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Message-ID: <3AF1949A.479A6FD3@mit.edu> Date: Thu, 03 May 2001 13:25:46 -0400 From: Matt Craighead <craighea@MIT.EDU> MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "Richard J. Barbalace" <rjbarbal@MIT.EDU> CC: mit-talk@MIT.EDU Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit "Richard J. Barbalace" wrote: > As an Irish/Italian/etc. myself, I have to say that's a lovely, but > provably wrong, argument. If this were true, then blacks would be > extremely prosperous, since they've been in this country (and even > free) since long before the immigrations you refer. Clearly a couple > hundred years of slavery have set them back. If anything, the current > lot of blacks in America shows that they need continued support. You missed a third possibility: the victim mentality that some people have -- blaming every problem they have on other people -- is a harmful attitude and holds them back far worse than any discrimination ever could. Another person already recommended it, but I also recommend "The Ten Things You Can't Say in America" by Larry Elder (a black libertarian). The first two sections about race are excellent. Elder provides a lot of evidence that the victim mentality is responsible for a lot more of the disparities between whites and blacks than many think. It's important to remember that the very most basic economics gives us a strong prediction about discrimination; specifically, if a company practices racial discrimination, it will be less competitive. In fact, if you look at historical racism in America, you will see that many areas where racism was prevalent were in government-protected areas where businesses or workers did not need to be competitive. For example, labor unions were long very racist. The minimum wage was initially a racist policy. Many other government interventions in industry in the 19th and early 20th century had a pretty simple goal: protect white workers from black competition. (Like all other government interventions in industry, this is completely wrong.) The company I work for (a Silicon Valley tech company) has a low percentage of workers who are black (but a high percentage who are Asian, including the CEO). Is this because we want to discriminate? No! It's because we don't see very many black candidates. If a qualified black candidate came along, we'd snap them up just as quickly as any other qualified candidate. If you think that more government welfare programs will help blacks, you are highly mistaken. -- Matt Craighead, MIT Class of 2002 President, MIT Objectivist Club http://web.mit.edu/objectivism/www/
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