Today, many people want to blame white people as a whole for the gaps in outcome between Black and white children, and thus the same gap between Black adults and white adults. They are correct that there are some white people who have put roadblocks and rights on Blacks, but it is not the average white person. The average white person has no control over the lives of their fellow man, no matter what the race. The average white person is trying to provide for themselves and their families and hoping that they have some left over to buy something nice or give to their preferred organization of choice. They have no systemic or sweeping ability to affect their own progress, let alone limit the progress of other races. Any ability they have to get ahead is made by the providence of God and hard work.
The real culprit, according to numerous people, is the white, educated liberal class. Jason Riley, a two-decade journalist for the Wall Street Journal that happens to be Black, sets out in his book (amazon ass. here) to empirically, evidentially, and statistically expose the real problems facing the Black communities. Like a well-trained doctor, he finally figures out what is wrong with the Black man and thus gets the average white person off the hook. In his book, “Please Stop Helping Us, How Liberals make it harder for Blacks to Succeed” (Amazon Ass. Link here), he essentially gives 10 major reasons for the gap. Some of the problems are self-inflicted, while others are burdens put on the Black communities by seemingly well-intentioned whites and Black liberals in places of power and influence. Once implemented, these ideas have led and continue to lead to terrible limits on the majority of Blacks, especially those who live in majority Black communities. Jason’s ten reasons are not put as 10 reasons in his book, but after reading his book, I have tried to figure out how to get the bare bones of his arguments. I found ten major things that he seeks to prove with distinctive evidence.
The way that this series will go (and eventually will be a book once finished and compiled) is this:
I will explain the two main reasons that Jason gives that are self-inflicted by Blacks on themselves/one another. This will be the content of this first article.
Next, I will explain the history of the conversation between Blacks as to how the Black community should or can better itself (going all the way back to slavery).
I will deal with the education system.
I will deal with the adult world, aka the job market.
Lastly, I will need to know the habits and mentality of the Black community.
This is a multiple part blog series. This article is the first of 10 things holding blacks back.
Lack of Fathers in the Black Home
Since this point is so controversial (the fact that fathers not being in the home is a huge loss for the Black community), I want to start off with someone who has studied human civilization on a much broader, more professional level.
“The anthropologist Margaret Mead said that the ultimate test of any culture is whether it can successfully socialize men to willingly nurture their children. ‘Every known society rests firmly on the learned nurturing behavior of men,’ she wrote `Each new generation of young males learn the appropriate nurturing behavior and super impose upon their biologically given maleness this learned parental role.”
Conservative commentators like Thomas Sowell and Candace Owens discuss how the administration of the then President Lyndon B. Johnson in the mid 1960s brought about what is known now as the welfare state. This incentivized Black woman to become pregnant while also incentivizing her to keep the “baby daddy” away so that they could qualify for welfare checks, aka free money from the government that has been stolen from others. It also promotes them to have even more children so that they can receive more money. It perpetuates women becoming baby mills in order to be compensated for having children.
Jason Riley puts the situation like this:
“Fathers who live apart from their offspring are less likely to spend time with them, or contribute financially to their upbringing. . . In 1965, when he was assistant secretary of Labor for President Lyndon Johnson, Daniel Patrick Moynihan was already warning that the Black family was in a state of crisis. Although nine in ten children in America lived with their biological father in 1960, some one in four Black kids did not. By 2011, 33 percent of children in the United States would be living with their mothers, but not their fathers. Among Blacks the number would climb to 64 percent, or nearly two in three.
‘Though income is the primary predictor, the lack of live-in fathers also is overwhelmingly a Black problem, regardless of poverty status,’ reported the Washington Times in 2012, citing census data. Among Blacks nearly 5 million children, or 54 percent, live with only their mother.’ Just 12 percent of poor Black households have two parents present, compared with 41 percent of poor Hispanic families and 32 percent of impoverished white families. ‘In all but 11 states, most Black children do not live with both parents. In every state, 7 out of 10 white children do.’
Divorce helped to drive these numbers in the 1960s and 1970s, but by the 1980s, unwed parenthood was largely to blame. Today, more than 70 percent of Black children are born to unwed mothers. Only 16 percent of Black households are married couples with children, the lowest of any racial group in the United States, while nearly 20 percent are female-headed (matriarchal) with children, which is the highest of any group. Like most Blacks, my parents knew (if only from experience of friends and family) all about the strong links between broken homes and bad outcomes. They knew that the likelihood of drug abuse, criminal behavior, teen pregnancy, and dropping out of school increased dramatically when fathers aren't around.”
As I said earlier, the reason that Black fathers were absent in the home was the increasing size of the welfare state. Jason Riley summarizes the cause of Black, fatherless homes well when he says: “There is a much stronger case to be made that efforts to help Blacks have had more pernicious and lasting effects on Black attitudes and habits than either slavery or segregation. Social welfare programs that were initiated or greatly expanded during the 1960s resulted in the government effectively displacing Black fathers as breadwinners, and made work less attractive.”
This main theme will run through the other reasons this quote alone is basically the theme or thesis of Jason Riley’s book. It directly parallels the title. Johnson is a Liberal seeking to help Blacks; the title of the book is “Please Stop Helping Us, How Liberals (Johnson and all his ideologically constituents) make it harder for Blacks to succeed. He started off the desire to “help” Blacks, and many others have thought it was necessary. With the fathers out of the picture, the government has a perpetually blank check to authorize any law as long as it is well-intended parental welfare for these poor Black women and their vulnerable Black children (they might say/phrase it). Let us take advice from my favorite economist as to how we should deal with well-intended laws that are actually detrimental. “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.” Milton Friedman
Jason’s book and my commentaries/summaries of his book have the goal of exposing the chasm between the intentions of these liberals and their actual results. The way I think about it is that if someone comes to your house and promises to do a service, like fixing your faucet, the intentions might be to fix my faucet, but the real test as to whether that intended aim and goal is successful is to experience the result of my faucet working once you turn it on. The problem is the leftist programs have not only not fixed the faucet, but they have left most of the house (namely the Black communities and families) in shambles, and they never admit it is their fault that the faucet does not work. They blame it on the neighbor for why their house is in shambles, even though the neighborhood did not attempt to help or fix anything in the Black communities. Jason and myself are coming as house inspectors and telling you what is wrong with the house and what caused it in the first place.
Tim Bankes II
Tim is a Christian author. His worldview that informs his writing is Calvinist, Baptist, and Libertarian. His main series is his Christian picture book series, "About God for Kids", where he discusses the attributes of God in a way kids can digest. He also wrote a Christian Romance novel, libertarian book for beginners, and Christian coloring books. He graduated with a Bachelor's in Biblical Studies from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
He has written a book on freedom called “Are You Free” (If you are into listening to books I have it in audio also, Are You Free Audiobook )and he has written multiple children’s books about God. Be Sure to check out the podcast version of the blog, Labor for Truth Podcast. And check out “The Truth About” YouTube Channel. You can find his works at his amazon author page, https://amazon.com/author/timbankes. He even has a free digital ebook on how God is the creator. Get your free copy today at, Greater Creator .Also If you are into Christian Fiction, he has made his first book in his Futuristic Christian Fiction series free, Her Dying Wish