Charles Rowley's Blog

Professor Walter E. Williams of George Mason University arguably is the leading black economist in the United States. He is a man who has made an admirable career out of speaking truth to power. Because truth sometimes requires saying harsh things about the politics of race, Walter Williams tends to shake up the liberal establishment. He does not respond to political questions from the liberal elite in the manner that blacks are supposed to respond to their questions. For many such, Williams is an enigma, or worse, an Uncle Tom.

But be sure of one thing. Walter Williams cares more for the well-being of black Americans than any of this self-seeking liberal elite, be they black or be they non-black. Here are a few recent comments from Walter Williams that should serve as a wake-up call across America:

“Experiencing a violent crime rate of 2.137 per 100,000 of the population, Detroit is the nation’s most dangerous city. Rounding out Forbes magazine’s 2012 list of the 10 most dangerous cities are St. Louis; Oakland, California; Memphis, Tennessee; Birmingham, Alabama; Atlanta, Georgia; Baltimore, Maryland; Stockton, California, Cleveland, Ohio; and Buffalo, New York. The most common characteristics of these predominantly black cities is that for decades, all of them have been run by Democratic and presumably liberal administrations…What’s more is that in most of these cities, blacks have been mayors, chiefs ofd police, school superintendents and principals and have dominated city councils.”

“What I am saying is that if one is strategizing on how to improve the lives of the poorest black people, he wants to leave off his to-do list election of Democrats and black politicians. Also to be left off the to-do list is a civil rights agenda. Racial discrimination has little to do with major problems concerning black people.”

“Today 72 per cent of black babies are born out of wedlock. Being born and finding out that your mother is 17 years old and that your grandmother is 35 and that you don’t know who or where your father is is not a good start to life. In fact, it’s a near guarantee for school dropout, poverty and crime, but such a start in life has nothing to do with racial discrimination.”

“Law-abiding poor black people suffer the nation’s highest rates of criminal victimization from assaults and homicide. More than 50 per cent of homicide victims are black. Would anyone claim that this victimization is caused by racist groups preying on the black community?”

“Black education is a disaster, but who runs the violent, disruptive big-city schools, where education is all but impossible? For the most part, it’s not white people. Go to a city such as Detroit and you’ll find that blacks have been superintendents, principals and most of the teachers for years. Most black high-school students in Detroit and other cities can’t read, write and compute as well as sixth-, seventh- and eigth-grade white students, but is it because of racism?”

“Black people could benefit from an honest examination of the bill of goods they’ve been sold. Such an examination would not come from black politicians, civil rights leaders or the black and white liberal elite. Those people have benefited politically and financially from keeping black Americans in a constant state of grievance based on alleged racial discrimination. The long-term solution for the problems that many black Americans face begins only with an absolute rejection of the self-serving agenda of hustlers and poverty pimps”

Now you will understand why left-wing news anchors such as Sam Donaldson, Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw flushed into embarrassed silence when Walter Williams responded to their television questions. You may also understand why President Barack Obama does not speak such truths to the American people. After all, Barack Obama is the very power to which he would be speaking such truth. And that just ain’t going to happen, given the sources of his campaign funding and career success.

Hat Tip: Walter Williams, ‘Honest Examination of Race’, May 23, 2013