Re: Race and Rhetoric

I fully
support it.
---
ditto

On Mar 20, 8:26 pm, Keith In Tampa <keithinta...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thoughtful post.
>
> PlainOl reminds me of something though.   Many of our laws turn out to be
> discriminatory or biased.  I honestly don't believe that this was the
> intent, and in some cases, it cannot be helped, but the crack cocaine laws
> are one that comes to mind.   This law (which has since been modified and
> partially repealed)  is a very good example.  It held crack cocaine 10-1
> for sentencing purposes, as compared to powder cocaine.  The goal was to
> instill that crack cocaine was much more dangerous, etc., etc., etc.;  but
> it affected a larger portion of blacks, (because crack was a lot cheaper to
> buy on the streets)  and was found predominately in the black communities,
> whereas powder cocaine was found in the more upscale white communities.
>
> I have no doubt that the current trend by States to enforce a law that
> requires an individual to have a picture ID in order to vote will be
> somewhat discriminatory,  but it is requisite to have such a law.  I fully
> support it.  (A topic for another thread)
>
> At any rate,  as stated,  good post, thanks for sharing Michael and PlainOl!
>
> On Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 9:44 AM, plainolamerican
> <plainolameri...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Political rhetoric is intended to do one thing – win votes
> > ---
> > racial rhetoric is intended to do one thing - make laws to give our
> > tax dollars to minorities.
>
> > race, religion, and ethnicity are all used as excuses ... it's way
> > past time to disregard those who use them for an advantage
>
> > On Mar 20, 6:34 am, MJ <micha...@america.net> wrote:
> > > "Political rhetoric is intended to do one thing – win votes. Whether the
> > policies that accompany that rhetoric make people better off or worse off
> > is far less of a concern to politicians, if any concern at all."[How about
> > whether the TALK ever manifests itself into ACTION? THAT is apparently of
> > little concern to many.]Race and Rhetoricby Thomas Sowell
> > > One of the things that turned up, during a long-overdue cleanup of my
> > office, was an old yellowed copy of theNew York Timesdated July 24, 1992.
> > One of the front-page headlines said: "White-Black Disparity in Income
> > Narrowed in 80's, Census Shows."
> > > The 1980s? Wasn't that the years of the Reagan administration, the
> > "decade of greed," the era of "neglect" of the poor and minorities, if not
> > "covert racism"?
> > > More recently, during the administration of America's first black
> > president, a 2011 report from the Pew Research Center has the headline,
> > "Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks and Hispanics."
> > > While the median net worth of whites was ten times the median net worth
> > of blacks in 1988, the last year of the Reagan administration, the ratio
> > was nineteen to one in 2009, the first year of the Obama administration.
> > With Hispanics, the ratio was eight to one in 1988 and fifteen to one in
> > 2009.
> > > Race is just one of the areas in which the rhetoric and the reality
> > often go in opposite directions. Political rhetoric is intended to do one
> > thing – win votes. Whether the policies that accompany that rhetoric make
> > people better off or worse off is far less of a concern to politicians, if
> > any concern at all.
> > > Democrats receive the overwhelming bulk of the black vote by rhetoric
> > and by presenting what they have done as the big reason that blacks have
> > advanced. So long as most blacks and whites alike mistake rhetoric for
> > reality, this political game can go on.
> > > A Manhattan Institute study last year by Edward Glaeser and Jacob Vigdor
> > showed that, while the residential segregation of blacks has generally been
> > declining from the middle of the 20th century to the present, it was rising
> > during the first half of the 20th century. The net result is that blacks in
> > 2010 were almost as residentially unsegregated as they were back in 1890.
> > > There are complex reasons behind such things, but the bottom line is
> > plain. The many laws, programs and policies designed to integrate
> > residential housing cannot be automatically assumed to translate into
> > residentially integrated housing. Government is not the sole factor, nor
> > necessarily the biggest factor, no matter what impression political
> > rhetoric gives.
> > > No city is more liberal in its rhetoric and policies than San Francisco.
> > Yet there are less than half as many blacks living in San Francisco today
> > as there were in 1970.
> > > Nor is San Francisco unique. A number of other very liberal California
> > counties saw their black populations drop by 10,000 people or more, just
> > between the 1990 and 2000 censuses – even when the total population of
> > these counties was growing.
> > > One of the many reasons why rhetoric does not automatically translate
> > into reality is that the ramifications of so many government policies
> > produce results completely different from what was claimed, or even
> > believed, when these policies were imposed.
> > > The poverty rate among blacks was nearly cut in half in the 20 years
> > prior to the 1960s, a record unmatched since then, despite the expansion of
> > welfare state policies in the 1960s.
> > > Unemployment among black 16- and 17-year-old males was 12 percent back
> > in 1950. Yet unemployment rates among black 16- and 17-year-old males has
> > not been less than 30 percent for any year since 1970 – and has been over
> > 40 percent in some of those years.
> > > Not only was unemployment among blacks in general lower before the
> > liberal welfare state policies expanded in the 1960s, rates of imprisonment
> > of blacks were also lower then, and most black children were raised in
> > two-parent families. At one time, a higher percentage of blacks than whites
> > were married and working.
> > > None of these facts fits liberal social dogmas.
> > > While many politicians and "leaders" have claimed credit for black
> > progress, no one seems to be willing to take the blame for the
> > retrogressions represented by higher unemployment rates, higher crime
> > rates, and higher rates of imprisonment today. Or for the disintegration of
> > the black family, which survived centuries of slavery and generations of
> > government-imposed discrimination in the Jim Crow era, but began coming
> > apart in the wake of the expansion of the liberal welfare state and its
> > accompanying social dogmas.
> > > The time is long overdue to start looking beyond the prevailing
> > political rhetoric to the hard realities.
> >http://www.lewrockwell.com/sowell/sowell79.1.html
>
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