A History of British Immigration
I just started to read Black Rednecks and White Liberals by Thomas Sowell. I am impressed (again!) by how Sowell is able to connect history and statistical data together.
Whereas many scholars and researchers tend to focus on a small part of the picture in a societal problem (just as today we are tempted to link social disparities between Blacks and Whites in the US, to slavery) he goes beyond and examines the larger picture of immigration and the influence of the British “redneck” and “cracker” subcultures on the today’s black subculture.
Indeed, most of the whites of the American south came from XVIIIth century:
- no-man’s land between Scotland and England,
- Scottish highlands,
- Ulster County, Ireland.
They were characterized by University Professor David Hackett Fischer as “some of the most disorderly inhabitants of a deeply disordered land” and, according to historian Grady McWhiney, they were famous for their lack of prudence and self-restraint, neglect of education, lack of entrepreneurship, aversion to work, violence, sexual promiscuity, boastfulness and pride… I happen to have read the journal of John Wesley, the famous evangelist and founder of the Methodist movement, who traveled through the worst parts of the UK, preaching repentance and forgiveness of sins to the roughest brutes you can imagine. I have no problem believing that a mass migration of such a people might have caused a toxic subculture to develop in the American South. It is to be noted that Scotland was one of the most underdeveloped places in Europe in the early XVIIIth century. Anglicization to imitate the success of neighboring Britain, brought the Scottish to be one of the most educated people in less than a century. As a result, XIXth century Scottish immigration to the Northern parts of the US became a seamless and even desirable process (Grady McWhiney, Prof. David Hackett Fischer…).
Yet, many, such as De Tocqueville thought that “almost all the differences which may be noticed between the Americans in the Southern and in the Northern states have originated in slavery”(Democracy in America, Vol. I, p.365). However, Sowell writes:
It is perhaps understandable that the great, overwhelming moral curse of slavery has presented a tempting casual explanation of the peculiar subculture of Southern whites, as well as that of blacks. Yet this same subculture had existed among Southern whites and their ancestors in those parts of the British Isles from which they came, long before they had ever seen a black slave. The nature of this subculture, among people who were called “rednecks” and “Crackers” in Britain before they ever saw America, needs to be explored before turning to the question of its current status among ghetto blacks and how developments in the larger society have affected its evolution.
In short, slavery sounds like an “easy explanation” for corrupting white southerners, and for generating “racial”and social disparities (see 2016 income distribution chart from Pew Research Center below), as well as differences in societal behaviors (12.6% of the population is responsible for 51.1% of all homicides, per FBI 2015 and US Census Bureau). However, when looking at history and data, we see that white southerners were often considered undesirable in the North, sometimes even more so that Blacks (1951 survey in Detroit) thus leading to discrimination on the housing market, based merely on their southern accent, as referenced by Prof. Lewis M. Killian in his book White Southerners (pp.98–99, 109).
I have yet to discover the rest of the book, but I am amazed by how Sowell is able to connect the dots where no one else does, while still keeping extremely high standards of historicity and data interpretation. His quite unique analyses force me to research his claims quite very critically, yet I have not been able to find mistakes in his historical and statistical references.
Thomas Sowell looks for the deeper reasons behind statistical trends, which leads him to speak about what no one else wants to talk about. Are racial disparities a result of systemic racism? Is slavery or its Jim Crow aftermath responsible for the insanely high crime rate within the black community? or are they the result of the remnants of toxic XVIIIth century British subcultures that have kept out whole segments of the population, independently of skin color, away from job or housing opportunities throughout the US history? Many will refuse to even consider the question, claiming that it rejects the responsibility on “oppressed groups”, while letting the “white oppressor” off the hook. However, many black scholars (Prof. Carol M. Swain, Prof. Walter E. Williams…), thinkers (Thomas Sowell, Coleman Hughes…), or celebrities (Lil’ Wayne, A$AP Rocky…) acknowledge that there is a problem of black subculture that is today perpetuating cycles of broken families, violence and crime, neglect of education…in short, all the things that were the source of discrimination against white southerners not so long ago. Stevie Wonder recently said on Fox Business:
It is in your hands to stop all the killing and all the shooting wherever it might be. Because you cannot say “Black Lives Matter” and then…kill yourselves.
It is very true. Each of us needs to examine his or her own subculture and is responsible to keep and celebrate the good, and filter out the bad. Today, one could argue that the black community needs healing more than any other segment of the US population. Tomorrow it might be the whites again, or any other US citizen subgroup. The reality is that we are humans and prone to decay lest we intentionally chose our value systems to educate our children and communities in the best paths possible.
You might think the government has a big role to play. And it is true that the school system might need some reforms in the US. However, if the public school system keeps celebrating US system opponents such as Malcolm X or Black Lives Matter as examples of meaningful and successful lives, while you neglect to mention overachievers from within the US system, such as Thomas Sowell or Dr. Ben Carson, you are actually keeping a toxic subculture, and thus the problem, alive.
drsobko
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#racism #jesus #hope #fatherhood #AllBlackLivesMatter #AllLivesMatter
