Michael Blowhard looks at black economist Thomas Sowell and cites some interesting points from his Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality:
- How to account for the many ways in which blacks were making more progress before passage of the Civil Rights Act than they were after? An impressive example: College-educated black women were out-earning college-educated white women by 1960, four years before the Civil Rights Act.
- If the U.S. is so racist, how have Asians been able to do so well? Despite being mistreated during WWII, Japanese Americans by 1959 were earning the same money whites were, and by 1969 were earning considerably more.
- If America’s racism has only to do with black-skinned people, how to account for the way that West Indian immigrants have done so well in this country? By 1980, despite having been in this country in any kind of numbers for a relatively short period, black West Indians were making 94% of what whites were. (Here’s a brief Time magazine article about the successes of black West Indians in the U.S.)
- If political action is such a terrific way to help a group advance, why is it that the groups that have been most prone to embrace politics — the Irish are a prominent example here — took so much longer to advance than did similar groups (Italians, say) who avoided politics?