A debate over racial disparities
One of my tasks as editor of the editorial page’s Your Voice feature is trying to ensure that the space does not become dominated by back-and-forth salvos on any one particular topic. Our goal is to present as many different “real-life” authors, subjects and points of view as possible. Yet some topics inevitably produce a flurry of responses and counter-responses – intelligent design and the war in Iraq, to name two.
So last week, Elbert Lewis Jr. (at right), a retired civil engineer in Finneytown, took exception to a news story reporting that “racial disparities in income, education and home ownership persist and, by some measurements, are growing.” University of Cincinnati sociology professor Jeffrey M. Timberlake was quoted in the story saying that inequalities “will get reproduced through time, even though some formal barriers have been removed.”
In his Your Voice column, Lewis disagreed with Timberlake’s assessment and asked, “How large a role does personal behavior/failures play in the rate of home owner
ship?”In response, Timberlake (at right) wrote a Your Voice column defending his position: “Imagine a 100-yard dash in which one runner forces another to start 25 yards behind the starting line.”
That hasn’t ended the discussion. But instead of continuing it in the Your Voice space, let's move it to this blog, a more natural medium for give-and-take. I’m attaching, as comments to this posting, some excerpts from the responses we’ve received. Feel free to add yours.
posted by Ray Cooklis at 6:16 PM
9 Comments:
at 12:46 AM, November 22, 2006 
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Post a Comment*First, here is a letter from Doug Carr of Burlington: How about talking about personal responsibility? My grandfather was a sharecropper from poor southern Alabama. My family doesn’t have money. I couldn’t go to college. When I turned 18 I joined the Marine Corps and learned a trade I have used to support my family since I got out. That’s what people have to do. Quit blaming everyone else. I know terrible injustices were done against blacks in the past but they aren’t the only ones to be discriminated against.
We are all equal until we do something to change that. If you didn’t graduate high school then you aren’t equal to the guy who did. If you don’t pay your bills on time or at all, then you are not equal to someone who does. If you have babies out of wedlock and live off the taxpayers then you are not their equal. Don’t blame it on race, blame it on lack of personal responsibility.
What (Timberlake says) may have been partially true 50 years ago even, but not today. If anything it is the opposite because of all the politically correct apologists we have. If two people with similar qualifications go for a job or a scholarship, I guarantee the minority will get it first.
However, Leslie Dale Tarrance of Westwood offered this viewpoint: I would like to thank Jeffrey M. Timberlake for clarifying to those who do not understand what the impact of racism has been. It is difficult at times to keep up with the race or even remain in the race for that matter when you are sometimes playing catch up. My great-grandmother suggested that I have a “proper” name rather than a name which suggests my ethnic background, because she knew then, and still today, that employers will judge my resume before I am given the opportunity to interview and talk about about my education and work experience. My ancestors sacrificed just to have basic rights.
I don’t like to pull the race card, but just this week in the news a well-known comedian being heckled by audience members felt the need to call them (the n-word) rather than throwing a joke back at them. He’s a professional. Why not turn the situation into comedy?
What does this say about racism today? It says that it still exists. It says that there are more times than less often that I and othersencounter it. I am a professional who works everyday and pays my taxes, I vote and own my home, and yet understand there are those who continue to judge me by my color rather than by my personality and behavior.
Also, Elbert Lewis Jr. offered a follow-up column to assert that “racial barriers are surmountable,” and added, “I hope you allow us to keep it going for one more round. It’s getting interesting. I hope to the readers as well.”
From Lewis’ column: I won’t try to argue with the figures Timberlake cited. In fact, I’ve used his foot-race analogy myself in my liberal youth.
However, as relevant as his position may be in academic circles, the past can never be changed. The harsh reality is black people will always suffer from the effects of slavery and discrimination.
But unlike the descendants of most subjected peoples, blacks in America were not subjected to mass killings, apartheid or pushed onto desolate reservations. For the most part, prior to the civil rights era, blacks had solid, family-orientated communities. Separate but not quite equal, and except for occasional violence from cowardly members of the Klan, they existed alongside white communities in relative harmony.
