40% OF BLACKS ARE ON WELFARE
The Great Society Has Failed
40% OF BLACKS ARE ON WELFARE
The Great Society Has Failed
The Great Society Has Failed
The 21st century economic plantations and combat zones.
The old folks down south had a saying when I was growing up that went something like this: “That fella is just whistling past the graveyard.”
As with many of those wise sayings and metaphors, such as “an empty wagon makes the most noise,” you never learn the true meaning until later in life.
An empty wagon refers to someone who does not have anything in their head, therefore, they are the ones who make the most noise to cover their incompetence. Whistling past the graveyard referred to a person who fails to see the real issues they are facing.
And so here we are today in America, and both sayings have relevance, the former more so than the latter. Everyone is screaming, shouting, rioting, looting, and committing acts of violence in the name of combatting “systemic racism.” Truly, there are many folks, empty wagons, making a lot of noise, while so many others are whistling past the graveyard, not grasping the real issue in America.
The bottom line is simple: The Great Society – the grand endeavor of the progressive, racist President Lyndon Baines Johnson, has failed. Fifty-five years later, we are witnessing the -- shall I say it --“chickens coming home to roost.”
The Great Society, also known as the infamous War on Poverty was launched as every other government top-down solution is, with great promise and “noble” intention. It was an updated version of Roosevelt’s “chicken in every pot” solution.
What Johnson and his ilk believed was that they could manipulate the outcomes in the lives of individuals and create equality. They embraced the notion that the government could “level the playing field,” and with a plethora of government subsistence programs, all would be well.
In reflection, we should all agree, and stop whistling past the graveyard, that this was a program intended to do one thing -- create economic enslavement, dependency.
The Great Society blunder has resulted in the modern-day 21st century economic plantation in which American inner-cities have absolutely cratered.
It does not take a PhD level study to grasp this. Consider my story, a young black kid born in a “Blacks Only” hospital in Atlanta, Georgia on February 7, 1961. I grew up in the historic Old Fourth Ward community, the same one that produced Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the cradle of the American civil rights movement, ya know, Sweet Auburn Avenue.
I learned to swim, box, and play basketball at the historic Butler Street YMCA. I went to Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School, which was across the street from Ebenezer Baptist Church. And I walked to and from school by myself.
When I was born, the traditional two-parent household in the black community was nearly 77%. There were thriving Black-owned businesses all throughout our community, including Citizens Trust Bank, black owned. We kids played in the street, and on the weekend, we gathered in the Sears Roebuck parking lot to play baseball -- no sliding.
My older brother returned from Vietnam where he had been wounded as a Marine Infantryman at Khe Sahn. He wanted to be an Atlanta Police officer.
I could go on, but I think you are starting to get my point. Compare my inner-city experience to what is happening today.
Today, only 24% of black kids have mom and dad in the home. Matter of fact, Black Lives Matter has deemed the traditional nuclear family an extension of white supremacy. My school, well, it no longer exists, it is just a community center. Black-owned businesses are not as visible.
We can have all the conversations about racism you want, but we will just keep whistling past the graveyard. Until we recognize the devastation of Johnson’s irrational foray into massive government welfare has had upon our urban population centers, the problem will not be rectified. We can allow those empty wagons, like Al Sharpton, to be the loudest voices, or we can resolve ourselves to critically right the real wrongs that have been cast upon the American Black community.
The real issue is the “soft bigotry of low expectations.” That has resulted in the decimation and utter despondency we witness in American inner cities, controlled by Democrats over the past six decades. Their policies have created this incessant nightmare that is being unfolded before our eyes.
Yes, there are bad cops, as there are bad elements, individuals in any profession. However, the cancer that we are dealing with, not the symptom, is the breakdown of the family, destruction of educational opportunity, and thwarting of economic opportunity. But, no one wishes to address those issues, preferring to just continue to whistle past the graveyard.
And why?
The progressive socialist left does not want the issues created by The Great Society to be fixed. They do not want to see strong, two-parent families, educational freedom, and economic empowerment. No, on this new plantation, the left needs victims, and victims provide them with electoral patronage. The real discussion about racism should be about the policies that have turned American inner cities into combat zones, literally.
Sadly, with the advent of reality TV and other mindless programming, we are becoming a nation of lemmings and useful idiots, not critical thinkers. We prefer to succumb to the irrational emotionalism of which we are bombarded by the lords of propaganda. We used to have a responsible press.
The old folks down South were impeccably wise, and we should pay more attention to their lessons. Then again, we have devolved to a point where we do not respect our elders and heed their counsel.
The Great Society is a failure. We must acknowledge that fact, or just keep whistling past the graveyard.
This article originally appeared in CNSNews.
Are we watching the collapse of the blue city?
The True Plight of Black Americans
Walter E. Williams
While it might not be popular to say in the wake of the
recent social disorder, the true plight of black people has little or nothing
to do with the police or what has been called "systemic racism."
Instead, we need to look at the responsibilities of those running our big
cities.
Some of the most dangerous big cities are: St. Louis,
Detroit, Baltimore, Oakland, Chicago, Memphis, Atlanta, Birmingham, Newark,
Buffalo and Philadelphia. The most common characteristic of these cities is
that for decades, all of them have been run by liberal Democrats. Some cities
-- such as Detroit, Buffalo, Newark and Philadelphia -- haven't elected a
Republican mayor for more than a half-century. On top of this, in many of these
cities, blacks are mayors, often they dominate city councils, and they are
chiefs of police and superintendents of schools.
