Walter Williams is a genius

Walter Williams

I just read another brilliant column by Walter Williams. Williams says Democrats like to treat blacks as victims in need of special favors. He cites so-called Affirmative Action programs that include racial quotas and all sorts of other preferences that discriminate against others. In education, admission preferences have been in place for years in the name of “diversity.” It is the dumbest thing you have ever seen. It sends a message that blacks cannot compete. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Williams reminds us that in sports there are no such preferences. Merit and merit only dictates success. Blacks dominate the lucrative high salary sports in the U.S. In the NBA a whopping 80 percent of the players are black. In the NFL where no preferences are offered either, 66 percent of the players are black. You will never hear the diversity police demanding we have more short white Jewish basketball players in the NBA for the sake of ethnic and racial diversity. As the U.S. Open tennis tournament begins in New York the top two American women are Sloane Stephens and Serena Williams. Tennis is supposedly a sport that favors the children of wealthy white people. Need we say more?

In NBA or NFL postgame press conferences you will NEVER hear a coach try to excuse one of his black player's poor performances by blaming it on the "legacy of slavery" or on a particular player's being raised in a single-parent household. It would be stupid.

Williams asks this question, “When have you heard sports standards called racist or culturally biased? I have yet to hear a player, much less a coach, speak of such nonsense.”

The standards of performance in sports are the most ruthless. No excuses are tolerated. Regardless of whether you are black, brown, red, yellow, or white, anyone who doesn't play to the coach's standards gets cut. Players know this, and they make every effort to excel. Blacks excel big time. 

Williams says blacks also excel in the entertainment industry -- another industry in which there's ruthless dog-eat-dog competition. The black success stories in the entertainment industry are too numerous to mention. We all can think of a dozen prominent names in thirty seconds.

Williams believes because blacks have demonstrated an ability to thrive in an environment of ruthless competition and demanding standards, there might be some gains to be had if a similarly demanding school environment replaced the make excuses dumb down approach. He says maybe we ought to have some schools in which youngsters are loaded up with homework, frequent tests and demanding, top-notch teachers. In such schools, there would be no excuses for anything. Youngsters cut the mustard, or they're kicked out and put into some other school. If this were the playing field he thinks a significant number of black youngsters would prosper, just as they prosper in the highly competitive sports and entertainment environments. Makes sense doesn't it?

Why won't this happen? According to Williams it is because progressive Democrats have a different goal. Their agenda calls for not only excuse-making but also dependency. This explains their efforts to get as many Americans as they can to be dependent on food stamps. During President Barack Obama's years in office, the number of people receiving food stamps has skyrocketed by 39 percent. He cites Professor Edward Lazear, chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers from 2006-09. Lazear wrote a Wall Street Journal article titled "The Hidden Jobless Disaster" (June 5, 2013) that reported the research done by University of Chicago's Casey Mulligan. This sentence summarizes the findings: “Because government benefits are lost when income rises, some people forgo poor jobs in lieu of government benefits --unemployment insurance, food stamps and disability benefits among the most obvious." Government handouts probably go a long way toward explaining the unprecedented number of Americans, close to 90 million, who are no longer looking for work.

Williams says the Democrats main agenda is to hook Americans, particularly black Americans, on government handouts.

Finally, Williams crystallizes the clarity of what is going on in America this way: “When black Americans finally recognize the harm of the Democrats progressive agenda, he is betting they will be the nation's most conservative people, for who else has been harmed by progressivism as much?”