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Thomas Sowell is a titan. As was his recently deceased best friend and intellectual colleague Walter E. Williams. The leading public intellectual regarding rac

Thomas Sowell is a titan. As was his recently deceased best friend and intellectual colleague Walter E. Williams. The leading public intellectual regarding race in America today is undoubtedly Ibram X. Kendi. His central thesis, that any differing outcomes between racial populations is evidence of racism, is the single topic that Thomas Sowell addressed more than any other. The breadth of his research on this particular topic spans hundreds to thousands of years, across the globe. Sowell has come to the near opposite conclusion, that to expect equal outcomes between populations with different histories, cultures, patterns of behavior, etc, is insane. And then to attribute the entire disparity as evidence of racism is doubly so. While Sowell is undoubtedly king, if you're interested in other black intellectuals with alternative takes on philosophy to the racial collectivism of critical race theory, Coleman Hughes is the single clearest thinker I have ever heard. John McWhorter, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Glenn Loury, Kmele Foster, Jason Riley, Shelby Steele, Carol Swaine, Desi-Rae Campbell, Josephine Mathias, Thomas Chatterton Williams (author of the article above), Zuby, among many others. I think every person on this list would tell you that it's irrelevant that they are black, while understanding that it is an important characteristic they possess while bridging the gap between their own liberal ideologies and the prevailing race-conscious critical race theory, for which their racial identities are paramount. https://youtu.be/TEBPCOG5RHs?t=66 https://youtu.be/TEBPCOG5RHs?t=66 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIv4L9M1ECU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIv4L9M1ECU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18tfyp_XgkA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18tfyp_XgkA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awIcRoDynh0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awIcRoDynh0

m0llusk 6y ago
That is an interesting reading, but it is worth pointing out that Thomas Sowell consistently differentiates between race and culture. In particular in his book Black Rednecks and White Liberals he asserts that many black people living in the American South picked up a redneck culture that does not well serve either them or the white people they picked it up from. Culture trumps race. Anyone could embrace redneck values if they feel they should.
- ralusek 6y ago
  Yes, I think Thomas Sowell and most people on that list use "race" synonymously with "populations with certain phenotypes or ethnicities who are going to be bucketed together as such." Culture isn't the only thing by which he differentiates people bucketed across "races," but is definitely a primary one. He also very frequently talks about cultures within "races," as you've mentioned here. The drastically different performances between white immigrants to the US, depending on where they came from. Or the stellar performance of black immigrants from Nigeria or Ghana or the West Indies.
wcerfgba 6y ago
> His central thesis, that any differing outcomes between racial populations is evidence of racism, is the single topic that Thomas Sowell addressed more than any other. I am unaware of this idea in Kendi's work, please could you reference Kendi or Sowell on this specific point?
- chmod600 6y ago
  "One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an anti-racist. There is no in-between safe space of 'not racist'" -- Kendi https://millennial-grind.com/30-quotes-from-how-to-be-an-antiracist-by-ibram-x-kendi/ https://millennial-grind.com/30-quotes-from-how-to-be-an-ant... That philosohy departs from popular understanding of MLK dramatically. Inequities are results, so he's basically saying that you will forever be trying to manipulate outcomes to arbitrary standards of equity, or you are a racist.
  - wcerfgba 6y ago
    Thanks. I've also found a definition of 'racial inequities' and an example from Kendi from the same chapter: > Racial inequity is when two or more racial groups are not standing on approximately equal footing. Here’s an example of racial inequity: 71 percent of White families lived in owner-occupied homes in 2014, compared to 45 percent of Latinx families and 41 percent of Black families. Racial equity is when two or more racial groups are standing on a relatively equal footing. An example of racial equity would be if there were relatively equitable percentages of all three racial groups living in owner-occupied homes in the forties, seventies, or, better, nineties. This idea of the presence of (certain) inequities as evidence of racism doesn't seem controversial to me: if we took large samples of White, Black, and Latinx households in USA, accounting for regional differences and other coincident factors in the samples, wouldn't we expect the deviation in home ownership percentages to be much, much lower? Could you (or someone else) reference a definition of racism from MLK?
    - chmod600 6y ago
      Groups are unequal for all kinds of reasons. It's the norm. Some are "meritocratic" reasons, some are cultural, some historical, some due to prejudice and a lot (most?) are just happenstance. And these reasons also take part in positive and negative feedback loops. The idea that any difference is due to an "ism" is ridiculous. That being said, we should respect and help whatever individuals need it.

m0llusk 6y ago

That is an interesting reading, but it is worth pointing out that Thomas Sowell consistently differentiates between race and culture. In particular in his book Black Rednecks and White Liberals he asserts that many black people living in the American South picked up a redneck culture that does not well serve either them or the white people they picked it up from. Culture trumps race. Anyone could embrace redneck values if they feel they should.

ralusek 6y ago
Yes, I think Thomas Sowell and most people on that list use "race" synonymously with "populations with certain phenotypes or ethnicities who are going to be bucketed together as such." Culture isn't the only thing by which he differentiates people bucketed across "races," but is definitely a primary one. He also very frequently talks about cultures within "races," as you've mentioned here. The drastically different performances between white immigrants to the US, depending on where they came from. Or the stellar performance of black immigrants from Nigeria or Ghana or the West Indies.

wcerfgba 6y ago

> His central thesis, that any differing outcomes between racial populations is evidence of racism, is the single topic that Thomas Sowell addressed more than any other. I am unaware of this idea in Kendi's work, please could you reference Kendi or Sowell on this specific point?

chmod600 6y ago
"One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an anti-racist. There is no in-between safe space of 'not racist'" -- Kendi https://millennial-grind.com/30-quotes-from-how-to-be-an-antiracist-by-ibram-x-kendi/ https://millennial-grind.com/30-quotes-from-how-to-be-an-ant... That philosohy departs from popular understanding of MLK dramatically. Inequities are results, so he's basically saying that you will forever be trying to manipulate outcomes to arbitrary standards of equity, or you are a racist.
- wcerfgba 6y ago
  Thanks. I've also found a definition of 'racial inequities' and an example from Kendi from the same chapter: > Racial inequity is when two or more racial groups are not standing on approximately equal footing. Here’s an example of racial inequity: 71 percent of White families lived in owner-occupied homes in 2014, compared to 45 percent of Latinx families and 41 percent of Black families. Racial equity is when two or more racial groups are standing on a relatively equal footing. An example of racial equity would be if there were relatively equitable percentages of all three racial groups living in owner-occupied homes in the forties, seventies, or, better, nineties. This idea of the presence of (certain) inequities as evidence of racism doesn't seem controversial to me: if we took large samples of White, Black, and Latinx households in USA, accounting for regional differences and other coincident factors in the samples, wouldn't we expect the deviation in home ownership percentages to be much, much lower? Could you (or someone else) reference a definition of racism from MLK?
  - chmod600 6y ago
    Groups are unequal for all kinds of reasons. It's the norm. Some are "meritocratic" reasons, some are cultural, some historical, some due to prejudice and a lot (most?) are just happenstance. And these reasons also take part in positive and negative feedback loops. The idea that any difference is due to an "ism" is ridiculous. That being said, we should respect and help whatever individuals need it.