Walter E Williams - On Race — Transcript

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1. 0:08the illegitimacy rate among black
2. 0:11Americans is close to
3. 0:1475% um and a lot of people want to would
4. 0:17blame this on a legacy of discrimination
5. 0:19but it turns out in 1938 the
6. 0:22illegitimacy rate was 11% among blacks
7. 0:26uh and matter of fact among whites it
8. 0:28was 3% in 1938 and today among whites is
9. 0:31around
10. 0:3230% uh if you look at the um the the
11. 0:36breakdown the black family and matter of
12. 0:38fact uh maybe breakdown is a poor term
13. 0:41to use the black family does not form in
14. 0:43the first place that is only 3ome per of
15. 0:46black kids live in two parent families
16. 0:49uh again many people will blame that on
17. 0:52a legacy of discrimination but turns out
18. 0:55in
19. 0:561880s the uh 75% of black kids lived in
20. 1:00two parent families uh in New York in
21. 1:031925 85% of black kids lived in two
22. 1:06parent
23. 1:07families the kind of crime that we see
24. 1:11in many black neighbors is entirely new
25. 1:13I grew up in the Richland housing
26. 1:15project in North Philadelphia and we
27. 1:17didn't go to bed to the sounds of
28. 1:19gunshots the and many many people they
29. 1:22did not lock their door until 11:00 or
30. 1:2610:00 at night when everybody was home
31. 1:29there were there was far greater
32. 1:31civility uh in in poor black
33. 1:33neighborhoods at a time time when when
34. 1:36black people were far were closer to
35. 1:39slavery only two generations two or
36. 1:42three generations out of slavery and
37. 1:44there were not the opportunities and
38. 1:47there's far greater discrimination
39. 1:49against blacks as we find today so so
40. 1:52what I'm arguing is that that much of
41. 1:54what we see has absolutely nothing to do
42. 1:57with discrimination if you look get I
43. 2:01mean the the fact of business which is
44. 2:02not very pleasant to talk about if you
45. 2:04ask the question in what cities do black
46. 2:09people are are black people most
47. 2:11insecure receive uh uh the grossly poor
48. 2:17education and and and have other very
49. 2:20very poor living standards they are in
50. 2:23the very cities where a black is the
51. 2:26mayor a black is the chief of police
52. 2:29black is superintendent of school and
53. 2:31the Very cities where the the
54. 2:33Administration has in those cities have
55. 2:35been Democrat over for half a centur so
56. 2:39I'm not stating a causal relationship
57. 2:41between uh blacks being in political uh
58. 2:45control of the cities and the poor
59. 2:47living conditions and the poor standards
60. 2:49in school but what I'm saying is that
61. 2:51you can't blame it on discrimination
62. 2:54that is the right and education that
63. 2:56black kids are receiving in Washington
64. 2:59DC
65. 3:00you can no way in the world can you
66. 3:02blame that on racial discrimination when
67. 3:05when the when the political mechanism in
68. 3:08Washington DC is black unless you want
69. 3:10to say that the black politicians are
70. 3:12engaging in racial discrimination and
71. 3:15oppressing their people so I think that
72. 3:18when you when you begin to try to solve
73. 3:21problems you have to identify the causes
74. 3:24correctly that is you for example I
75. 3:27could be a a physician and you you come
76. 3:30to me and you say you have a bad stomach
77. 3:32ache and I can say well your stomach
78. 3:34ache is caused by your ingrown toenails
79. 3:37well if there if there's no relationship
80. 3:39between your ingrown toenails and your
81. 3:41stomach ache I can treat your ingrown
82. 3:43toenails all that once and you're still
83. 3:45going to have the stomach ache and the
84. 3:47same thing with uh trying to help people
85. 3:50out that is if you have you have to
86. 3:52identify the causes of their problems
87. 3:55correctly and if you just say well look
88. 3:57the pro black problems are caused by a
89. 3:59legacy of dis discrimination and and and
90. 4:01a legacy of slavery and discrimination
91. 4:04well you can work on that all you want
92. 4:06then the black problems are going to
93. 4:10persist is the welfare system
94. 4:13intrinsically intended to keep poor
95. 4:15people mainly of color in
96. 4:18poverty uh I don't think that is
97. 4:21intrinsically intended I don't think
