By Walter
E. Williams
It's often thought to be beyond question that black
political power is necessary for economic power and enhanced socio-economic
welfare.
That's an idea that lends itself to
testing and analysis.
Between 1970 and 2012, the number of
black elected officials rose from fewer than 1,500 to more than 10,000.
Plus, a
black man was elected to the presidency twice.
Jason Riley, a fellow at the
Manhattan Institute, tells how this surge in political power has had little
beneficial impact on the black community.
In a PragerU video, "Blacks
in Power Don't Empower Blacks," Riley says the conventional
wisdom was based on the notion that only black politicians could understand and
address the challenges facing blacks.
Therefore, electing more black city
councilors, mayors, representatives and senators was deemed critical.
Even some
liberal social scientists now disagree.
Gary Orfield says, "There may be
little relationship between the success of ... black leaders and the
opportunities of typical black families." Riley says that while many black
politicians achieved considerable personal success, many of their constituents
did not.
After the 2014 Ferguson, Missouri,
riots, which followed the killing of Michael Brown after he charged a
policeman, much was made of the small number of blacks on the city's police
force.
Riley asks: If the racial composition of the police force is so
important, how does one explain the Baltimore riots the following year after
Freddie Gray died in police custody?
Baltimore's police force is 40 percent
black. Its police commissioner is black. Its mayor is black, as is the majority
of the City Council.
What can be said of black political power in Baltimore can
also be said of Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, Washington, Atlanta and New
Orleans. In these cities, blacks have been mayors, police chiefs, city
councilors and superintendents of schools for decades.
By contrast, when blacks had little
political power, they made significant economic progress.
During the 1940s and
'50s, black labor force participation rates exceeded those of whites; black
incomes grew much faster than white incomes.
Between 1940 and 1950, black
poverty rates fell by as much as 40 percent.
Between 1940 and 1970, the number
of blacks in middle-class professions quadrupled.
Keep in mind that was before
affirmative action programs.
Riley says that racial gaps were narrowing without
any special treatment for blacks.
After the 1960s, the government began pouring
trillions of dollars into various social programs. These programs discouraged
marriage and also undermined the work ethic through open-ended welfare
programs, helping keep poor people poor.
The fact that political success is
not a requirement for socio-economic success -- and indeed may have an opposite
effect -- doesn't apply only to blacks.
American Jews, Italians, Germans,
Japanese and Chinese attained economic power long before they had political
power.
By almost any measure of socio-economic success, Japanese and Chinese
are at or near the top.
Riley asks, "How many prominent Asian politicians
can you name?"
By contrast, Irish-Americans have long held significant
political power yet were the slowest-rising of all immigrant groups.
Riley says that the black experience
in the U.S. has been very different from that of other racial groups.
Blacks
were enslaved. After emancipation, they faced legal and extralegal discrimination
and oppression.
[Editor's Note: See “The Parties Did Not Switch
Sides - Update: The Republican Party is The Party of Civil Rights.” http://blackrepublican.blogspot.com/p/the-party-of-civil-rights-by-kevin-d.html ]
But none of those difficulties undermines the proposition that
human capital, in the forms of skills and education, is far more important than
political capital.
Riley adds that the formula for prosperity is the same
across the human spectrum. Traditional values -- such as marriage, stable
families, education and hard work -- are immeasurably more important than the
color of your mayor, police chief, representatives, senators and president.
As Riley argues in his new book --
"False Black Power?" -- the major barrier to black progress today is
not racial discrimination.
The challenge for blacks is to better position
themselves to take advantage of existing opportunities, and that involves
addressing the anti-social, self-defeating behaviors and habits and attitudes
endemic to the black underclass.
