"How to Be an Anti-Intellectual"

By artappraiser on Sun, 10/27/2019 - 9:36pm |

My review of Ibram X. Kendi's book "How to Be an Antiracist" for @CityJournal https://t.co/DCnOxntj90
— Coleman Hughes (@coldxman) October 28, 2019

URL:

https://www.city-journal.org/how-to-be-an-antiracist

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Racist.

by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 10/27/2019 - 10:07pm

Coleman Hughes says that Kendi's numbers on Reagan are wrong, but:

During Reagan’s full term -- January 1981 to January 1989 -- black unemployment fell from 14.6 percent to 11.8 percent. That’s a decline of 2.8 percentage points, or 19 percent. That’s close to what the meme said.

But during Obama’s first five years -- January 2009 to January 2014 -- black unemployment didn’t rise at all, which is what the meme said. Rather, it fell from 12.7 percent to 12.1 -- a decline of 0.6 percentage points, or about 5 percent. The meme’s claim of a 42 percent increase is way off.

Now let’s look at the first five years of each presidency -- a more reasonable comparison to make.

During Reagan’s first five years -- January 1981 to January 1986 -- black unemployment fell from 14.6 percent to 14.5 percent. That’s a decline of 0.1 percentage point, or less than a 1 percent decrease. This is a lot less impressive than the meme’s favored eight-year decline of 20 percent. It’s also less impressive than the 5 percent decline during Obama’s first five years.

If we instead look at Obama’s entire term to date -- January 2009 to April 2015 -- black unemployment fell from 12.7 percent to 9.6 percent. That’s down 3.1 percentage points, or a decrease of 24 percent. That’s a more impressive decline than under Reagan’s entire term.

There are also other ways to compare the two presidents’ records on black unemployment.

• The black unemployment rate peaked at 21.2 percent under Reagan in January 1983, but the peak under Obama was significantly lower -- 16.8 percent in March 2010.

• The low point for black unemployment under Reagan was 11 percent, reached twice in 1988. The low point under Obama is 9.6 percent, which is the current rate. That’s lower than the lowest point under Reagan.

• Under Reagan, black unemployment exceeded its worst level under Obama -- 16.8 percent -- for 26 consecutive months, or more than two years straight

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/may/22/facebook-posts/was-ronald-reagans-record-black-unemployment-bette/

There was a decline, but there was also periods of peak unemployment, rising to over 20%.

Also

During Reagan’s last year in office the African American poverty rate stood at 31.6%, as opposed to 10.1% for whites. Black unemployment remained double that of whites throughout the decade. By 1990, the median income for black families was $21,423, 42% below white households. The Reagan administration did little to address such disparities and in many ways intensified them.

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/ushistory2ay/chapter/african-american-life-in-reagans-america-2/

Edit to add:

I only have the book in Audible, so it is difficult to search the context Kendi uses to describe the increase under Reagan.

by rmrd0000 on Mon, 10/28/2019 - 10:37am

Hughes has one article that shows that companies fought alongside African Americans out of capitalistic inferests while neglecting instances where the transit companies enforced segregation willingly

Richmond

The segregation of public transportation had a long history in Virginia. During Reconstruction there were some horse-drawn streetcars that were exclusive to whites, but by the mid-1870s black and white passengers probably sat were they pleased. After electric streetcars were introduced to Richmond in the 1880s, segregated seating became a hotly contested topic. In January 1904, nearly a decade after the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson declared that substantially equal segregated seating on railroads did not deprive African Americans of the equal protection of the laws, the Virginia General Assembly passed an “Act Concerning Public Transportation,” with little fanfare or public debate, creating legislation which allowed, but did not require segregation on streetcars. On April 1, 1904, the Virginia Passenger and Power Company made an announcement that the rules for segregation would be enforced later that month on electric street cars in Richmond.

The new legislation allowed transit companies to set aside and designate certain seats for members of either race. The authority to make this designation was given to the conductor, who was to change the number of seats allocated to either race as the racial makeup of the streetcar changed. This makeup would constantly change as the streetcar moved back and forth through the various sections of the city, thereby empowering the conductor to have a passenger change seats as often as he thought necessary. A history of mistrust and violence already existed between the African American community and the streetcar conductors, especially after a near lynching in 1902. The newly granted police powers for the conductors did nothing to ease the minds of the African American community.

http://edu.lva.virginia.gov/online_classroom/shaping_the_constitution/doc/streetcar

Philadelphia

When it opened in June 1863, Camp William Penn was of deep and abiding interest to black Philadelphians, as it was the first dedicated training camp for the United States Colored Troops. Between 1863 and 1865, Camp William Penn trained eleven regiments. The camp was a busy place, then, bustling with the coming and going of more than 11,000 men and all the food, clothing, and supplies that they needed to ready themselves for deployment. Their friends and family were keen not only to help meet these needs but also to come see the men off when they left to the battlefields of the South. And, when the men returned wounded or ill, their mothers, fathers, and siblings were eager to visit them as they convalesced, either at the camp or at one of a number of hospitals in and around Philadelphia.

But there was a problem. None of the city’s eight horse-drawn street-car companies allowed black passengers to ride on an equal basis as whites. On some lines, black passengers had to ride standing up in the front of the car behind the horse, and on others, the friends and family of the colored troops had to wait for a “colored car” to be carried to their destination. This situation may have been tolerable before the war, but as the war progressed and more black men enlisted in the army, Philadelphians of color could no longer accept that while their husbands and sons were good enough to die on the war’s battlefields, they could not ride in the city’s street cars. So if a mother visited a USCT at Camp William Penn, she either waited for the segregated car or hired a private coach at considerable expense. Those who tried to board the white-only cars were often violently removed from their seats and thrown from the cars. The situation had become intolerable.

https://exhibits.library.villanova.edu/institute-colored-youth/community-moments/street-car-desegregation

Women were beaten for disobeying the rules. In most situations, capitalism did not come to the rescue.

by rmrd0000 on Mon, 10/28/2019 - 11:17am

"How to Be an Anti-Intellectual"

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