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In 1965, then undersecretary of labor Daniel Patrick Moynihan foresaw a problem that was about to undo the promise of Martin Luther King’s 1963 “I have a dream” speech, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and his boss Lyndon Jonson’s 1965 launch of the “Great Society.”
In reading her dissenting opinion last week on the affirmative action case before the Supreme Court, I got the distinct impression that Justice Sonia Sotomayor never read Moynihan’s The Negro Family: The Case for National Action, likely never heard of it, and certainly had no idea of how prescient it would prove to be.
Despite the “full recognition of their civil rights,” argued Moynihan, black Americans were growing increasingly discontent. They were expecting that equal opportunities would “produce roughly equal results, as compared with other groups,” but, added Moynihan, “This is not going to happen.” Nor did he think it ever would happen “unless a new and special effort is made.”
Nearly sixty years later Moynihan’s warning seems all the more prophetic. Herculean efforts have been made over the years to achieve “equal results,” but none has addressed the core issue. Wrote Moynihan:
The fundamental problem, in which this is most clearly the case, is that of family structure. The evidence— not final, but powerfully persuasive—is that the Negro family in the urban ghettos is crumbling. A middle class group has managed to save itself, but for vast numbers of the unskilled, poorly educated city working class the fabric of conventional social relationships has all but disintegrated.
In a Father’s Day speech in 2008 then candidate Barack Obama affirmed Moynihan’s worst fears. “Of all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded today that family is the most important,” Obama told the congregation at a Chicago church.
Here, Obama spoke with a candor not heard since Lyndon Johnson threw Moynihan under the bus. “But if we are honest with ourselves,” he continued, “we’ll admit that what too many fathers also are is missing—missing from too many lives and too many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it.”
Obama started chipping away at the very idea of systemic racism as the cause of Black failure. “We know that more than half of all Black children live in single-parent households, a number that has doubled—doubled—since we were children. We know the statistics—that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and twenty times more likely to end up in prison.”
Like Moynihan, Obama came in for a spanking of his own. A hot mic at a Fox News studio picked up Jesse Jackson saying to another Black guest, “See, Barack been, um, talking down to Black people on this faith-based—I wanna cut his nuts out.” Here Jackson made a cutting motion with his hands and added additional commentary that I dare not repeat. Obama got the message. He never spoke forcefully on this subject again.
If nothing else, Jesse Jackson affirmed Moynihan’s prediction:
“The principal challenge of the next phase of the Negro revolution is to make certain that equality of results will now follow. If we do not, there will be no social peace in the United States for generations.”
In her contentious and confused dissenting opinion on the affirmative action case before the Supreme Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor proved there is no social peace even in the highest court of the land.
“The Court subverts the constitutional guarantee of equal protection,” Sotomayor scolds her colleagues, “by further entrenching racial inequality in education, the very foundation of our democratic government and pluralistic society.”
Where to begin? For starters, in my new book, Untenable: The True Story of White Ethnic Flight from America’s Cities, I show the futility of any quest to achieve equity among ethnic groups either economically or academically.
Starting with no more “privilege” than any other ethnic group in my native Newark, New Jersey, Jewish students consistently outperformed all others. By mid-twentieth century, Blacks were narrowing the gap between themselves and the city’s two other dominant ethnic groups, Irish and Italian, but none of these groups would ever outperform Jews. Due to the family dissolution of which Moynihan warned, Blacks would fall further behind the other three.
Later in the century, two other ethnic groups emerged in Newark as political blocs, Portuguese and Puerto Rican. The Portuguese had an advantage: they arrived in Newark free from the tentacles of the welfare state. With strong families and minimal public assistance, they created jobs and a harmonious neighborhood that has proved an attractive destination for outsiders. The Puerto Ricans did not.
In her dissent Sotomayor speaks of a society “where opportunity is dispensed along racial lines.” The Puerto Rican Sotomayor was, of course, righter than she knew. Fifty years ago, she was accepted at Princeton despite her admittedly below par test scores. “I am the perfect affirmative action baby,” she has conceded. Her “racial” line was what got her in the front door although, in truth, “Puerto Rican” is no more a race than Mexican or American.