In 1965, there were no blacks in the U.S. Senate, nor were
there any black governors. And only six members of the House of Representatives
were black. As of 2019, there is far greater representation in some areas -- 52
House members are black. Nine black Americans have served in the Senate,
including Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts, Carol Moseley Braun and Barack
Obama of Illinois, Tim Scott of South Carolina, Cory Booker of New Jersey, and
Kamala Harris of California. In recent times, there have been three black state
governors. The bottom line is that today's black Americans have significant
political power at all levels of government. Yet, what has that meant for a
large segment of the black population?
Democratic-controlled cities have the
poorest-quality public education despite their large, and growing, school
budgets.
Consider Baltimore,
Maryland. In 2016, in 13 of Baltimore's 39 high schools, not a single student
scored proficient on the state's math exam. In six other high schools, only 1%
tested proficient in math. Only 15% of Baltimore students passed the state's
English test. That same year in Philadelphia only 19% of eighth-graders scored
proficient in math, and 16% were proficient in reading. In Detroit, only 4% of
its eighth-graders scored proficient in math, and 7% were proficient in
reading. It's the same story of academic disaster in other cities run by
Democrats.
Violent crime and poor education is not the only problem for
Democratic-controlled cities. Because of high crime, poor schools and a less
pleasant environment, cities are losing their economic base and their most
productive people in droves. When World War II ended, the population of
Washington, D.C., was about 800,000; today, it's about 700,000. In 1950,
Baltimore's population was almost 950,000; today, it's around 590,000.
Detroit's 1950 population was close to 1.85 million; today, it's down to
673,000. The population of Camden, New Jersey, in 1950 was nearly 125,000;
today it has fallen to 74,000. St. Louis' 1950 population was more than
856,000; today, it's less than 294,000. A similar story of population decline
can be found in most of our formerly large and prosperous cities. In some
cities, the population decline since 1950 is well over 50%, and that includes
Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
Academic liberals, civil rights advocates and others blamed
the exodus on racism -- "white flight" to the suburbs to avoid
blacks. But blacks have been fleeing some cities at higher rates than whites.
The five cities whose suburbs have the fastest-growing black populations are
Miami, Dallas, Washington, Houston and Atlanta. It turns out that blacks, like
whites, want better and safer schools for their kids and don't like to be
mugged or have their property vandalized. And like white people, if they have
the means, black people cannot wait to leave troubled cities.
White liberals and black politicians focus most of their
attention on what the police do, but how relevant is that to the overall
tragedy? According to Statista, this year, 172 whites and 88 blacks have died
at the hands of police. To put police shootings in a bit of perspective, in
Chicago alone in 2020 there have been 1,260 shootings and 256 homicides with
blacks being the primary victims. That comes to one shooting victim every three
hours and one homicide victim every 15 hours. Three people in Chicago have been
killed by police. If one is truly concerned about black deaths, shootings by
police should figure way down on one's list -- which is not to excuse bad
behavior by some police officers.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George
Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features
by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators
Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
June 19, 2020
Are we watching the collapse of the blue city?
As cities burn and statues come down, many want you to believe
that U.S. is doomed or that the leftist mobs will tear down every sign of
traditional values.
Yes, some monuments will be vandalized and buildings burned
down.
But eventually, the storyline will change.
What we are really watching is the collapse of "blue
districts" and cities.
For years, we've heard that "racism" or poverty
excuses. Yet, the story is a lot different. The issue is not really
racism but dysfunctional societies run by Democrats, as Angela Kelley wrote:
Poverty is not, as the Left would have us
believe, owing to a lack of social safety-net funding. “According to the U.S
Department of Energy’s Residential Energy Consumption Survey... Over 99
percent [of those classified below the poverty level] have a refrigerator,
television, and stove or oven. Eighty-one percent have a microwave; 75 percent
have air conditioning; 67 percent have a second TV; 64 percent have a clothes
washer; 38 percent have a personal computer.” In the United States, most poor people
(over 80 percent) have cell phones. People are not living in abject poverty as
they do in third world countries, where people are starved for the basic
necessities of food, clothing, clean water, and housing.
And let’s not ignore the problem of
absentee fathers. Psychology Today notes that children
without fathers in their home are susceptible to “diminished self-concept and
compromised physical and emotional security, behavioral problems, truancy and
poor academic performance, delinquency and youth crime, including violent
crime, promiscuity, and teen pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse, homelessness,
exploitation and abuse, physical health problems, mental health disorders, life
chances, future relationships, [and] mortality.”
In Illinois, 23 percent of one-parent
households are headed by Caucasians. By comparison, 39 percent of Hispanic/Latino households
and a whopping 73 percent of African American households are single-parent
homes. The numbers
are fairly consistent in states with the largest cities. In New York, 64
percent of African-Americans come from single-parent households; in Minnesota,
it’s 50 percent; in Pennsylvania, it’s 71 percent; in California, it’s 62
percent, and in Washington, D.C., it is a disturbing 78 percent.
The largest cities in these states have
been run by Democrats for years.
Yes, they have.
The bad news is that there will be more accusations of racism and
riots. The good news is that we are watching the end of these cities and
that's good for African Americans hoping for a better life.
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