The civil rights legislation of the 1960s was a long-overdue attempt to rectify an obvious societal wrong, but along with the change in the laws of the land came a flood of social scientists, guilt-ridden do-gooders, poverty pimps and an endless parade of social programs that grew into a welfare state which spent over $7 trillion in four decades. The result is a near-complete devastation of the inner-city black community from aiding and abetting single-parent families, making excuses for antisocial behaviors and perpetuating underachievement with the soft-core racism of low expectations.
Obviously there are other human factors at work. The existence of a productive black middle class – from the lowest-paid janitor to the corporate CEO and all the professional blacks in between – illustrates we have the opportunity to do quite well.
The message to black people who have not yet found the formula for success should be: Disregard the numbers on racial disparity, don’t engage in self-destructive behaviors, get as much education as possible and you will find a way over, under, around or through racism to achieve your goals in life.
As a single custodial father of two, I put myself through college without a lick of assistance, merely hard work and determination (and massive school loans). What gave me this will? Someone cared about me as a child (namely, my parents). But there were only three of us and my un-college-educated parents, both hard-working full-timers were able to sustain a family of five. Had they had five, six, seven or my father had walked away, it might have been a different story. I might have gotten lost in the shuffle or the system. What will stop a single parent from birthing more and more children? Take away the promise of more welfare money? The young ones need present, responsible parents.
Racism exists toward race/religion/color throughout history, no matter what point. Racism towards blacks does exist today, and it needs to cease, but the black community needs to stop resisting and start assisting themselves. The angry attitude towards leaders, calling police “pigs” or claiming racial-motivation each and every time an incident occurs is certainly unproductive. A previous blogger cited the incident of the comedian who used a derogative name on stage. As disrespectful as the name-calling was, certainly you can’t discount the fact that the audience members were unnecessarily disrespectful to a man trying to make a living.
We’re all discriminated against in some way, but we can all be a Christopher Gardner if we choose, no matter the color of our skin.
I understand that horrible things were done to African-Americans in the past. I would hazard to guess that if one looks far enough back in most people's history, horrible things happen.
A person cannot change the past. A person only has influence on the present and the future. No matter what color or financial situation we are born "to" - we still all come into this world naked. Almost everyone in this country is given a chance at an education (yes, in some cases a better one than another). If a person refuses to avail themself of that opportunity, then it's not up to others to make up for it.
If someone hasn't graduated from high school, I honestly don't want to hear excuses as to why they cannot "make" it.
After high school, it's every man or woman for themselves. Get a job. Get two if you need to. Get more education. Establish credit. Don't buy the best, buy cheap and finance it so you have a background. Don't expect your first house to be your last (what ever happend to "fixer uppers"?). Don't have kids until you can afford them. Plan for the future.
My father raised me with two "sayings" - and I've raised my kids with them, too.
1) Life isn't fair. Get used to it.
2) No one will every give you anything in this life. If there is something you want, work for it.
So far it's worked for me.
Undoubtedly racism continues to exist. However, I do not see how racism can be the primary cause of disparities in home ownership. Anyone who completes high school, works himself up to a decent job, and maintains good credit can own a house. Banks do not even require a down payment anymore. Perhaps racism may keep minorities out of the expensive suburbs, but I do see how racism can be so pervasive that it would prevent a person from buying a house.
There is a chapter written in Hunter S. Thompson's "The Great Shark" hunt which I believe adequately describes racist tendencies that exist in our society even today. I live in the suburbs of Northern Kentucky. There is one black family that has lived here for the last fifteen years that I know of? Contrast that with Louisville or Cincinnati or even the housing projects of the area, and one is bound to notice that racial boundaries and discrepencies still exist. Why is that?
Several comments use anecdotal evidence to prove that racism is not a factor in current economic statistics. Anecdoatl evidence unfortunately is the worst kind of evidence.
The poster who suggested simply completing high school and working leads to success may be speaking from a time frame before manufacturing jobs had moved overseas and before the WalMartization of the US economy.
It's the jobs stupid.
Why Bill Cosby Is Wrong
Algernon Austin and Jared Bernstein
November 20, 2006
Jared Bernstein is a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. Algernon Austin is a sociologist and director of the Thora Institute.
For decades, scholars and opinion makers have been seduced by cultural explanations for economic problems. Recently, comedian Bill Cosby has caught the bug, leading him to inveigh against aspects of black culture he views as intimately linked to problems among African-Americans, from poverty to crime and incarceration.
