Mythbusting white privilege

[JKDS]

Stopping in to say that home ownership, college attendence, and employment could all have been adversely affected by the start of the war on drugs. Tons of things happened in the 60s, and I'm not sure the "welfare state" is to blame for poor performance.

[wufwugy]

Stopping in to say that home ownership, college attendence, and employment could all have been adversely affected by the start of the war on drugs. Tons of things happened in the 60s, and I'm not sure the "welfare state" is to blame for poor performance.

The destruction of black communities doesn't correlate with the drug war that well. It does correlate with welfare. It also makes sense from an economics perspective. The drug war isn't exactly bad, but harsh sentencing has had exacerbating effects on communities starting quite a bit later than the 60s. No consensus theory for the destruction of black communities exists, but the leading hypotheses include a mix of welfare that incentivizes single-motherhood and disincentivizes work, increasingly centralized funding and regulation of schools that have basically shredded education in poor communities, and a de-policing of the violent communities that has created capital flight and inhibited capital entry. Include the ethos with the policies.

No one has to apply to college. No one has to apply to colleges outside of their ability. How is it that when blacks make poor decisions regarding education, it isn't entirely their fault? Why didn't they research more? Why didn't they study harder?

I guess I'm mostly just surprised that personal responsibility is being ignored in this context. Why arnt they responsible for their own actions?

I am not rejected for admission or employment based on my race. But if I apply somewhere and perform poorly, it's not because I had the freedom to apply and it's not the fault of admissions.

It's not about applying blame. Even if things are all screwed up, your performance at college isn't really the fault of admissions, even if they misplaced you and misled you. Fault is just an impossible thing to place.

It's about assessing causal relationships of policy. Regardless of what people should or shouldn't do, affirmative action has put more unqualified people in positions than otherwise. I don't disagree that people are responsible for their own actions. I'm all about that shit. I just don't think this topic is about that.

I agree that people should make better decisions. I also think government policies shouldn't incentivize or reward bad decisions. An example for how these problems are about the policy more than the decision making skills of consumers is that sometimes the money is in the wrong places, i.e., in order for affirmative action placed students to even get the funding they seek they have to go to schools where they're under-qualified. I'm not sure how much that still happens since loans are given out like candy these days, but it's something Sowell discusses that used to happen at least.

[JKDS]

The destruction of black communities doesn't correlate with the drug war that well. It does correlate with welfare. It also makes sense from an economics perspective. The drug war isn't exactly bad, but harsh sentencing has had exacerbating effects on communities starting quite a bit later than the 60s. No consensus theory for the destruction of black communities exists, but the leading hypotheses include a mix of welfare that incentivizes single-motherhood and disincentivizes work, increasingly centralized funding and regulation of schools that have basically shredded education in poor communities, and a de-policing of the violent communities that has created capital flight and inhibited capital entry. Include the ethos with the policies.

Maybe. But the drug war has had a huge economic effect as well. Suddenly black men are arrested way more frequently, sent to prison, and given felony records. That creates single mothers, cuts household income, and makes succeeding in school much harder for fatherless children. Then, once they're back, they can't contribute because of their record.

I only bring it up because the Stat I last saw was like...1 in 3 black men go to jail for drugs. That'll have a huge effect on their communities.

I agree though, that poor education in poor communities has a big effect as well. Also the apparent inability of po lice to put an end to gangs.