, but morals have to play in.
Sounds to me as though you are living in the past. Look at the progress that was made and continues. Make judgements on what is now not what was then. The opportunities are available. It is up to the people to take advantage of them.
Umm. So I will give you that structural issues are not the problem per se. We have persistent poverty. It is not limited to black children only. It will be hard to change the culture of poverty. Crappy schools, poor parenting skills, the lure of street life, easy money....those are much harder. Unless the cultural messages heard are that you need to stay in school, do your homework and don’t let drugs and alcohol keep you from doing the former it will be a hard life in America. Not having money sucks..
For most of human history we didn't have the country telling people these things. It is self evident that you need to work hard to make a life for yourself. Having the excuse that you were delt a bum hand and now someone should fix it for you is why we are in this mess. Yes, it would be nice if we did a bunch of things to make stuff better...except we have been trying that for the entire 50 years I have been alive. And it has only gotten worse. Ultimately only you are responsible for your situation. No one owes us any help. Yes, being poor makes it all harder...always has. But it is still on the individual to do something about it.
Take a good look at poverty rates in this country and you may be surprised. Entitlement program payments, of which there are many, are not counted as income to the recipients. Therefore, the rates of poverty are inflated as compared to the actual income and living standards of those being included in the poverty segment.
Yes, same in England: "Poverty" is a 55" telly and iPhones for all.
Blaming everything on slavery and Jim Crow laws is an excuse for not doing what's necessary to succeed.
Before we talk about what America owes the black community, let's talk about what it owes the Native American community. Jim Crow still exists for them. SCOTUS recently ruled that a Navajo kid isn't guaranteed a clean glass of water on a reservation because it wasn't spelled out in a treaty. What African American kid you know of doesn't have the right to a clean glass of water ?
I look at at the Reservation system probably different than most. I think of them as modern days Gulag’s. My preference is for our Native Americans to join our society fully. We have already given them the worst of our country. Drugs, Alcohol, fatherlessness, welfare, poor housing. Not every Indian is an owner of Gold Mine or Casino. They are totally entitled to stay by themselves but IMHO it hasn’t worked out well for every Native. My idea...admittedly a white mans idea is to make the reservations, sanctuaries. Cultural Heritage sanctuaries where Natives can study and learn. Much in the same way Jewish kids are sent to Israel to get in touch with their native land.
I see Reservations more like Williamsburg is for us descendants of of Colonists. We can see what life was life in the 1700’s. A place for Native children to visit to learn about themselves. They should be as welcome in to American life as are our other immigrants who have added so much to the quilt of American life.
In what way are reservations not sanctuaries already? I've been to countless reservations. The tribal councils decide most things. The one exception is the Great White Overlords in D.C. who are the "trustees" of Native American welfare and have the ultimate say. Now that's a connection that should be severed.
You do u set stand not every reservation is sunshine and roses don’t you? Yes it is offensive DC has anything to do with our Native Americans.
Agree poverty is the most important malady for society to deal with.
Black poverty 1992 32%.........2022 17%
Black Teenage Births 1992 11.8%........2022 2.2% (All Races 1.4%; White .94%)
I think there might be a correlation there................
Yep we have done well on teen pregnancy....but generational persistent poverty is still around.
I look at our poverty programs as sustaining poverty rather than eliminating it. This is not to say SNAP or subsidized housing haven’t helped. But it is masking the core issue. Why do immigrants do so much better. Pick any color you want, immigrants tend to succeed. It may take a generation or two but they tend to do better.
All government programs weather its for poverty, obesity, homelessness, drug addiction, or the thousands of other programs are not meant to help. They are meant to perpetuate and create more problems, which equal more money
Intergenerational poverty is around 33%. Also poverty is something that people experience for periods of time, not a permanent feature of their lives. Those living in poverty generally are older or children. So single motherhood and sickness are primary causes of poverty. Next is economics. Are there jobs available and how much do they pay? Example is Appalachia where mining jobs (although dangerous) paying middle class wages disappeared or the rust belt where, again those decent paying jobs disappeared. Inner city poverty is what most people think about, but rural poverty is just as important to understand. Beyond single motherhood and the old and sick, overall economics drives inner city poverty too, with recessions and white flight destroying the job base. There is some evidence with the recent rising of the minimum wage and loss of overall workers pushing up wages that it has reduced poverty rates over the last 10 years. There are, of course, other issues effecting poverty rates too.
You have to remember, however, that U.S. statistical measures of poverty don't include most transfer payments. If included, the lowest quintile of earners is well over $40,000 in income, and the actual poverty rate is in the low single digits.
I would add that how people spend the cash portion of those transfer payments is up to them - it's a free society in that regard - and poor choices can exacerbate economic and health outcomes.
Funny how so many Black and Coloured folk who've achieved without, or in spite of. "Affirmative Action" and other race hustles think all that bullshit and your kind deluded arseholes at best.
I have stopped checking my race anytime I am asked for it, why should it matter anyways? Prior to COVID/George Floyd I really didn’t think it was that big of a deal, but now I see how certain groups on the left want to condense our value down to immutable
Characteristics like skin color and I want no part of that!
You are right. We will achieve equality when the box to check is eliminated.
France does not keep statistics by race. It doesn't mean they don't have problems - they do. But the emphasis is on behavior, not skin color.
