I don’t mind saying that this
column represents a grossly understated review of “Discrimination and Disparities,” just published by
my longtime friend and colleague Dr. Thomas Sowell. In less than 200 pages,
Sowell lays waste to myth after myth not only in the United States but around
the globe.
One
of those myths is that but for the fact of discrimination, we’d all be
proportionately represented in socio-economic characteristics, such as career,
income, education and incarceration. The fact of business is that there is no
evidence anywhere on earth, at any time in human history, that demonstrates
that but for discrimination, there would be proportionate representation in
anything by race, sex, nationality or any other human characteristic. Sowell
shows that socio-economic outcomes differ vastly among individuals, groups and
nations in ways that cannot be explained by any one factor, whether it’s
genetics, discrimination or some kind of exploitation.
A study of National Merit
Scholarship finalists shows that firstborns are finalists more often than their
multiple siblings combined. Data from the U.S., Germany and Britain show that
the average IQ of firstborns is higher than the average IQ of their later
siblings. Such outcomes challenge those who believe that heredity or one’s
environment is the dominant factor in one’s academic performance. Moreover, the
finding shows that if there is not equality among people born to
the same parents and living under the same roof, why should equality of
outcomes be expected under other conditions?
In
Chapter 2, Sowell provides evidence that people won’t take racial
discrimination at any cost. The higher its cost the less it will be tolerated,
and vice versa. One example is segregated seating on municipal transit in the
South. Many companies were privately owned, and their decision-makers
understood that they could lose profits by offending their black customers by
establishing segregated seating. Transportation companies fought against laws
mandating racially segregated seating, both politically and in the courts, but
lost. Companies even chose to ignore the law. Faced with heavy fines, though,
they began to comply with the law.
The
point is that the difference between the white transportation owners and the
white politicians and segregationists was the transportation company owners had
to bear the cost of alienating black riders and the politicians and segregationists
didn’t. Sowell broadens his analysis to show that regulated companies and
organizations — such as public utilities and nonprofit entities, including
colleges and government agencies — will be at the forefront when it’s
politically popular to discriminate against blacks but also will be at the
forefront when it’s politically popular to discriminate in favor of blacks.
Why? Because in either case, they don’t bear the burden of forgone profits.
In Sowell’s chapter titled
“The World of Numbers,” he points out what I’m going to call out-and-out
dishonesty. In 2000, a U.S. Commission on Civil Rights study pointed out that
44.6 percent of black applicants were turned down for mortgages, while only
22.3 percent of whites were turned down. These and similar statistics led to
charges of lending industry discrimination and demands that government do
something about it. While the loan rejection rate for whites was 22.3 percent,
that for Asians and native Hawaiians was only 12.4 percent. Those statistics
didn’t see the light of day. Why? They didn’t fit the racial discrimination
narrative. It would have been difficult for the race hustlers to convince the
nation that lending institutions were discriminating against not only black
applicants but white applicants, as well, in favor of Asian and native Hawaiian
applicants.
At
several points in the book, Sowell points to the tragedies created in the
pursuit of social justice. He gives the example of the Gujaratis expelled from
Uganda and the Cubans fleeing Cuba. Many of the Gujaratis arrived in Britain
destitute but rose again to prosperity. It’s the same story with the Cubans who
came to the U.S. and prospered. By losing their most productive people, both
Uganda and Cuba became economic basket cases.
The general public, educators
and politicians would benefit immensely from reading “Discrimination and Disparities,” if
only to avoid being unknowingly duped.
Walter
E. Williams is the John M. Olin distinguished professor of economics at George
Mason University, and a nationally syndicated columnist. To find out more about
Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and
cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page.
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