This book will flop. It's a miracle she found a publisher for it.

No one in today's society wants to hear that they are responsible for their own lives. This is especially antithetical to the black culture of victimhood, and the liberal policies that subsidize it.

Truth hurts.

> black leaders like Jesse Jackson should be
> stigmatizing single motherhood in
> the black community.

Should they be stigmatizing gay parenthood? Do you want a father in the home or don't you?

Hard for Jesse Jackson to stigmatize single motherhood in the black community when he's 50% responsible for the creation of a child being raised by a single mother.

If you finish high school and keep a job without having children before marriage, you will almost certainly not be poor. Period.

Maybe I'm just cynical, but I find the lack of willingness to believe that stark truth to be fairly widespread. It's one of the cold equations, but many people shy away from it because it sounds so harsh and unforgiving. But yes, it's one of the absolutes. Are there exceptions? Sure. Crystal Bowersox and Bristol Palin will almost certainly never be poor. But the exceptions are often portrayed in ways that make them seem to be aspirational targets for others. It's turning me into a curmudgeon before my time.

And yet the blacks vote almost in lock-step for Democrats. The party of Jim Crow, the party that fought the Civil Rights act. The party that cynically accuses Republicans of wanting to turn back the clock to the days of slavery.

The Democrats were the ones who created the welfare system that replaced daddy with government. That's the watershed moment I don't see referenced in these excerpts.

The Democrats wanted to keep the black man down, and when the courts wouldn't let them do it through segregation, they found a way to destroy the nuclear family instead. And created a permanent dependent class in the process.

The Democrats wanted to keep the black man down, and when the courts wouldn't let them do it through segregation, they found a way to destroy the nuclear family instead.

Never blame on malice what can be explained by incompetence.

I doubt there was an evil plan. Conspiracy theories downplay the serious negative consequences simple incompetence can have. Lots of people who instituted the policies we have today had good intentions. They thought they were helping. They were just wrong.

Should they be stigmatizing gay parenthood? Do you want a father in the home or don't you?

Crid, you have this weird bone up your butt about gay parenting. Research by Judith Stacey and Timothy Bednarz shows that children of gay parents do as well as children of straight parents. What matters is intact families.

Amy, research also showed that human activity was altering the weather and that global warming was going to increase the number and intensity of hurricanes.

Research can be wrong.

Research can be wrong.

It can be. But if we're not basing policy on science, then we're basing it on our fuzzy feelings about things, which are even more suspect. If studies 10 years from now show that gay parents raise serial killers, I will change my opinion.

MonicaP reminds us: "Never blame on malice what can be explained by incompetence. "

True, but on the other hand, incompetence neither excuses it, nor provides a justification for not fixing it. Picture this imaginary scenario: A meeting, in a deserted warehouse in an out-of-the-way area, somewhere in the South. Circa 1960. The Grand Dragons of the Ku Klux Klan are all present.

And they aren't happy. One of them summarizes the situation: "For almost 80 years now, we've been trying to drive blacks out of the country. We've burned crosses; we've paraded, we've lynched. We've scared and harmed a lot of individual black people and we've killed some. And yet the black community keeps on keeping on. Look at the Buffalo Soldiers. Look at Tuskegee and the Tuskegee Airmen. Look at guys like George Carver and Booker T. Washington. Heck, look at Booker T. Jones. These guys are making a lot of progress. And nothing we are doing is stopping them. We need to try something else."

A voice from the back of the room: "We need to go progressive."

"Huh?" "What are you talking about, man?"

"Go progressive. Forget all the expressions of hatred. Go compassionate. Here's the plan: Offer to pay their women to have and raise children. Tell them they don't need their men; tell them that the government will provide them with the benefits of having a husband, without them having to get married or get a job. Make it easy for them to sit home and watch that new-fangled television box all day."

"What else?"

"Play to base instincts. Celebrate the traits of the worst people in their community. Make excuses for the ones who do drugs and commit crimes. Sell them the myth that African culture is superior to Western culture. If their kids flunk school, graduate them anyway. If they make good grades, make fun of them and tell them they're acting white. Face it, guys, attacking the community from the outside isn't working. Get inside their community and gut it from within."

"Anything else?"

"We need some operatives. Find a few black guys who hate white people but love white people's money. Buy them off and then play to their prejudices. Reinforce in them the idea that the right thing to do is the opposite of whatever whites do. And then use the media to set them up as people who speak for all blacks."

"So can we get rid of these stupid robes and hoods now?"

"No. We have to keep stirring the pot. Our chosen black leaders need foils, something to play off of. They have to convince blacks that all of their problems are due to external enemies. They must be convinced that they are blameless for whatever happens to them, and that racism is so bad that they have no hope of survival without government intervention."

"What happens then?"

"The black community breaks down. If the government is taking care of you, who needs a community? It'll destroy itsef, and we'll never have to lift a finger."

