The American Civil Rights Movement: Future--Personal Resonsibility

Figure 1.--I can remember as a yiung boy being shocked the conditions Afro-Americans lived including decrepit sganties (1950s). Here we see families in the 1960s with more substantial homes and electricity. Living conditioins today are much better. Since the Civil Rights Laws of 1964 and 65 were passed, the racist instututional barriers to economic success have been largely removed opening acces to the American dream Some Afro-Americans have experienced success while others have not. The United States has pursued a range of well-intentioned liberal welfare programs to assist Afro-Americans and other minorities. These programs have achieved little success of raising the Black underclass out of poverty. Part of the reason for this is that many of these programs have undermined personal responsibility. And in any society, personal responsibility is vital. And no matter how much money you throw at a social pronlem, unless the individuals involved exhibit a degree of persomal resoinsibility, the money is largely wasted. In discussions with liberals, they tell us that the undermining of personal responsibility is an effect of poverty and not a cause. The only problem with this argument is that the abject poverty because of a range of transfe payments is much les in evidence than was the case a generation ago. Afro-Americans who once lived in shanties and had little access to health care or good diets now live at a much higher level. While poverty is less crushing, the main-line media has been unwilling to report the extent to which the liberal projct has undermined personal resonsibulity. There are mny measuravle incicies. Today over 70 percent of Afro-merican babies are born to win-wed mothers. This virually guarantees that mny of those babies will have a life crippled by poverty. Photographer: Robert Phillips.

It is possible to claim that Blacks do not get good jobs bcause of racism. After all the great bulk of hiring decessions are made by whites. As discussed above, the gap in academic achievement seems a more likely reason. A much more serious impediment seems to be personal decesions some young minorities are taking that are outside the control of suposedly racist Whites. Bill Crosby pointed out that Blacks can not blame Whites for high drop out and teen pregnacy rates. He cointinued, "For me there is a time ... when we have to turn the mirror around. Because for me it is almost analgesic to talk about what the white man is doing against us. And it keeps a person frozen on their seat, it keeps you frozen in your hole you're sitting in. Perhaps the most controversial statementv was when Crosby suggested that Black men who now face a future without a decent job are angry, but it is because they failed to take advantage of the opportunities now available. He bluntly told Black men, "You've got to stop beating up your women because you can't find a job, because you didn't want to get an education and now you're [earning] minimum wage." Reverend Jackson endorsed the thrust of Crosby's remarks, "Bill is saying let's fight the right fight, let's level the playing field. Drunk people can't do that. Illiterate people can't do that." Cosby is the most famous person to make this argument. And because of his celeberity status has been able to make it. Mamy blacks do not like to here this argument. It is always easier to blame others for your own short comings. And even Crosby was roundly criticised. One important scholar who has made these arguments is Orlando Patterson. There are a numbers of writers who essentailly believes that the Civil Rights Movemt has ended the major institutional barriers to balck achievement and it is now up to a new generation to take advantage of the opportunities created. [Williams] These authors focus on education, seld-determination, and individual responsibility. We note minority, mostly black, spokesmen on television who keep saying they want a public debate on racism and an examination ofvthe facts. The principal fact they allude to is the high unemployment rate among blacks. The assumption that spokesmen (like Al Sharpton and Mark Lamont Hill) make is that this ipso facto proves that biased employers are unjustly denying jobs to blacks. Our experience is that once the discussion shifts to other explanations such as personal responsibility that the interest in a full discussion of race becomes less enthusiastic.

Jobs and Racism

It is possible to claim that Blacks do not get good jobs bcause of racism. After all the great bulk of hiring decessions are made by whites. We note minority, mostly black, spokesmen on television who keep saying they want a public debate on racism and an examination ofvthe facts. The principal fact they allude to is the high unemployment rate among blacks. The assumption that spokesmen (like Al Sharpton and Mark Lamont Hill) make is that this ipso facto proves that biased employers are unjustly denying jobs to blacks. Our experience is that once the discussion shifts to other explanations such as personal responsibility that the interest in a full discussion of race becomes less enthusiastic. Racism is a difficult factor to measure. It is an easy claim to make, especially because it once was a very important barriervto minorities. While easy to charge, it is difficult to proveor disprove.

Afirmative Action

Immigration

One very powerful indicator which suggests that race is no longer a major impediment to achievement in Amnerica is emigration and immigration trends. First there is very little emigration from America. American Asians, Blacks, and Hispanics are not emigrating to other countries. This suggests that wjile they may complain of White racism, they do not in actuality feel oppressed. Conversely large numbers of people of edvery racial group are attempting to get into America. Often they page large sums to smmuglers are put their lives a\t risk to get into America. If racism was a serious problem in America, these opeople seeking economic opportunity would not be coming ton America.

Alternative Causes: Personal Resonsibility

We note that there are many factors that correlate very heavily with economic success. The Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s focused quite rightly on institutional racism. The Supreme Court decisions like Brown vs Topeka (1954) and Civil Rights Laws of 1964 and 65 fundamentally undercut the foundation of the segragationist system and institutional racism, although this took some time to work its way through the legal system and social values. The lives of blacks improved notably, but many blacks continued to live marginal lives. The Civil Rights movement has cotinued to focus on institutional racism, often using the term 'white privlige'. There has been a general reluctance among civil rights leaders to consider alternative causes of the failure of many blacks to take advantage of the opportunities made available by the historic success in ending institutional racism. Important alternative factors include: 1) pre-marital motherhood, 2) substance abuse, 3) criminality, and 4) educational failure. These factors show wide disparities based on race. In some cases the race disparitiees are minor. In other cxases they are very high. But in all four, the correlation with unemployment and economic failure is very high. These factors are inter related. Drug abuse fuels crimes. Unwed mothers face impediments to both education and unemployment. And children raised by unemployed teenagers without a father face a bleak future. These are all matters of personal behavior and responsibility which are difficult to connect to institutional racism or white privlige. It is notable that Asians coming to America with serious language barriers do very well, in part because they score very high in these personal responsibility indicators.

Contentious Debate

Bill Crosby pointed out that Blacks can not blame Whites for high drop out and teen pregnacy rates. He cointinued, "For me there is a time ... when we have to turn the mirror around. Because for me it is almost analgesic to talk about what the white man is doing against us. And it keeps a person frozen on their seat, it keeps you frozen in your hole you're sitting in. Perhaps the most controversial statementv was when Crosby suggested that Black men who now face a future without a decent job are angry, but it is because they failed to take advantage of the opportunities now available. He bluntly told Black men, "You've got to stop beating up your women because you can't find a job, because you didn't want to get an education and now you're [earning] minimum wage." Reverend Jackson endorsed the thrust of Crosby's remarks, "Bill is saying let's fight the right fight, let's level the playing field. Drunk people can't do that. Illiterate people can't do that." Cosby is the most famous person to make this argument. And because of his celeberity status has been able to make it. Mamy blacks do not like to here this argument. It is always easier to blame others for your own short comings. And even Crosby was roundly criticised. One important scholar who has made these arguments is Orlando Patterson. There are a numbers of writers who essentailly believe that the Civil Rights Movemt has ended the major institutional barriers to black achievement and it is now up to a new generation to take advantage of the opportunities created. [Williams] These authors focus on education, seld-determination, and individual responsibility.

Free Market Capitalism

Sources

Joseph, Peniel E. "Is Bill Cosby Right?" Washington Post Book World (August 20, 2006), p. 10.

Created: 7:36 AM 7/26/2010
Last updated: 5:54 PM 8/19/2017