The irrepressible Andrew Wayne Austin writes:
>I have charted official US unemployment rates since 1960 and have found
>that the black rate of unemployment is two to three times that of whites.
>Both rates move up and down together reflecting the business cycle. I have
>also charted the differences in the income levels between US blacks and
>whites at the same level of educational attainment, and have found that
>blacks makes roughly 2/3 of what whites make. These figures remain very
>stable over time.
>
For starters it would be nice to see these numbers normalised for age and
education.
When he carries out these elementary steps Andy will find that Americans
identified as "black" or "African- American" have incomes very little
different from whites of the same age and educational achievement.
Assuming he finds this (and it _is_ true, give or take) he will claim this
shows the "institutional racism" of education. Horseshit, sez I. The only
problem with education is the fools who are allowed to practice it.
The most cursory examination of successful black families will find that
they have a desire for education as fiercely burning as that of the
hungriest Hong Kong needle-lady. Britannica salesmen hit Jamaican homes
first.
American education is lousy overall, and it is particularly lousy for lower
class areas, these being disproportionately black.
Next.
-dlj.
* * *
PS: The major difference between American "blacks" and "whites" (I put
them in quotation marks because there are almost no Americans of straight
African descent, while the number of Americans of partially African descent
will be a majority in the next generation: mongrels beat thoroughbreds
everywhere and always, and this may be part of America's success.) is not in
income. The major difference is in property owned.
Atlanta and Washington have their gold coasts. There were black clipper
owners, insurers -- and plantation owners -- before the Revolution, and
today there is that bunch out in Wisconsin ( "We invented the pill to keep
the white folks from multiplying...") and so forth.
The major clip, over the last three generations, since the race riots --
whites killing blacks -- in 1919 has been banks chewing up the black working
class. Throughout this period black working people buying their own homes
have paid on average something around one percent more in interest for their
mortgages than have white working people.
( This is a strong bit of evidence for the "institutional racism" notion --
and is perhaps one place where it seems almost right. The only things wrong
with institutional racism as an explanation are a. that it distracts from
the personal realities, the ugly racism, of the people actually carrying
out the discrimination, and b. ignores the fact that the institutions
involved, the banks, might have been better off without the discrimination.)
The thing about mortgages is this: a 1% clip on the rate amounts to about
the worth of the house over 30 years, i.e. a generation.
To a rough approximation you can divide American wealth into four: financial
wealth, 50%++; the rest 50% less a bit -- of which half is the houses.
If you've stolen the value of a house off two successive generations of
black working peole, you have cut them off at the ankles, the knees, and a
spare stab in the kidney. They've lost their bit of the quarter.
Academics who want to look into this in detail can go to the Federal Reserve
of St. Louis gopher over the past eight years or so. Everyone who has
looked at the situation objectively has been shocked and appalled, and the
banking community have taken major steps to change things.
-dlj.
-dlj.