Mr. Cosby is merely the latest and most visible in a long chain of cultural critics. Researcher Charles Murray (before turning to genetic explanations) and columnist Thomas Sowell have been making the "bad culture" argument about African-Americans for decades. David Brooks has a long-running column in The New York Times linking culture and economic outcomes.
This work is misguided at best and destructive at worst.
One key to the success of the cultural argument is the omission of inconvenient facts about social and economic trends. For example, people arguing that African-Americans are suffering from a culture of poverty stress that blacks are much more likely to be poor than whites. True, but this fact misses the most important development about black poverty in recent years: Its steep decline during the 1990s.
Black poverty fell 10.6 percentage points from 1993 to 2000 (from 33.1 to 22.5 percent) to reach its lowest level on record. Black child poverty fell an unprecedented 10.7 percentage points in five years (from 41.9 percent in 1995 to 31.2 percent in 2000).
The "culture of poverty" argument cannot explain these trends. Poor black people did not develop a "culture of success" in 1993 and then abandon it for a "culture of failure" in 2001.
What really happened was that in the 1990s, the job market finally tightened up to the point where less-advantaged workers had a bit of bargaining clout. The full-employment economy offered all comers opportunities conspicuously absent before or since. Since 2000, black employment rates have fallen much faster, and poverty rates have risen faster, than the average.
What this episode reveals is how we squander our human resources when slack in the economy yields too few decent employment opportunities for those who want to work.
Black poverty is only the most visible example. The "bad black culture" argument also overlooks positive trends in critical areas such as education, crime and teen pregnancy (pregnancy and birth rates among black teenagers are down 40 percent since 1990).
Those same critics are too dismissive of anti-black discrimination in the labor market. Mr. Cosby says black people use charges of discrimination to avoid dealing with their cultural failings. The Manhattan Institute's John H. McWhorter claims they "spit in the eye of [their] grandparents" when they say their lives are limited by racism. Journalist Juan Williams argues that poor black people are squandering opportunities opened up by the civil rights movement.
Yes, there are far more opportunities available to black Americans today, but the conclusion that racial discrimination is no longer a serious issue is simply not supported by the evidence.
In two recent studies, Princeton University sociologist Devah Pager showed that young black men who have played by the rules and have no criminal record are much less likely to be offered a job than similar white men. In fact, white men with criminal records had an equal or better chance of being hired than did young black men with no records. Contrary to Mr. McWhorter's assertion, ignoring this racial discrimination is "spitting in the eye" of everyone, black and white, who struggled for civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s.
Don't think for a nanosecond that we are satisfied with the progress that's been made. Even if black poverty remains low in historical terms, having a quarter of blacks in poverty is a national tragedy. But by creating an erroneous causal link between "bad culture" and black poverty, the "Cosby consensus" prevents the country from recognizing success and building on it to create the economic opportunities that are missing for too many African-Americans.
The cultural argument of the Cosby consensus succeeds because conservatives and liberals both tend to exaggerate the cultural differences between white and black Americans. We forget that white and black audiences enjoyed "The Cosby Show" in the 1980s, that white and black youths listen to rap today and, most importantly, that neither white people nor black people like being poor. The record is clear: When economic opportunities are available to black Americans, they take them. When opportunities are scarce, they fall behind, and culture has very little to do with it.
anonomous said:
The poster who suggested simply completing high school and working leads to success may be speaking from a time frame before manufacturing jobs had moved overseas and before the WalMartization of the US economy.
It's the jobs stupid.
Actually, the poster said that completing high school, working up to a decent job and maintaining good credit allows one to own a house, one element of a success. The math supports this assertion.
There are plenty of decent (not great) homes in Cincinnati in the $85,000 price range. The monthly principle and interst payment on a 30 year, 7.0%, zero down loan is $565.00. Add insurance and taxes at about $200.00 a month, this makes a total monthly payment of $765.00. With a 27% debt ratio, a person could purchase such a house with an income of $34,000 a year or with a job that pays about $17.00 an hour. An average construction worker or auto mechanic in Cicinnati can earn this wage according to the Bureau of Labor statistics (see http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/sp/ncbl0812.pdf) You need a high school education, a good work history and good credit to acheive this goal. If you are married and your spouse works, you could both work at Walmart and acheive this goal.
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