Sowell asks: If [this] disparity is not due to race, it is equally hard to explain by racism. To a racist, one black is pretty much the same as another. But, even if a racist somehow let his racism stop at the water's edge, how could he tell which student was the son or daughter of someone born in the West Indies or in Africa, especially since their American-born offspring probably do not even have a foreign accent?
- Sowell's view of the dynamics of race relations is simplistic and superficial. Racism is not only about visual perception, but about social interaction as well. In my experience, many whites I dealt with in college had never really interacted with a black person of any kind before - and if they had their interaction was marred not by racism per se, but by socialization. They had little in common so they didn't hang out much. Also, blacks from Africa and the West Indies have a different perception of white people. Most Africans certainly tend to view whites as human beings with more means with a little help from colonialism etc. To be sure, there is stronger anti-white feeling in some places than in others, but also strong anti-Arab and anti-East Indian tendencies. Some of this is justfied (Arab slavery and racism, some of it is pure bigotry - anti-Indian) At any rate, a key point that Sowell is discounting in the equation is the way blacks perceive whites. My black Americans friends also wonder 'what is wrong with me? why are you so comfortable among whites, don't you know they hate you?' etc. This view by American blacks pre-emptively forecloses any positive relations with Whites and falsely accounts for a lot of 'racism' that does not actually exist.
Many Africans and West Indians born here are also socialized differently than blacks Americans and have a different outlook and so approach white people differently and are thus perceived differently then whites. A major factor Sowell overlooks is that many elite black Americans would rather go to Spelman or Morehouse than Harvard because they would rather be among their own.
Finally, on this point, Africans and West Indians do not hang out with each other very much nor with African Americans - and where there are enough Africans - like big school such as Michigan State - students from different African countries tend to hang out together based on national or even ethnic groupings.
Sowell asks: Slavery also cannot explain the difference between American blacks and West Indian blacks living in the United States because the ancestors of both were enslaved. When race, racism, and slavery all fail the empirical test, what is left?
- Sowell does not account for the fact that there was slavery in Africa - by other Africans and by the colonial powers esp. Belgium in the Congo. And he also does not consider the fact that black people are a majority in the West Indies and so the way they have developed in the post-slavery era is different than the black experience. So his assessment that 'race, racism, and slavery all fail the empirical test' is wrong, IMO.
Joe W.
_________________________________________________________________ Is your PC infected? Get a FREE online computer virus scan from McAfee® Security. http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963