Sotomayor attributes the “achievement gaps” in standardized test scores to “entrenched racial inequality in K–12 education.” Sotomayor, however, attended excellent Catholic schools in New York City K-12. That she would get an affirmative action bump while the Portuguese would not is attributable solely to the political clout of the much larger “Latino” bloc. It has nothing to do with justice.
Fifty years after Sotomayor’s admission to Princeton, Puerto Ricans remain among the “underrepresented groups.” The reason why they are underrepresented, she contends, is that, “for far too long [they] were denied admission through the force of law.” This is nonsense. With logic like this, it was no wonder she tested poorly.
Even if Puerto Ricans as a cultural group were as achievement oriented as Jews and many Asian groups, their rates of fatherlessness would subvert their ambitions. In Puerto Rico, 49 percent of children live in single parent households. For Puerto Ricans in the U.S. the number is likely comparable. This would be two times higher than the rate among blacks that triggered Moynihan’s report.
Writ large, some 42 percent of “Latino” children live in single parent households today. This compares to 24 percent among non-Hispanic whites and 16 percent among Asians. For Black children, the number is 64 percent.
Given the odds at the starting gate, “equity’ will only be achieved if President Biden appoints the equivalent of what satirist Kurt Vonnegut called a “handicapper general.” In his 1961 short story “Harrison Bergeron,” Vonnegut imagined an official with the power to assure that everyone would be “equal every which way” and no one would be “smarter than anybody else.”
Sonia Sotomayor, I think, has just the right amount of imagination to do that job well.
Jack Cashill’s new book, Untenable: The True Story of White Ethnic Flight from America’s Cities, is now widely available.
Anybody that calls themselves “a wise latino woman,” is anything but. I know wise latino women, and though they don’t lack self confidence, they would never describe themselves thus. Knowledge is what you know, wisdom is having some clue of what you don’t know. In her arrogance, sotomayor has none. She was the poster child of the overeducated affirmative action (institutionalized racial discrimination) fool, before ketanje came along.
It is impossible for me, a latina, to agree with you more, sir, Mr. Cowboyup.
Such a person is actually ignorant but grossly overconfident. We can say she is “sophomoric”, that is, a wise fool. It is very possible also such a fool was the person who leaked the opinion she disagreed with regarding abortion. That is my opinion, it was her, the sophomore.
The father has an essential role in educating the sons. Mom can’t do it alone.
Im not so sure that the intercity fathers are up to the job, even if they are in the home.
Maybe not but, without their presence, we absolutely know the predictable result. Couldn’t be much worse.
In their culture and homelands, their ancestors had many wives who lived in cooperation with one another. The inner city is not magic dirt any more than our entire nation.
You should have learned from watching sit coms on television is that an incompetent father is better than no father.
Is this sarcasm?
Fathers are also more likely to keep the pedos away from their kids too.
Daughters need fathers, too. Fatherlessness has a very bad effect on their life outcomes, too.
Thanks Lightbringer, I don’t know much about that side of the equation 🙂
I’m no expert, being the mother of a passel o’sons and no daughters, but when I see the way my sons interact with their daughters I see girls who are going to grow up stronger, braver, and more secure than if they just clung to single mommas. It’s great to watch!
s.s. is a dope.
An a.a. hire.
A RINO appointment.
FJB (BHO too.)
I took the opportunity to read one of Sotomayor’s first opinions once she was on the Court. Just horrible. Almost no reference to the requirements of law. Mostly resembled a high school or college freshman paper on “they way I think things should be.” Have no idea how she ever got through a course on legal writing in law school, if she actually took one which was not readily apparent. What I wouldn’t give to see the LSAT score with which this affirmative action baby was admitted to Princeton.
