Thomas Sowell is one of the great social theorists of our age. In a career spanning more than a half century, he has written over thirty books, covering topics from economic history and social inequality to political theory, race, and culture.
Reality Check about the facts that the Social Justice Movement Ignores
13 “Spouting off before listening to the facts is both shameful and foolish. … 15 Intelligent people are always ready to learn. Their ears are open for knowledge. … 17 The first to speak in court sounds right–until the cross-examination begins” – Proverbs 18:13,15,17 NLT
The concise statements above give three basic principles for making sound decisions: (1) Get the facts before answering; (2) be open to new ideas; (3) make sure you hear both sides of a story before rendering an opinion. All three principles center around seeking additional information. This is difficult work, but the alternative is prejudice—judging before getting the facts.
Discretion Will Save Us From Deception
“Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you. 12 Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse,” – Proverbs 2:11-12 NIV
In a recent article titled:
White Privilege Isn’t Real, an uncomfortable look at the facts and the truth.
Look to April 8, 2021, by Legendary Diogenes which reveals some illuminating evidence of the real data about Blacks, Whites, the Police, and the courts in regard to crime, incarcerations, family demographics, abortions, and education.
Black vs. White Crime Statistics
The myth of white privilege says blacks are arrested and incarcerated at a higher rate due to systemic racism that exists in law enforcement and the courts. I believe, as the statistics bear out the problem, is the breakdown in the family unit and uneducated people who make bad choices are the causes of the problem.
According to the Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, in interracial violence involving blacks and whites, white perpetrators account for 15% of the cases while black perpetrators account for 85%. (Look to “Race/Ethnicity,” Bureau of Justice Statistics. In other words, far from there being an epidemic of whites hunting down innocent, unarmed black men, when it comes to interracial violence, black people are overwhelmingly more likely to victimize white people than the other way around.
This is also true when it comes to crimes against the police. A police officer is 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black assailant than an unarmed black man is to be killed by a cop. Look to Heather MacDonald, The War on Cops(New York, New York: Encounter Books, Kindle Edition, 2016, 79.
Blacks make up about 13% of the population according to the 2016 census by race, yet they commit 37% of violent crimes. One would think that at the most 13% of the crimes should be perpetrated by blacks. Many in the Social Justice Movement will say that the court system in the United States is guilty of systemic racism and bias and unfairly arrests and prosecutes blacks.
However, when you compare the UK which has approximately 2.8% of the population but commit 3 times the amount of their population, they committed crimes disproportionally higher than their percentage of the population.
Why are Blacks More Likely to Become Criminals?
There are many contributing factors, but it starts with black pregnancies, which create single-parent households that are more likely to live in a poverty or low-income situation. This low-income situation creates an environment that produces children who have a higher rate of dropping out of school, or are more likely to engage in criminal behavior. This creates a repeating cycle of low-income single parent households that remain uneducated and, therefore, more likely to commit crimes in the future.
The following quotes from Barack Obama, Jason Riley, Thomas Sowell, and Robert Higgs, are from a most profound book, Fault Lines, The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe, by Voddie T. Baucham Jr. In fact, this book is a must read for any serious follower of Christ who wishes to speak biblical truth and documented facts regarding the Social Justice Movement. Baucham supplies information that will aid in keeping the Church in America doctrinally pure.
“Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever, they sound like the truth” – Ephesians 4:14 NLT
I cannot put the book down! This is one book I will buy many copies to give to people of influence.
In June of 2008, then-Senator Barack Obama gave a Father’s Day message at the Apostolic Church in Chicago that today would be considered classic verbal violence on most university campuses, but he confirmed the reality of the above assessments.
“If we are honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that way too many fathers are also missing from too many homes. Men have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it. We know the statistics—that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and twenty times more likely to end up in prison. They are more likely to have behavioral problems, or run away from home, or become teenage parents themselves. And the foundation of our community is weaker because of it.
