Darkstar reminds me that things I used to say are still in the Google Archive. I've always hated Welsing, but I said some other pretty interesting things to - back when I was futzing with identity and being post-modern. If you get bored, there's a rap on the next page.
(from the archives - june 1993)
Welsing is an idiot and a racist, so I won't even bother with that book.
I have read three weighty tomes by Sowell and I doubt seriously that he
has anything new to say. What kind of economist is he anyway? The problem
I have with Sowell is that he views culture entirely too narrowly and
sees most cultural values in economic terms. Thus he has been supportive
of arguements against cultures whose highest priorities are not thrift.
In short, Sowell promotes a merchant class. As I have Confucian philosophical
leanings I find most of his advice utterly barbaric. Be that as it may,
it does not lessen his appeal to Americans (and immigrants to America)
who adopt unreconstructed Puritanism as their guiding principle. But
since I understand that black progress in this country is achieved in
spite of and often in opposition to the Puritan work ethic I found little
use for his work then as now.
Schlesinger is an old man who ought to just shut up and go home. I'm
sick and tired of the voices of World War II. As far as I'm concerned,
he's a dodo. Interesting in a Jurassic Park kind of way but long past
leadership. I throw a David Halberstam and a Kennan at the old feeb.
As for what he has to say, I beleive he is simply an alarmist who is not
beyond stooping to dirty politics. But all bluster aside, I believe he
has aligned himself very much like Dinesh D'Sousa (or Digun GaDinza
depending on if you've learned Japanese by Spring) on the losing side
of a battle that should never have taken place. If he had the wisdom
and courage of his 'opponents' (like Skip Gates) in this row, perhaps
I might consider his viewpoint more seriously. But as he said in his
letters to The New York Times and Wall Street Journal(!) on the issues
of curriculum in the State of New York, "I'm afraid.." and "I'm alramed.."
Not the voice of reason for my 11.95
Nathan Glazer. I don't even know why his name sounds familiar.
What are some of his other books?
Anyway if his book is about Affirmative Action, I'm hardly interested.
I don't think most progressive blacks give a rats ass about Affirmative
Action. I know I only talk about it to piss folks off. Few, (believe me
very few) Americans could write a halfway decent approximation on how
any good Affirmative Action program is supposed to work anyway. Having
written manpower systems, I know the math and I know how limited its
economic potential is. Bottom line is the only white people a decent
Affirmative Action plan hurts economically are the incompetent ones. The
rest is a bunch of symbolism, and empty symbolism at that. As I said
before, black progress is not, in the main, a Puritan thang.
All backlash against Affirmative Action, in my view, is just white people
trying to tell blacks how they should earn their money; and all die hard
Affirmative Action wonks are just black people trying their damndest to
jump through the right hoops. And I mean those racial terms figuratively.
On the outside, a few Affirmative Action supporters just like to flaunt
the idea that this, the weakest of many possible empowerment schemes, actually
succeeded in Amerikkka.
You are almost close in dishing the dose, but you miss the most as you
diagnose. The oppression of blacks, although economic is so much more
cultural therefore it's comic to hear the suggestions of those who might
cure the entirely wrong ailment therefore I'm sure if you follow the path
of those in the know and stop fiddling with math (it's no puritan game show)
You'll see in due time the dimension of crime perpetrated by those 'gainst
the spirit of brothers and sisters
Harry, Unspoiled
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