When the Federal Government – aka US TAXPAYERS – became “the baby daddy” that removed the “men” from the equation! Even the structure of welfare is detrimental to being a FAMILY – why??? You’d think that like other Countries we would ENCOURAGE the formation and success of FAMILIES!! BUT, if you did that and people were to see how much SAFER, HEALTHIER, SANER, and PROSPEROUS a FAMILY can be vs a single parent and absent sperm donor then you’d lose VOTES for DEMOcrats!!!
I see this issue up close and personal and it’s heartbreaking for everyone! First a Grandson with no FATHER in the picture and his struggles to exist and now with his little girl from a mixed relationship. In each instance the Mothers worked and did their best to provide homes but without the constant presence of a FATHER the children suffer. Now as Grandparents and Great Grandparents we have provided a stable home life for them when they “visit” – sometimes for MONTHS! Our little mixed race Great Granddaughter is so smart and creative AND AWARE!! She recently has been asking her Nana “when will I be white”? My wife tried to explain that she would be kind of “tan” but that didn’t matter to us or anyone else because what mattered was how she behaved and treated others. She’s only FIVE YEARS OLD and has asked some of the most grown up questions that none of our children or Grandson ever asked! Kids see and some of them KNOW that certain behavior is not right and want no part of it! If you have children or grandkids or GREAT grandkids then be a POSITIVE example for them and PROVIDE a decent LIFE! Otherwise, you are contributing to a lost little one who may never escape that pathetic life cycle!! No apology for the long post – been holding this inside a while and just needed to let it out!
No need to apologise, your comment contains wisdom that only us grandparents can understand.
Your little 5-year-old granddaughter illustrates a point that a pre-school teacher friend of mine once made. She told me that she was certified to teach everything from pre-school through high school and I asked her why she chose pre-school when the upper grades pay so much more. She said that pay was not so important to her; her husband made enough to support the family. But she reminded me of something that I had long suspected: Little children are much brighter than older ones and adults because the brains haven’t been “educated” out of them by the system. If there is any chance that your precious little one can be home-schooled, do whatever you can to provide both teaching her yourself and financial assistance to provide tutors.
Your granddaughter sounds like a precious, beautiful little life. You have an opportunity to give her little touchstones to guide her as she struggles with her identity. She is not an accident. God knew her before she was ever formed in her mother’s womb.
Mixed race people always struggle with their identity. Race is not a social construct. It is real and the races are very different from one another. Stupid people think “different” means “unequal.” These differences are good. They create different cultures.
She will ultimately have to choose what culture most resonates with her.
Blacks are much more conscious of skin color than whites, and her lighter skin will be more significant with them. Sometimes it will be perceived as beautiful, but the envious will seek to hurt her by saying she ain’t black or black enough.
Whites are also conscious of skin color, but much less so than blacks. Whites tend to have a less homogeneous appearance with regard to eyes, skin, hair and facial features.
It is also my opinion that genuine romantic love would be more likely in the white community, especially because she has a sensitive, deep thinking mind. Whites are more likely than blacks to pair up for reasons of compatible temperament. Her obvious white blood might increase her attractiveness to self-hating or insecure blacks, and that could lead to untold misery, because no one can be loved as a thing.
And all of this does not mean that she cannot be happier identifying as black and marrying a black man who loves her for herself.
I tried to reply to you, but it turned out (for whatever reason!) as a reply to Lightbringer’s very insightful comment.
I thought a little more, and I would like to share with you something that might be helpful. Of course she is bi-racial, but it may be good for her to understand that she can be westernkind.
“Black” or “white” are general racial descriptors, but “westernkind” can be composed of any race. They are primarily Christian whites of European descent, but are more broadly the peoples who create, maintain and / or love western civilization. They consist of all racial backgrounds, but the category is largely whites.
Most blacks are not westernkind by disposition, but some are. If she learns the history of western civilization, she will understand its connections from Jerusalem to Athens to Rome – populated with many towering heroes from the sons of Ham, Shem and Japheth (the three sons of Noah who are the progenitors of all the races). This might comfort and help her navigate her identity with less confusion and more peace.