98. 4:23that's the intention uh there the I
99. 4:26think that the intention for uh
100. 4:29well-intended people I think it's to
101. 4:31help help people but I think that uh
102. 4:34when you look at the intentions of uh a
103. 4:37programs uh when you look at programs
104. 4:39you you should ignore their intentions
105. 4:41and ask what is the effect and I think
106. 4:44that the effect of a welfare uh has been
107. 4:47devastating for uh for black Americans
108. 4:50uh the the kind of things you see among
109. 4:52black Americans today are entirely new
110. 4:55as I said as I said earlier and what
111. 4:59there there's no more material poverty
112. 5:01in the United States there's no more
113. 5:03material pover we don't have anything
114. 5:05like you see in Bangladesh and
115. 5:08Afghanistan and all these other poor
116. 5:10countries what we have in our country is
117. 5:13poverty of the spirit that is where
118. 5:15people have become dependent uh on on
119. 5:19government programs and they're not
120. 5:21they're not self-sufficient that's the
121. 5:23kind of poverty that we have today in
122. 5:26what ways do you believe black Americans
123. 5:28would be better off if no wealth Fair
124. 5:30state had ever been
125. 5:32instituted well I I think that I think
126. 5:34that not not only black Americans but
127. 5:36Americans in general I think that
128. 5:39Americans in general uh would would uh
129. 5:42they'd be more independent that is you
130. 5:44see I think one of the things we have to
131. 5:46recognize in any Economist I believe
132. 5:49whether he's whether he's liberal or
133. 5:51conservative or or free market he will
134. 5:54tell you that if you tax something
135. 5:57you're going to get less of it and if
136. 5:59you subsidize something you're going to
137. 6:01get more of it and what we've been doing
138. 6:04is subsidizing slovenly Behavior I mean
139. 6:07you see you see like like the the
140. 6:10duration of unemployment has I think
141. 6:12almost doubled since the
142. 6:141940s and and one of the reasons why the
143. 6:16duration of unemployment has doubled is
144. 6:19because of unemployment compensation uh
145. 6:21whereby people can pick and choose they
146. 6:24can say oh I'm not going to take this
147. 6:25hamburger flipper job I'm going to wait
148. 6:27for something better to come along uh
149. 6:29but if the if uh not accepting that job
150. 6:33meant starvation then they would not
151. 6:34make such a decision I think that um
152. 6:38that it it creates a a u a a dependence
153. 6:42mentality give you an example of this uh
154. 6:46uh my wife has a huge family as I
155. 6:49suggest that she was the uh the youngest
156. 6:51of 10
157. 6:52children and she has a huge family and
158. 6:55one night one time we were over their
159. 6:56house and the and two of her nieces were
160. 6:58arguing about money and one said I'll
161. 7:01pay you I I'll give you damn money when
162. 7:04I when I get paid and she was referring
163. 7:07to going to the mailbox picking up a
164. 7:09welfare check I mean that the idea that
165. 7:12a welfare check is is is
166. 7:17payment one of the tragic things about
167. 7:20the uh the problem the crime problem in
168. 7:22the many black
169. 7:23neighborhoods is that uh 52 51 or 2% of
170. 7:28uh of homicide victims in the United
171. 7:30States are black and it turns out that
172. 7:33uh uh somewhere around 95 9 94 95% of
173. 7:38them are are are murdered by another
174. 7:41black and so if you focus attention on
175. 7:46on what police are doing or what white
176. 7:48people are doing you will not uh you you
177. 7:51will not deal with the problem of uh of
178. 7:53black uh black lives uh being destroyed
179. 7:57on the streets uh because most of them
180. 7:59are are done by uh murdered by
181. 8:04blacks for the Dear Professor this is
182. 8:06what I'd like to sh ask him about the
183. 8:09three fifth
184. 8:11Claws and also uh the founding fathers
185. 8:15who were slaveholders because he keeps
186. 8:17talking about the founding fathers if it
187. 8:20if it just turned on them he would still
188. 8:22be in
189. 8:23slavery I think that the uh the
190. 8:25Three-Fifths Clause that people talk
191. 8:27about the the uh uh blacks being seen as
192. 8:31three-fifths of a person it turned out
193. 8:34that during the 1780 1787 Convention in
