Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell

                Two of my favorite authors and speakers are Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell. I like them because they are intelligent, wise, and unafraid to speak the truth. I have enjoyed learning from them for many years.

                 I was not searching for it, but I was pleased to find this article written by Williams quoting Sowell.  Williams essentially calls out many members of the media for their “dishonesty, lack of character, and sheer stupidity.” Since “most of them are college graduates, they don’t bear the full blame. They are taught by dishonest and irresponsible academics. Let’s look at it.”

                Williams takes the following quote from “A Clash of Police Policies,” a column written by Sowell: “Homicide rates among black males went down by 18 percent in the 1940s and by 22 percent in the 1950s. It was in the 1960s, when the ideas of Chief Justice [Earl] Warren and others triumphed, that this long decline in homicide rates among black males reversed and skyrocketed by 89 percent, wiping out all the progress of the previous 20 years.”

                Williams then makes this statement: “Academics and the media blame poverty and discrimination for today’s crime. No one bothers to ask why crime was falling in the 1930s, ‘40s, and ‘50s, when blacks faced far greater poverty and discrimination.

                The article has lots of other interesting data in it about blacks and poverty, education, and unmarried parents. It begs the question: Why are blacks worse off today than they were in earlier years, even after decades of “help” from liberals and progressives?