Dinesh D’Souza has described himself as an heir to Western civilization, because he loves and values it. So am I, a thoroughgoing daughter of Zion (though that is one of the three legs upon which Western civilization rests). I am foreign to European and Christian thought yet highly respectful of them. And rather passionate about their music, literature, architecture, and art. Anyone can be part of Westernkind if (s)he loves its values and virtues; color, ancestry, and even religion are not really relevant.
I know that many disagree with me, but I see the Jews as indispensable to western civilization. It could not exist but for their contributions past, present and future.
I think also the Jews got exactly right how to remain a people and yet allow so many of the gentiles to join them. Their history, culture, religion, and traditions must be loved and accepted before one can become a Jew. We Christians are failing at this miserably — and it is because our leaders are syncretizing with woke and other post-Christian religions.
My pseudonym is taken from a Syro-Phoenician (Greek) woman in Mark 7 who asks Jesus for help for her daughter. Jesus refuses her because she is not of the children of Israel, and tells her that their food does not belong to the dogs (kynarion). She is desperate for her daughter and, recognizing Jesus’ power, she persists exclaiming that even the dogs eat crumbs falling from the children’s table. Jesus commends her faith and heals her daughter.
“White Ethnic Flight from America’s Cities.” Sounds prophetic and advantageous to Republicans, but this is a curse and double-edged sword. Yes, White people are fleeing from the Democrat-controlled cities. What is being left in there are the extremely poor, and very rich. The rich do not care about the high taxes and crime. They can afford these taxes and buy protective services. They can make the cities’ tax base survive until they too have to leave because the return on investment has disappeared..and their home values have eroded. Beware. These Whites fleeing the cities will bring their world view, and tax & spend philosophy with them. Soon your school boards, city councils, & state legislatures will be transformed & taken over by them.
Agree, it is more likely the “flight” is due to safety concerns and economic erosion than politics. Putting 2 and 2 together has not been a strong suit for Democrats.
Sotomayor speaks of a society “where opportunity is dispensed along racial lines.” In western society, opportunity is seen and pursued. It is grasped, not “dispensed.” But racial dispensing of opportunity is what she wants. Sotomayor is not westernkind, but has a healthy love for her people and place – her ethnos and nation.
Trying to make everyone the same under the guise of “equality” is evil. Ethnic populations enjoy living with one another and form societies of their own unique preferences and capacities. Westernkind are the only peoples who are deprived of this basic right. Now invaded by the entire world, we cannot survive as a people. The things unique about us are being consumed and destroyed.
Nations are composed of people sharing the same history, culture, language, custom, and ethnicity. This does not prevent sojourners or trade, but it will preserve the goodness of western civilization IF we westernkind return to the Bible and the God who blessed us so extraordinarily. If we do not, our own “cargo” will destroy us. The same cargo that causes the world to invade and plunder us without interest in the golden goose.
Sotomayor and Ketanji are tribal, identifying with their native lands and people. Their intellects are primitive. Putting these enemies in positions of power is a mortal threat to our fragile people and society.
I am old now, and will be looking for a place to live out my years among my own people.
2 Kings 4:13 “…Behold, you have been careful for us with all this care; what can I do for you? Would you be spoken for to the king or to the commander of the army? And she answered, ‘I live among my own people.’ ”
That should not be too much to ask.
Thanks KH! I noticed that fantasy about “dispensed” also, and was quite irritated by it.
“I am the perfect affirmative action baby,”
That’s right. And she’s the walking example of all that is wrong with affirmative action. AA has gifted her the opportunity to be the worst performer at every level since she entered college. I’m not sure that’s the kind of opportunity anyone should want. But she seems good with it.
If a person’s ambition exceeds his ability, AA is the perfect vehicle for undeserved advancement.
More time in a library and less on a basketball court .
