The Sorry Plight of American Blacks
by Jonah Goldberg, quoted in Patriot Post
A slew of new research shows how sorry is the plight of American blacks, most acutely men. Black men, particularly those who do not finish high school, have been falling off a cliff for decades. If you include blacks in prison or not seeking work—which conventional unemployment surveys don’t—the true jobless rate for black men in their 20s without a high school diploma is 72 percent. At the height of the economic boom, in 2000, it was still about 65 percent… This is twice the rate for white dropouts and three times that of Latinos. A University of California, Berkeley, researcher found that black dropouts in their late 20s are more likely to be in prison than working… There’s a lot of Marxist-infused nonsense about how economics are at the root of black America’s problems. But this doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. Of course poverty makes social pathologies worse, but it’s the pathologies that cause poverty in the first place. Family breakdown in the black community has occurred despite a steady rise in the wages of blacks since World War II, when 80 percent were born to married parents. Racism alone cannot be blamed anymore for causing all black problems. By every measure, racism, particularly official racism, has declined even as these problems have worsened. Racism is surely still a problem, but it pales in comparison to family breakdown. Nothing more perpetuates the cycle of moral and financial poverty. If you are raised by two married parents today, black or white, it is unlikely that you will be poor, or poor for long… Obviously, black America’s problems are larger than the [Congressional Black] caucus. But the caucus has failed to provide the morally serious leadership—leadership that builds on the historic social conservatism and self-reliance of African Americans—that is sorely needed.
Ed Note: Combine this situation with our subculture of subsidized illegitimacy, where children born of children, who were themselves born of children, who were born of children, who were born of children, etc., these men have no idea of their own identity, their place in society, nor how to live useful lives of any sort, but eager ears for the Jesse Jacksons of this world who preach victimhood and entitlement — a ticking time bomb, and incidentally, a powerful argument for the regenerating benefits universal national service.