"So is this like Farmer Joe over in Clay County who's on that new-fangled government program where he gets paid to not grow cotton?"

"Sort of."

Amy, research also showed that human activity was altering the weather and that global warming was going to increase the number and intensity of hurricanes.

Which research? it was often claimed these things would happen. But I can also point you to research by Gray and Landsea that in the mid 1990s the tropical Atlantic basin was trending into a more active period much like the 1950's, and the 1930's before that. And the last couple of years have been...quiet.

Living in Florida means I'm thankful for that.

"Truth hurts" --- Juliana

Frederic Bastiat put it this way:

"Society has for its element man, who is a free agent; and since he is free, he may choose - since he may choose, he may be mistaken - since he may be mistaken, he may suffer"

The truth was out there long before Sawhill & Jencks did their calculations about dropping out of school & having a litter of kids.

I don't think that the current situation is the result of a conspiracy either, but I do think that white supremacy plays a role. The counterpoint of black's adoption of a victim identity is that influential whites have gladly promoted and institutionalized this view. It's the correct image of blacks among 'socially conscious' whites.

As McWhorter has pointed out elsewhere, black nationalism and radicalism were largely engineered by white intellectuals and social engineers. Most black nationalists were white. The image of black identity that's promoted and enforced by these movements tokenizes blacks. It makes their identity dependent on whites, as a response to white oppression, rather than a sovereign and organic concept of identity. It's contingent.

Someone could be forgiven for assuming that the modern system of racial identity is an attempt to rehabilitate white supremacy. It credits only whites, and perhaps asians, with agency. The other races are just puppets.

@Kunta Kinte - And?

I pretty much agree with that take. There are in fact white supremacists -- but they aren't who or what most people think they are. The Left's approach towards minorities pretty much consists of all of the bad points about colonialism, without any of the good points. Basically, they regard blacks as a client class, dependent on the leftist betters for their very existence. (It's not really all that new either; you can find examples going back to Reconstruction, e.g., the Freedmen's Bank.) And sadly, a lot of blacks seem to have bought into that way of thinking. Not all, certainly, but a lot.

I just read the transcript from the Dr. Laura show, and ... WTF?

She didn't say anything wrong! Yes, 'N-----' is a word the Knights who Say Nee (white people) cannot say. But she was quoting!

Why is she apologizing?

What bullshit.

The thing about the liberal attitude towards many minorities is that it's insulting. It's like "look at you poor people who can't do it on your own".

> Research by Judith Stacey and Timothy Bednarz
> shows that

Yes yes, this is the part where you pretend to be a scientist. You don't think children need fathers, and you ought to have the courage to say so.

Lunacy.

What does a role model do? How much time of "role modeling" does a kid need to turn out "very well"? Come on Amy, this is science! Show me the study that quantifies the "role modeling" men do for their kids, and how it's easily fulfilled by any old man.

Everybody likes to say how hard single motherhood is.
Duh.

SO...why won't people admit that when one course of action(single motherhood) is significantly harder than another (intact 2 parent family), a lot more people(single mothers) will fail to do well?

On a related note, I've heard that research supports that gay's can make successful parents (as in raising a child that does not OD, live in poverty, or end up in jail)

But what I'm not familiar with is the specifics under which said studies were conducted. Did they find existing couples? Did they measure economic and education status of the parents? Was there an extended family structure? How did they actually measure "success"? I'd like to see more of this research.

On yet another note:

If people want proof that racism is basically irrelevant to the progress of modern black men and women, one need only look at the status of African immigrants.

I served beside several Nigerians, Jamaicans, and other African nationals pursuing American citizenship, and not a one of them failed, that worked hard studied hard, and continued to pursue their ambitions.

Black Americans born in the U.S. in certain regions seem to have generational issues repeating themselves. If racism were the issue, it would be an issue for both, not merely one.

Amy, research also showed that human activity was altering the weather and that global warming was going to increase the number and intensity of hurricanes.

I'm sorry but wasnt there a big news story about how that reaserch was FAKED?

I think the truck driver analogy, she presents in her book, is lacking, but let’s take it to the logical conclusion. Let’s say that a truck driver captured and enslaved a pedestrian in order to break his legs continuously. Then let’s say he forces this captured and enslaved pedestrian to breed, in order for the truck driver’s children to have pedestrians to run over, as well. The truck driver justifies his behavior, because he pays for the medical bills. The let’s say this happens over a few hundred years. Then let’s say the State forces the truck driver to only hit the pedestrian once a year instead of whenever he wants, but the truck driver no longer has to pay for the medical bills. The pedestrian is responsible, now. (The truck driver even had a fight with his brother over the treatment of the pedestrian). This “freedom” to hit the pedestrian and her descendants once a year, without paying for their medical bills, lasts about 100 years.

Just sayin’…

Just me maybe...but...I don't get that analogy.