Don’t hold your breath for that. You may want to review Chris Rock’s old routine from 1996 (Bring the Pain):
“Books are like kryptonite …..” https: // youtu. be / y8Aa01Te3OQ
She doesn’t look like she’s ever spent much time on the basketball court, either.
Our modern welfare state, started in the 60’s with LBJ’s “Great Society”, is largely responsible for the deterioration of our big cities and has destroyed the Black family where an unbelievable 75% of African American children are now raised in a single parent home. Every single Psychological and Sociological study ever done says that children from single parent homes are more likely to drop out of school, do drugs, join gangs, commit crimes and end up incarcerated. That fact, not the left’s invented mantra of “systemic racism” is what’s responsible for the underperformance of blacks in education and their over representation in our penal system. Yet, do you ever hear any politician talking about this? Until our welfare state is totally dismantled and restructured to support the family unit, instead of destroying it, it is certain that cities will continue to decline as will disparities in income and opportunity that will only get worse. The Democrats never ending cries of racism and idiotic DEI policies do nothing to solve any problem, but only exacerbate racial animosity and enable a self perpetuating “victiim” culture.
The welfare state is not responsible. Blacks are responsible. Their disproportionate share of the welfare monies, like their propensity to crime, school behavior and performance is statistically indistinguishable in every western country where they reside.
Blacks are largely a custodial race, with some very exceptional outliers, in western civilization. They suffer among us and we suffer among them. They should be given their own territory here where they can live free of us and we of them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom,_Georgia
They have an entire continent, called Africa. I’m sure that room could be found for the relative handful of American blacks among all of the countries there.
But one elephant in the middle of the room is this: Black IQ scores are lower than those of other groups, no matter how you slice and skewer your testing and statistical methods. In his book The Bell Curve Charles Murray tries to understand the reasons for this. He holds that it is currently impossible to determine the nature/nurture cocktail involved.
The ingredients of that cocktail will never be understood until research can be done without significant opprobrium and utter ruin. And until that can be determined, we really have no idea exactly what we are dealing with.
The 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, in its lengthy description of black people (Negroes back then) claim that the average IQ is under 70. Were they wrong? If not, have things changed in the subsequent century?
West Africa especially (where the slaves came from) often has average IQs under 60.
After I posted my comment, I had an additional thought. Blacks have the right to form communities based upon race. That should be given to whites also. My first solution says blacks have the right to live among us. That should not be interpreted that whites MUST allow it. Whatever communities desiring ethnic diversity should have it. Whatever communities that do not desire it should not be required to endure it.
Lightbringer, you are right. And what you propose is preferable. I have moral reasons for my opinion that goes against my preference.
American blacks are American. They have been here for hundreds of years, brought here against their will. The average American black has about 20% – 25% white blood. Their IQ scores and appearance often reflect this (American blacks score higher than African-American blacks). American blacks are not seen as entirely African by the Africans – but they are admired and welcomed everywhere.
This country, although not their native land, is their country, too. Because they are human, they should be given the dignity and respect of choices, and to live with their choices like responsible adults:
1. Stay here and become westernkind and live among us under the rule of law without preferences in any sphere (including employment, education, adjudication of crime, etc.);
2. Stay here and form your own, separate territories having unique laws and culture (like the American Indians).
3. Migrate to African and receive a large, one-time, payment to facilitate your move, which will requires a permanent relinquishment of citizenship.
I agree that African-Americans are American, and some are very valuable members of our polity, like Clarence Thomas. Some are national treasures, like Thomas Sowell. But those who refuse to conform to civilized norms and live with us as equals — not as rulers (as some wish), not as whining victimocrats, and not as mindless thugs, but as our brothers — ought to consider other options. People who have committed atrocities against the country and its people have given up their right to citizenship and ought to be made to leave, or to spend a significant portion of their lives in prison (their choice). The descendants of those who leave, and who want to take up their ancestral American identity, can always apply for citizenship by the same methods and the same standards as anyone else from anywhere else, but without preference due to their ancestry.
