Thomas Sowell
Excerpts from Q & A with Thomas Sowell, Hoover Institution, Senior Fellow (and ex-Marxist):
On Dunbar (incredibly successful inner-city black high school):
And 100 years later, it would be considered utopian to even set that as a goal. And the question is, how did this happen, why did it happen? And why is there so little interest in it?
And the latter especially, just is very troubling. Because I first began writing about Dunbar (ph) 30 some years ago. Because people were saying how terrible the you know, the education of black kids was. And the question is, well what can we do? And the I said, well black kids have already been educated successfully, we don’t have to speculate and come up with esoteric theories, and so on. And I published this, and I found that there was virtually no interest among educators, or politicians, or intellectuals.
And the few who had any took any interest at all were concerned to discredit what was said, because it went so completely counter to what they already believed.
On Slavery:
A history professor had a student come up to him and ask him, well when did slavery begin? And he said you’re asking the wrong question, the question is when did freedom begin? Because slavery existed long as we have any records. And from archeological finds, we realize that people were enslaving other people before they could read and write. So that’s always existed, and it’s existed all over the world.
The number of white people enslaved by pirates in North Africa were greater than the number of Africans brought to the United States.
On why he doesn't credit the media:
I mean ever since ever since the engagement of Grenada, and ABC News featured a story about how Americans soldiers landing in Grenada were wearing the wrong kind of uniforms, I thought that was really not the significance of the Grenada invasion.
On Black Rednecks:
These would be blacks who came out of the southern culture and who carried that culture with them North into the into the urban ghettos, and into the ghettos of the South, for that matter, and who have not moved out of that culture since. Over the years, both blacks and whites have moved away from that culture, but in the poorest and worst of the ghetto areas, there are lots of people who have not. And these kinds it’s a it’s a culture which didn’t do whites any good, and it’s certainly not doing blacks any good today.
And the tragedy is that people regard this culture as somehow the authentic black culture, and therefore you’re not to interfere with it.
On giving his Joseph Goebbels award to Dan Rather:
The study wasn’t that great itself, but to conclude that one out of eight kids in this country are going to bed hungry at night, when in fact obesity is higher in the lower income brackets than in the higher brackets, was just madness.
On Nixon:
Well, you compare him with, say, Clinton. Nixon was, you know, was threatened with impeachment. And he quit. He spared the country. He wasn’t going to fight it.
Even more so if you go back to 1960, when there was that extremely close race between Nixon and was it ’60 yes, Nixon and Kennedy.
And there were people who said, you know, there was all kinds of voter fraud in Chicago. I mean, voter fraud in Chicago is not a new idea. And they asked they were saying he should challenge it, and he refused to challenge it. The country should not be put through that.
The stuff that went on in Florida in 2000, you know, that kind of stuff, he spared us all of that.
On McGovern:
But the more I saw of McGovern and the people around McGovern, the more I realized what a disaster it would be to have this man president.
On Democrats and Blacks:
The Democrats get something like 80 to 90 percent of the black vote. If that ever falls down to 60 or 70 percent, they’re in deep trouble, because they’ve alienated so many other people, that they have a hard time winning elections at all. And so, therefore, they must try to keep blacks paranoid.
On September 11, 2001:
Oh, my gosh. We will never be the same again.
I’m disappointed in people who seem not to realize that it’s not business as usual anymore. That it’s really there are things we have to do that we don’t want to do, but the alternative is far worse.
And so, the world will never be the same. I hope that it wakes up some people. It certainly hasn’t awakened all of them.
On Dunbar (incredibly successful inner-city black high school):
And 100 years later, it would be considered utopian to even set that as a goal. And the question is, how did this happen, why did it happen? And why is there so little interest in it?
And the latter especially, just is very troubling. Because I first began writing about Dunbar (ph) 30 some years ago. Because people were saying how terrible the you know, the education of black kids was. And the question is, well what can we do? And the I said, well black kids have already been educated successfully, we don’t have to speculate and come up with esoteric theories, and so on. And I published this, and I found that there was virtually no interest among educators, or politicians, or intellectuals.
And the few who had any took any interest at all were concerned to discredit what was said, because it went so completely counter to what they already believed.
On Slavery:
A history professor had a student come up to him and ask him, well when did slavery begin? And he said you’re asking the wrong question, the question is when did freedom begin? Because slavery existed long as we have any records. And from archeological finds, we realize that people were enslaving other people before they could read and write. So that’s always existed, and it’s existed all over the world.
The number of white people enslaved by pirates in North Africa were greater than the number of Africans brought to the United States.
On why he doesn't credit the media:
I mean ever since ever since the engagement of Grenada, and ABC News featured a story about how Americans soldiers landing in Grenada were wearing the wrong kind of uniforms, I thought that was really not the significance of the Grenada invasion.
On Black Rednecks:
These would be blacks who came out of the southern culture and who carried that culture with them North into the into the urban ghettos, and into the ghettos of the South, for that matter, and who have not moved out of that culture since. Over the years, both blacks and whites have moved away from that culture, but in the poorest and worst of the ghetto areas, there are lots of people who have not. And these kinds it’s a it’s a culture which didn’t do whites any good, and it’s certainly not doing blacks any good today.
And the tragedy is that people regard this culture as somehow the authentic black culture, and therefore you’re not to interfere with it.
On giving his Joseph Goebbels award to Dan Rather:
The study wasn’t that great itself, but to conclude that one out of eight kids in this country are going to bed hungry at night, when in fact obesity is higher in the lower income brackets than in the higher brackets, was just madness.
On Nixon:
Well, you compare him with, say, Clinton. Nixon was, you know, was threatened with impeachment. And he quit. He spared the country. He wasn’t going to fight it.
Even more so if you go back to 1960, when there was that extremely close race between Nixon and was it ’60 yes, Nixon and Kennedy.
And there were people who said, you know, there was all kinds of voter fraud in Chicago. I mean, voter fraud in Chicago is not a new idea. And they asked they were saying he should challenge it, and he refused to challenge it. The country should not be put through that.
The stuff that went on in Florida in 2000, you know, that kind of stuff, he spared us all of that.
On McGovern:
But the more I saw of McGovern and the people around McGovern, the more I realized what a disaster it would be to have this man president.
On Democrats and Blacks:
The Democrats get something like 80 to 90 percent of the black vote. If that ever falls down to 60 or 70 percent, they’re in deep trouble, because they’ve alienated so many other people, that they have a hard time winning elections at all. And so, therefore, they must try to keep blacks paranoid.
On September 11, 2001:
Oh, my gosh. We will never be the same again.
I’m disappointed in people who seem not to realize that it’s not business as usual anymore. That it’s really there are things we have to do that we don’t want to do, but the alternative is far worse.
And so, the world will never be the same. I hope that it wakes up some people. It certainly hasn’t awakened all of them.
posted by John Aristides at 2/09/2006 06:58:00 PM
2 Comments:
I enjoy your posts over at wretchard's. Thoughtful people are valuable for the times we're living in.
Thank you. I appreciate that.
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