Jason Riley: How Liberals make it hard for blacks to succeed

The right’s favorite new race guru: Why you should know Jason Riley
https://www.salon.com/2014/07/11/the_rights_favorite_new_race_guru_why_you_should_know_jason_riley/

 

I was a supporter of voucher programs for public schools but I don’t know how that would work for someone in a home without a vehicle.

 

Nah

 

Another smart black man figuring out he can make a mint from fooling the the Right.

make that paper.

 

You don’t have my vote senator

 

Fresh out of the Nursery I see

Rocket River

 

Same tired arguments.

Just because it comes from a black person does not change that fact. I'm sure you'll ask "HAVE YOU READ IT?!" But according to the 'Experiences of a Successful Black Man' this book offers nothing, absolutely nothing new.

So...time to break this down...

* Welfare programs that trap people in poverty.*
What? Welfare programs are meant to help all people, not just black people. This isn't a race thing. I'm also confused at how it traps people in poverty. Either people are poor because they don't have the skills to make money and thus Welfare just keeps them alive and decent. This is important because a unhappy lower class is the seed of revolt. The poor will take what they need by force.

Or

They are poor because they are F___ Ups. Which again, we can do nothing about that. Maybe one day they will turn their lives around...

Other than that, Welfare helps good people when they fall.

* Affirmative active in higher education that results in fewer black college graduates.

Yeah....pretty sure the opposite is true. Without 'AA' which we've discussed at length before, you'd just get more Asians and less of everyone else.

There really is little wrong with AA. It's just that some people think higher education should ONLY be about test scores while everyone else thinks that people can offer more to society than good test scores.

* Minimum wage laws that price blacks out of the labor force.

Again, what even is this? Minimum wage laws extend to everyone. Lowering or eliminating minimum wage doesn't help black people at all. It just helps corporations so that they can continue giving people slave wages. This isn't even a 'black' problem, it's an economic issue where people work hard for little reward.

I mean, let's not even talk about the slave-wage labor that goes on in prisons...

* Soft-on-crime laws that make black neighborhood more dangerous.

What soft-on-crime law are you speaking of? I'm curious to know which exact law.

From what I can tell, Cops get to do what they want mostly. If they are being soft I'd hate to see them with harsh laws. Maybe what you want is what Trump suggested. Martial Law in cities.

* Limitations on school choice that trap students in failing schools

The issue isn't so much the school choice though. The issue is that so many schools need more money. Kids have to share books or don't have access to computers, these things matter.

 

pure BS.

 

Well I haven't read his book, so I don't know if I agree with him. But, I have my opinions -- which are mixed -- on most of these. In general, my problem with the conservative approach is that they want to dismantle these structures and replace them with... nothing. Black families need to build up equity, education, skills, civic life generation over generation. I need something more than social darwinism as a solution.

* Welfare programs that trap people in poverty: Would like to see his argument, but I'm skeptical. More likely that welfare alone is not enough -- and wasn't designed to be the vehicle -- to pull people out of a cycle of poverty.
* Affirmative active in higher education that results in fewer black college graduates: I don't even know this argument.
* Minimum wage laws that price blacks out of the labor force: Minimum wage prices low-skill people of all colors out of the labor force when their economic contributions are so low that it isn't worth the trouble of them working. The problem is not minimum wage, it's education and training and opportunity so that low-skill workers can gain skills and contribute more.
* Soft-on-crime laws that make black neighborhood more dangerous: This must be some kind of unicorn. Where in this country do we have soft-on-crime laws? In any case, I do not believe at all that being even harder on crime will make communities less dangerous.
* Limitations on school choice that trap students in failing schools: On this I can agree. The state education monopoly is hurting everybody, but especially blacks. We should have unfettered choice and schools should have to compete to survive. There's plenty of issues like where the money comes from, how different communities are served, etc. But this is an area that is crying out for restructuring and privatization (in nonprofit form).

 

Yep.

 

Yep. This goes against the PC narrative, but I think it's pretty much on the nose.

The minimum wage point is especially salient. An employer might hire an unskilled laborer at $7/hr, but that employer is going to be very slow to hire an unskilled worker at more than double that. He'll seek other options -- automation, outsourcing, etc.