I think that these ought to be the only real options: Westernkind or leave. We have no obligation to displace other Americans to give them their own land; the Indians were owed it; the Africans, who have received all manner of reparations, are not. I might add that the privileged little white Antifa pukes and, going back to the ’60’s, the student protesters of that time, have in many cases also given up any right to call themselves Americans.
I don’t know if it’s true but, I heard where LBJ said, to paraphrase : ‘we’ll have those N’s eating out of our hands for the next hundred years’ after enacting the Great Society. Anyone looking for the root of “systemic racism” will find it alive and well in the Democrat Party.
I believe what he said was, “I’ll have those ni—rs voting Democrat for the next two hundred years”.
I believe the phrase ended with “voting Democratic for the next two hundred years”, not “eating out of our hands”.
Welfare is the Ketamine of Social Failure.
Four factors damaged the black family. 1) Secularism and weakening of church influence, 2) The sexual revolution, 3) Attitudes against blue collar work and 4) Social acceptance of substance abuse. The effect of numerous gospel and choir singers going from church music to sensual popular music was very damaging to youth, as well as militants who encouraged blacks to hate whites and anything associated with whites. It’s very hard on a culture to be blindsided with so many changes at once..
Although I agree with you, and fully support the elimination of all that you enumerate as damaging, we must eliminate every form of victimhood due to government and cultural influences. These influence some more profoundly than others – but all of us must deal with life as it comes to us.
Social help is not a province of government. It must belong solely to private charity given by communities that live with and understand the person who has been devastated by his choices or tragic circumstances not caused by his choices.
Obama wasn’t being sincere when he talked about the importance of fathers in black families. At the time, he was taking a lot of heat b/c of his Jeremiah Wright debacle. Once that blew over, he never said another word about fathers in black families.
I also remember Jesse Jackson’s hot mic comments, and I think you’re giving credit where it’s not due when you say Jackson influenced Obama to curb his rhetoric. Obama didn’t care what Jackson said or thought. Consider, Rev Al Sharpton made numerous visits to the Obama White House. I don’t think Rev Jackson was invited even once,
Please correct me if I’m wrong.
I don’t know if I can correct you, but my impression of Obama is one of weakness and lack of masculinity. The damage done to him by the absence of a father and a leftist mother is plain. He married a woman stronger than he and always depended upon mentors and facilitators for his every endeavor. He has no real initiative, despite his intact will to power. The multiple visits by black mentors means only that there was a reward for it. All behavior continues so long as it has reward.
The word “black” should only be capitalized when it is used as a proper noun as in “Black History Month” or the late Supreme Court Justice Black. Please stop the pandering and the capitalization of black when discussing the color of someone’s skin. It’s incorrect and absurd.
It is not incorrect and absurd if the goal is to exalt one race over another. It is evil.
When the Great Narcissist Barack Hussein Obama criticized fatherlessness in the black community, he was not recognizing what Daniel Patrick Moynihan saw half a century earlier, he was merely expressing trendy misandry, which he himself personifies, notwithstanding his biological sex, or the fact that electing him in 2008 required sabotaging Hillary’s quest to become the first woman president of the United States. He didn’t criticize legions of single mothers who are too irresponsible to either use contraceptives or abstain from premarital sex, a welfare system that incentivizes women to replace husbands and fathers as breadwinners with government and use welfare (despite Clinton’s claim to end such abuses) as “a way of life”. Nor did he criticize no fault divorce or misandric family courts that award custody to mothers nearly 90% of the time, or NOW for opposing shared custody as a norm. Furthermore, he is in bed politically with the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers and the Educational Industrial Complex, which is destroying the hopes and futures of generations of children, especially non white males. In Detroit, for example, the largest employer in the city is not an auto maker but The Detroit Public Schools. In spite of spending in excess of $15,000 per pupil annually, Detroit has a functional illiteracy rate of over 50%. The Obamanation has steadfastly opposed reforms such as Charter Schools or school vouchers.
No one should hate charlatans like Obama more than poor people, especially blacks.