194. 8:38Phil in
195. 8:40Philadelphia the uh uh it turned out
196. 8:43that slaves were
197. 8:4440% of the population of the southern
198. 8:48states the southern states wanted to
199. 8:52count each person each slave as one
200. 8:56vote the northern the Northern delegates
201. 9:00delegates to the convention they didn't
202. 9:02think that slav should be counted at all
203. 9:05uh in terms of the apportionment for the
204. 9:08House of
205. 9:09Representatives and so the the
206. 9:12concession they made was to well to uh
207. 9:16make uh blacks count the the slaves
208. 9:19count as three fifths of a person for
209. 9:22the purposes of a portion to the House
210. 9:24of Representatives now the caller I
211. 9:27don't know whether he would want this uh
212. 9:30would he argue on the side of the
213. 9:33southern states to count each black as
214. 9:36one vote which if if they were counted
215. 9:39as one vote it would it would give the
216. 9:42southern states far greater power in the
217. 9:45United States uh uh
218. 9:47Congress now um the many of the uh many
219. 9:52of the founders they they did not want
220. 9:56they did not they you know they were
221. 9:57against slavery but they did not they
222. 10:01they felt that if they had abolished
223. 10:04slavery during the uh convention then
224. 10:08there would not have been a union and so
225. 10:11one has asked the
226. 10:13question uh would blacks have been
227. 10:15better off if the north went their way
228. 10:20and the South went their way and there
229. 10:22was not a union created between you know
230. 10:26we did not become a United States uh I
231. 10:30don't think so I don't I I would
232. 10:31disagree that blacks would have been
233. 10:33better off under those
234. 10:35conditions and matter of fact I think it
235. 10:37was uh um Wilson one of the delegates I
236. 10:39believe from New Jersey uh he said well
237. 10:42he said something at least we've
238. 10:44outlawed slavery the TR the uh slave
239. 10:48trade by 1808 and that might be a very
240. 10:52good start for uh outlawing all together
241. 10:56now in terms of the founders of vision
242. 10:59of slavery uh I have many many
243. 11:02quotations from the founders including
244. 11:04George Washington James Madison George
245. 11:07George Mason Thomas Jefferson etc etc
246. 11:10that would condemn the idea of slavery
247. 11:12but I think that there's one thing that
248. 11:14we have to recognize and again this is
249. 11:17not giving any moral sanction to slavery
250. 11:21is that throughout Mankind's history
251. 11:24slavery has been the normal State of
252. 11:26Affairs and it turns out that
253. 11:29blacks were the last people to be
254. 11:32enslaved that is the uh matter of fact
255. 11:35the term slave comes from the uh from
256. 11:38the it's a reference to the Slavic
257. 11:40people that is Slavs were among some of
258. 11:43the ver uh the first slaves and matter
259. 11:45of fact the uh U white Americans were
260. 11:48enslaved and that's why Jefferson sent
261. 11:51troops to uh uh to Tripoli uh to to to
262. 11:54free American slaves that were uh
263. 11:57enslaved by some the nor Northern
264. 12:00African uh uh uh countries and so I
265. 12:04think the that the unique thing about
266. 12:06slavery in United States and slavery uh
267. 12:11um slavery in the United States is that
268. 12:14or in the Western World I should say is
269. 12:16that uh Great Britain and United
270. 12:20States were the two countries that went
271. 12:24to the greatest pains to eliminate
272. 12:27slavery that is Great Britain banned it
273. 12:31slave trade uh the just the sight of the
274. 12:33Union Jack on the high seas that kind of
275. 12:36ended the trade of slavery and then
276. 12:39Americans uh we we uh fought a very very
277. 12:42costly war of 600 600,000 Americans died
278. 12:48and part of the effort was to uh
279. 12:50eliminate uh slavery so so I think
280. 12:53there's two things we have to recognize
281. 12:55slavery was the normal state of affairs
282. 12:57with Mankind and again I'm not giving
283. 12:59any sanction to it but it was a normal
284. 13:01State of Affairs among mankind but the
285. 13:04fact of business was that is that United
286. 13:08States and Great Britain did the most to
287. 13:12end uh that that abusive and ugly uh
288. 13:15Institution