Great1 said:
If you listen to the first 15 minutes of the interview, he does state that the beginning of the educated equals white started with the black power movement.
He specifically mentions it when he talked about his mother being called a "walking" encyclopedia.
You are wrong. at 9:08 into the interview he says "Oddly enough its when INTEGRATION starts. Its when black kids and white kids start going to school together."
He also went on to say that it also came in that stokley Carmicchael time wherre "Black is beautiful" and suggested that people were embracing things viewed as black and rejecting things viewed as white.
He never ever said that. He said it occurred at the same time and suggests it was a mistaken idea adopted erroneously by children.
Listen to it again. He never blames it on black power.
In terms of my comments about him dismissing the "crack epidemic" I have to disagree with you in that I have heard him in other lecture circuits and he always makes the point that "We have always had drugs in the community but the black community/family was never in this much disarray." Now he does acknowledge the impact of crack, but his writing and speeches definitely mention the crack epidemic very nonchalantly. Coming from an academic, that disturbs me.
I dont think crack by itself fucked over the ghetto either. But you should either list any material of his you are referencing or post them.
He does specifically say it was the expansion of welfare that destroyed those communities. I wouldnt discount it or believe it without some concrete data to look at.
I never said that McWhorter thought that welfare was the sole cause of the decline of black communities. If it came off that way, I apologize and let me clarify.
The welfare system played A role, but not the PIVOTAL role. As I sated in my e-mail, there were several factors that occurred simultaneously that caused the erosion of the Black community. Those are (in my opinion:
1) The systematic neutering or dismantling of black power groups
I see that as the pivotal factor. Because they totally removed the leadership cadre of the african-american people through a complex campaign of assassinations and persecution.
2) The massive exodus of the black middle class from black neighborhoods
3) Developing mindset of "me-ism” where blacks stopped caring about the race and only cared for themselves (specifically in the 70s and 80s)
4) The influx of Crack in American ghettos.
5) Governmental cutback on programs designed to help distressed communities/ Reganomics.
6) The handicap welfare mentality
Now I totally agree with Dr McWhorter and you Makkonnen that black people need to stop saying that our communities are distressed because of racism. We must come to the realization that a large part of the economic and moral decline in black communities is black people's apathy. However, if we are truly want to bring our communities from out of the darkness, we musk address ALL elements to our destruction.
hold up. I am not Dr McWhorter. And I dont think you will find me to have said the above anywhere. Not that I disagree necessarily but you are lumping me into groups and assigning statements to me that I have never made.
I do agree with your moral and economic decline remarks.
To simply look at one cause is, from an academic standpoint, does the black community a dis-service.
He says that welfare expansion and its role in the destruction of the black family unit setup the enormous problem of crack cocaine.
Im not saying you're wrong about this guy. I do not hear this guy talking about the cultural movement of hedonism and greed that embrace doing anything for money.
But again I stress this is only a 25minute show trying to touch on many different areas. His book might be more thorough.
Remember also this is supposedly a look at how to succeed rather than totally dwelling on how we have failed.
