How Liberals Make It Harder For Blacks To Succeed

Jason Riley

Jason Riley, a member of the Wall Street Journal Editorial board who joined the company in 1994 as a copy reader on the national news desk in New York, and who's also a regular Fox News contributor, spoke at the Heritage foundation about his new book How Liberals Make It Harder For Blacks To Succeed. 

Mr. Riley made the comment that Black kids read half as many books and watch twice as much television as their White counterparts. He feels that part of the problem is "a culture that produces little black girls and boys who are already worried about acting and sounding white by the time they're in second grade"; this comes from an experience Riley had with his 8 year old niece who asked him "why does he talk white?"

Riley goes on to quote Bill Cosby with regards to Brown vs. Board of Education, "when you look at the black under class you see no appreciation for this sacrifice," as he spoke about black activists and pioneers that came long before us. Cosby went on to say, "What's the good of Brown v. Board of Education if nobody wants it?"

He quoted Cosby again as he argued, "it was a cop-out to blame white racism for the breakdown of the black family and other subsequent problems that we see today in the ghetto."

Taking us back to Philadelphia in 1880, Riley expressed that "75 percent of black families were comprised of two parents and children, verses 73 percent of white families. By 2007, the number would be 68 percent for whites but only 34 percent for blacks. Was there less racism in America 15 years after the end of the civil war, then there was a year before Obama was elected president? Data from every census taken between 1890 to 1940, showed the black marriage rate exceeding the white rate. So during the time of open rampant racism, the black family was in better shape then it is today. The black incarceration rate was lower than it is today and the black labor participation rate was higher than it is today." 

Now, here's where the clash begins for me as Mr. Riley made his black family comparisons -- acknowledging that past history had more homes with fathers as well as incarceration rates that were lower. 

We could argue that the reason why so many present black fathers existed back then, was due impart to having a different mind set; coming fresh off the backs of slave ancestors who taught their children first hand about the struggle for freedom, equality, opportunity, and how family is the foundation which makes one stronger -- is in fact a different mind set then now. 

Back then there were no television programs to distract, no high rates of blacks killing blacks, and barely opportunity for a solid education which was kept from black people -- as the opposition firmly understood that knowledge equaled power. So the fundamental awareness of life and what it meant to really live, as well as being completely unified against those doing the severe oppression, makes sense of why black on black crime was low and why the black family stuck together more fiercely then now. 

Breaking black families apart was a slave strategy and because blacks were subjected to this treatment time and time again, that was more the reason for families to stay bonded. So when Mr. Riley speaks of high black incarceration rates now verses back then, and using his fact that "Black boys without a father were 68 percent more likely to be incarcerated" -- we must not forget that just like tearing apart the black family was "slave strategy", that the tactic never changed it simply took on a different form; systemic racism and/or school-to-prison pipeline. 

Mr. Riley then quoted President Obama's speech which was given at the historical black college Morehouse, where he openly admitted how he wished his father was present in his life even though he was raised by a single mother and grandparents. He then went on to encourage the young black male graduates to be apart of their children's lives, which is why he makes sure to do the same for his girls. 

Furthermore, Mr. Riley stating that the "Black labor participation rate was higher than it is today"; yea, I bet it is was, especially since free labor was the norm before slavery was abolished. Then the reconstruction period began where more black people than ever before started their own businesses -- using their natural talents of making products and services to sell. But because black people were flourishing in business, again, staunch racism crept into the picture and it literally destroyed the reconstruction period as black people, their homes, and commercial properties were burned to the ground out of searing jealousy and hate over black progression. Once again, black people had to start over -- pulling themselves up by their boot straps with not even a boot. 

What happened as a result of Black reconstruction deconstruction?

More black leaders began stepping forward in the fierce face of adversity and one in particular -- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who fought for equality with regards to all races but especially the black race, who continued to experience the harsh realities of governmental corruption that gave way to institutionalized racism. 

MLK was successful in getting President Johnson to pass Civil Rights legislation to which Mr. Riley, quoted LBJ from a 1965 speech (as he signed the civil rights act a year earlier and the voting rights act 2 months later) as saying "This is merely the end of the beginning (quoting Churchhill), that beginning is freedom and the barriers to that freedom are tumbling down. Freedom is the right to share, and share fully and equally in American society; to vote, to hold a job, to enter a public place, to go to school," said Johnson. 

"But freedom is not enough; you do not take a person who for years have been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say you are free to compete with all the others, and still justly believe that you're being fair."

According to Riley, LBJ stated that the "next and profound stage for civil rights was not just freedom but opportunity, and not just equality as a right and theory, but equality as a fact and equality as a result. That's how we're going to measure whether there's equality in America -- by results." 

What I found to be interesting was that although Mr. Riley admitted that liberalism is what led to the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights, which outlawed discrimination against blacks in employment, education, and ensured blacks the ability to vote -- but that he said all this as he stated how the "black unemployment rate has been twice as high as whites over the past five decades."

He then proceeded to bash President Obama for calling on federal intervention with regards to Head Start in order to help out, in his words -- "The Blacks". He continued throwing more venom at Obama for wanting to increase reading efficiency amongst minorities, while condemning him for opposing school voucher programs.

It was completely bewildering to me that despite Riley admitting that liberalism was the progressive force that brought about positive change in America, that he seemed to be looking through rose-colored glasses as to the reason of why the liberal agenda was necessary in the first place. 

Mr. Riley, with the history of this country why do you think the black unemployment rate is higher than whites? Mr. Riley, why do you think it's okay for President Obama, to approve a school voucher system that only seeks to allow corporations to privatize and profit off of education and as a result, can hand pick who can be let through the school doors all while indoctrinating our children to believe solely in a capitalistic system that has driven our country into the ground?

Mr. Riley says, "What's much more disturbing to me is that half a century after the civil rights battles were fought and won, liberalism remains much more interested in making excuses for blacks than in re-evaluating efforts to help them."

He was great when quoting Fredrick Douglass in 1865, as asking "What should we do with the negro?" To which Douglass answered his own question by saying, "I have had but one answer from the beginning -- do nothing with us. If the apples will not remain on the tree with its own strength, if they are worm-eaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall -- let them fall. And if the negro can not stand on its own legs -- let him fall also. All I ask, is give him a chance to stand on his own two legs."

Riley also quoted Booker T. Washington (a former slave) as saying, "It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly important that we be prepared for the exercises of these privileges."

Again, Riley seemed to get that Douglass and Washington, comprehended that government would be a huge factor in getting blacks equal rights and protection under the law, but then blacks must learn to seize that opportunity and run with it. 

But what happens to a race of people who've been trying to seize those privileges and rights over the course of centuries, only to be constantly met with discrimination, violence, and murder by the opposition who refuses to let the race of people win? 

They get tired, they get broken, not only in spirit, but in the realization that any hope of trying to ever win this life's race will continuously be road blocked by those that seem to hate their very existence.

Mr. Riley ended his speech saying that, "The history of the 1960's liberal social policies is largely a history of ignoring that wisdom."

Once again I combat the latter, because it isn't about ignoring history or the wisdom of others -- only simply not knowing the history and wisdom of others, as I fully believe that if more people really knew and understood the past it would embolden them into the present, and they would firmly comprehend an old MLK quote -- "The Fierce Urgency of Now."

2014 LA