We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child—it’s the courage to raise one.” (Look to Obama’s Father’s Day Remarks,” New York Times, June 15, 2008)
Other prominent black scholars such as Jason L. Riley concurs. In his 2017 book, False Black Power? Riley argues economic success is a more important strategy for the empowerment of black people than dependence on political leadership. Riley refutes the false accusations of the CRT advocates that blacks have been impoverished and discriminated against because of slavery. Those attempting to blame fatherlessness, crime, and a lack of black achievement today on the legacy of slavery must account for the fact that one hundred years after slavery ended, blacks, according to many measures, were doing better than they have sixty years since the Civil Rights Act. Thomas Sowell notes, “As of 1960, two thirds of all black American children were living with both parents. That declined over the years, until only one-third were living with both parents in 1995. This was pronounced among families in poverty, where 85% of children had no father present. (Look to Thomas Sowell, Discrimination and Disparities, 180)
In fact, in Riley’s book, he references historian Robert Higgs, commenting on the astonishing feat of achieving black literacy in post-slavery black America, “For a large population to transform itself from virtually unlettered to more than half literate in 50 years ranks as an accomplishment seldom witnessed in human history.” (Look to False Black Power? New Templeton Press, Kindle Edition, 2017 page 48, (New Threats to Freedom Series) West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.
Systemic biases, or institutional racism, isn’t what’s creating this situation. Black men and women who are engaging in sexual activity, without using birth control, and getting pregnant are the people responsible for creating the problem. Black males and females create children, don’t get married, and the men in particular abandon their parental responsibilities. They are responsible for making a bad situation worse. Why should a single mother get married when government subsides can sustain her and, might I say, provide for her at the poverty level?
In typical direct language D’Souza summarizes the Great Societies benefits to African Americans.
We are offering up a living, but it’s going to be a pretty meager living. Basically, you get public housing, food stamps, retirement checks every month and medical care for the poor. If you have children, we will subsidize them, provided they are illegitimate. More than this we cannot offer you because we must make sure that you stay on the plantation. This means that we need you to remain dependent on us so that you keep voting for us. Your dependency is our insurance policy to make sure that this is an exchange, not a giveaway.” D’Souza, Death of a Nation, p. 193
Some will take umbrage (take offense or become angry) at Dinesh D’Souza’s assessment of his comparisons of the modern-day Democratic Plantation to slavery. However, he reveals how democratic policies have produced a whole sub-class of dependents on the centralized state. This form of enslavement took root under Franklin Delano Roosevelt and became the new form of control in the inner cities beginning in earnest with Lindon Baines Johnson’s “Great Society” for all Americans. For an informative treatment of the Democratic Planation please look to D’Souza’s book The Death of a Nation, pages 14-29.
Black and White Crime Statistics Conclusion
What Can We Do?
“2 Proclaim the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching. 3 For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will reject the truth and chase after myths. 5 But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you” – 2 Timothy 4:2-5 NLT
Most of our opportunities to speak up and speak into our conversations will take place in the brief encounters with people throughout the day. Learn to summarize your thoughts into concise, poignant statements. Below are some summary comments from the article I referenced White Privilege Isn’t Real, an uncomfortable look at the facts and the truth. Below, in some of the summary statements, I pose a question that you might ask people in your webs of relationships. This will take some intentional effort on your part to frame the conversations. I quote Proverbs 22:13 as it is applicable for each of us to not be sluggish in doing good, and not to be fearful of the obstacles that might be present when we do try.
“The sluggard says, “There’s a lion outside! I’ll be killed in the public square!” – Proverbs 22:13 NIV
- It’s an uncomfortable truth but blacks commit crimes at nearly three times the rate as whites do.
Question: proportionately, who do you think commits more crimes, Whites or Blacks?
- Blacks commit 36% of the violent crime in the US, even though they are only 13% of the population.
Question: Black people make up 13% of our population in the US. What percentage of crime do you think blacks commit?
- Blacks in England commit rates at nearly three times the rate of the rest of the population.
- The parity in black crime rates in the US, and black crime rates in the UK, prove that there is no systemic or institutional racial bias in the US, and that the judicial system is not “unfairly targeting blacks.”
Question: We hear consistently that the American judicial system is prejudice against blacks. Did you know that the in the UK 2.8% of the population is black and yet what percentage of crimes do you think black people commit in the UK?
- The cycle of black crime begins with the breakdown of family values that has 72% of black pregnancies creating low-income single parent households.
Question: What do you think is the number one reason for the proportionally higher crime rates among blacks?
Now you take a stab at posing a question for the following statements.
- Black children growing up in single-parent, low-income situations are likely to repeat this cycle unless they raise children in a married, two-parent household with more stability.
- Systemic racism isn’t creating a system which unfairly arrests and prosecutes blacks, the black parents making bad life choices are creating situations that increase the likelihood of bad outcomes happening, are actually responsible.
- Systemic racism isn’t real and isn’t responsible for blacks committing more crimes, black adults making poor life choices are the ones responsible.
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” – Galatians 6:9 NIV
In Christ,
Dale