Democrats play the race card
To hear Democrats tell it, racism is rampant and running unchecked in our country.
You’re a racist if you want existing immigration and election laws enforced. You’re a racist if you oppose slavery reparations. You’re a racist if you want a citizenship question on the census.
Every Democratic presidential hopeful has labeled Republicans in general and President Trump in particular as racist. Candidate Pete Buttigieg echoed his fellow candidates when he told National Public Radio, “Systemic racism is all around us. It’s the air we breathe.”
When everyone is accused of being subconsciously racist, calling someone a “racist” is no longer a meaningful accusation.
Most tellingly, racial discrimination has not been the biggest barrier to African-American progress for well over 40 years. Liberal black sociologist William Julius Wilson made a compelling case in his 1978 book “The Declining Significance of Race.”
Wilson acknowledged that past slavery and Jim Crow laws still contributed to inequality. Nonetheless, he wrote, “They do not provide a meaningful explanation of the life chances of black Americans today.”
Wilson and conservative African-American scholars Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell were attacked by liberals for daring to deviate from the Democratic identity politics narrative. Black Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been singled out for abuse more for failing his race than for his opinions.
Any thoughtful person realizes that racial discrimination still limits economic opportunities for people of color and that there are certifiable racists among us. But a substantial body of research shows that family structure is more important to black prospects than is white racism.
Kay S. Hymowitz wrote in a recent City Journal essay: “Family instability and fatherlessness collide with racial and economic disadvantage to create a negative feedback loop in black communities, hampering children’s potential and perpetuating racial inequality.”
Penn State demographer John Iceland’s research shows that “cultural shifts in attitudes toward marriage” are the most significant variable explaining the black-white affluence gap.
But for liberal politicians and activists, any explanation for racial inequality other than white racism is vehemently rejected. Buttigieg has been vilified by liberals for suggesting that black young men need more positive role models in their lives. Michelle Obama was likewise criticized for saying that “loving my family, loving our kids, taking care of things that I care about…will pick away at the scabs of our discrimination.”
Instead, Democrats have thrown tax dollars into ineffective poverty programs that create dependency and perpetuate inequality, opposing even work requirements for able-bodied single recipients without dependents. Then, in every election cycle, they tell their victims that their circumstances are due to racial bias and smear political opponents who disagree.
African-American columnist Jason Riley notes: “The irony is that liberals today are trying to help blacks by accommodating the kinds of aberrant behavior that a previous generation of black leaders understood to be counterproductive.”
This year, Democrats are having a hard time selling their economic blame game since the economy is firing on all cylinders. For people of color, incomes are higher and poverty rates are lower than they’ve ever been. So Democrats have turned to other old standbys like claiming blacks are being denied the vote.
Georgia’s recent gubernatorial election provided an ample — but counterfactual — opportunity for Democrats’ race-card politics. African-American Democrat Stacey Abrams lost a close contest to her Republican opponent, a white male.
Bernie Sanders claimed that Republican state officials suppressed black voter turnout and “cost the Democratic Party a governorship here in this state” by “denying black people, people of color, the right to vote.” The facts tell a different story.
Georgia’s African-American voter turnout increased 16.6 percentage points from the 2014 midterms; white voter turnout increased only 11.3 percentage points. Atlanta’s Fulton County is one of the most reliably Democratic in the country, and Abrams received 90 percent more votes there than did the Democrat four years earlier.
Columnist Riley reminds us: “Attitudes have changed. Behaviors have changed. American neighborhoods and schools and marriages are more integrated. We elected a black president twice, and he won several of the nation’s whitest states both times.”
Is racism still a factor for many blacks? Yes. Is racism so pervasive that aspiring African-Americans have little chance to improve themselves? No. Blacks have never had so many doors opened to them and many are taking advantage of the opportunities.
I’m disgusted when I see Democratic presidential hopefuls pandering for votes with demonstrably false claims about racism.
I’m with New York Times editorialist Mark Lilla who wrote, “One of the many lessons of the [2016] presidential election campaign…is that the age of identity liberalism must be brought to an end.”
The viewpoints expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Independent.
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There is a fundamental dishonesty to this op Ed. Just look to the third paragraph. Howard claims “Every Democratic presidential hopeful has labeled Republicans in general and President Trump in particular as racist”. He concludes with a Buttigieg quote that “Systemic racism is all around us. It’s the air we breathe.” Not only does the conclusion not support the above claim but it actually highlights how the author misrepresents the conversation about racism in general.
Citizens can support the president’s general policies without being racist. That is the difference between being personally racist and structural racism in general. Structural racism is the recognition that policy tends to disproportionately affect people of color even if individuals don’t have personal animus towards minorities. See unarmed black men experiencing disproportionate force from police officers; see Trump’s blatant attempts at a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”; see the inhumane detention of Latino central Americans at the southern border.
If the author is ill-informed on the subject he should spend more time educating himself before writing op Ed’s. If he understands the difference than this exposes a willingness to ignore key facts which an abhorrent exercise in dishonesty. I’ll let readers decide from their experience of reading his works.
Finally, a voice of reason from one of their editorials!
Paula is right on in her comment. I know it is an “opinion” piece, but the misinformation and omissions he makes are pretty obvious. Just read any other article by this guy and you’ll get a heaping dose of his own “facts”. People see what they want to see, real or not, and will twist their world view to fit that. But hey, that’s just my opinion.
The only “facts” I use are those provided by a number of well-respected authors and columnists. Are these direct quotes what you call “a heaping dose of [my] own facts.” Please enumerate my “misinformation and omissions” if you want your comment to be respected.
For folks who spend their time in the liberal “echo chamber,” systemic racism is what they hear and repeat. My column acknowledges that racism continues to be a factor but I agree with African-American scholars and columnists that it no longer is the dominant factor limiting black progress.