Which is why they screen using 30 minute video calls. I think I’ve had two dozen first (and only) “interviews” like that, usually featuring a 30 year-old who did check a box. I was polite, listened to their 15-20 minute monologue about their great and noble achievements, usually to discover their major in history vaulted them into tech.
Wow. Almost sinister, that.
Some of us find origin stories interesting--hence the highly rated "Finding Your Roots" TV show. Some of us find biology and genetics interesting. But people with negative motivations have to spoil it for the rest of us. It's happening on both the left and right: intersectionality by the former and genetic determinism by the latter. Sad stuff.
Eli, I’m a white woman and I too refuse to check the boxes anymore because there is too much emphasis on these parameters. Congratulations on holding on to being a more robust person.
Sometimes I check the “other” box and write in human
Wow! Eli Steele combines eloquence and reality like one rarely sees today. Every day I am more and more grateful for The Free Press who gives voice to such people, free of the hatred and propaganda of MSM rags like WaPo and the New York Times. Thank you Eli, Bari and Nellie.
My black father and white mother married in the 1960s, for which my mother was disowned. Like most American blacks, my father is himself mixed (from many generations earlier), and half Chickasaw Freedman. I'm genetically 1/3 black but passing, and can choose whatever box I like. My preferred boxes are first "Mixed race" and second "Black". Why? Because I think my ethnic background story is cool, and I like to display it and talk about it. I first came to understand that there are other perspectives when someone told me, "You got into CalTech? Oh, that's right--you're black." Decades later, here in Berlin, I've come across a new type: young, generally leftist, and ethnically marked by a dark-skinned parent (usually a father) that the person isn't happy about. Such people react with surprising (to me) hostility to questions about their ethnic origins. BTW, the East Europeans here, though of a lower status, always answer such questions, cautiously but with some pride.
It's an annoying minefield. One can sympathize with Scott Adams' suggestion to just stick with one's own kind and avoid hostile others. Diversity flourishes when people feel safe, and retreats when they don't.
Wow, Eli. You have articulated what white people cannot say (lest we be accused of racism). Racial essentialism harms black people, tells them they cannot succeed on their own merits, and damages the fabric of society by driving a wedge between the races. Well said, Eli, well said.
I want to know more about Eli Steele. Why? Because dignity, honor and truth are color blind. As we should be. Because you know in your heart that the Claudine Gay's of the world are racial frauds. And that colors your view of every decent, good hard working "black" man or woman who made it through hard work, brains and ability. Whether you like it or not. There are millions of them. Let's end the Potemkin Village that these racist frauds have turned America into.
Honorable. I saw Ms Gay's deplorable performance before congress and thought to myself "yep that is a DEI hire". But to be fair, white university administrators I have observed closely are nearly as pathetic. To get to that level, one usually has mastered politics and the politics of capitulation. I once challenged a University Chancellor friend with the comment, why don't we rebel and become the best conservative public university in the nation? I got a laugh. The rules of the game are rigged. Federal funds are liked to political agenda's. You have to submit to the leftist orthodoxy and explain how your project will impact DEI or global warmer or what not to get funded. The administrative state has written much of that into the rules of the game. Do you think that every public university in the nation would have gotten same stupid idea to hire a high level DEI administrator and a million(S) in staff independently? There is no evidence these units increase recruitment, retention, or minority success on campus. So why do they exist? I also don't check race or gender boxes anymore. We can only be free if we deny those trying to manipulate us for politic the data they use to manipulate. When I am forced to comment on my DEI work at every annual report I simply quote Matthew 22 Verses 34 to 40 [37] Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. [38] This is the first and great commandment. [39] And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Those words are over 2000 years old and it really is that simple. You don't need 2-3 million dollars worth of DEI nonsense to get along and live with dignity. I really do think if a public university embraced conservatism, merit based education, personal responsibility and worked with faith based organizations on campus to allow religious study minors in the students own faith, they could become a huge national asset and inspire others to do the same. We must lobby congress to get virtue signaling out of the grant process and grants should be based on science and discover and go to teams with merit and reserve some for those that challenge orthodoxy. Our biggest discoveries are often outside the lines by scientist that are ridiculed in their time.
Politics of capitulation is a great phrase!
I’ve never understood how a poor black kid in North Philly is helped when a black doctor’s kid from the suburbs gets into Penn because of his skin color. Ms. Steele points that out nicely. Historians will marvel at the hypocrisy behind affirmative action and its supporters. Erasing race as a criteria and replacing it with class would make sense. I can see Trump taking that on. Maybe DeSantis. Haley not so much.
I remember some of the original debates around affirmative action. One of the reasons against it was the concern that its recipients will be assumed less competent than societal norm. The AA recipients capabilities will always be questioned.
In your heart of hearts, would you allow a Affirmative Action student of the last 10 years to perform surgery in you? Or run a major educational institution like Harvard? Ooops. I guess the last question has already been answered and we have seen the results.
yeah it’s a class policy that defends the few at the expense of the many
Mr. Eli Steele.
Oops.
Or be president
Wow. What an indictment of black racialism. And what a beacon of what should have been instead of The Obama’s politics of race (which he is still at BTW)
Do you think Claudine Gay senses this essay?