How black Americans were on the rise before
affirmative action, author Jason Riley
explains in fascinating new book
New York Post,
by
Kelly Jane Torrance
Original Article
Posted By: 4250Luis,
5/7/2025 4:55:23 PM
Jason Riley makes his living by his pen — and wastes no ink or time mincing words.
“There’s a lot of intellectual cowardice going on in the country right now, and it’s a product, I think, of the ascendance of progressivism,” he tells The Post in an interview about his new book, “The Affirmative Action Myth: Why Blacks Don’t Need Racial Preferences to Succeed.”
The book’s title alone is sure to spur debate. Its author, a Wall Street Journal columnist and Manhattan Institute senior fellow, is somewhat bemused by his position as a provocateur.
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
FLCracker 5/7/2025 5:24:13 PM (No. 1946668)
"Why Blacks Don’t Need Racial Preferences to Succeed" goes to prove that the whole "which race is superior" thing is Nurture, not Nature. In other words, Blacks don't need middle-aged, condescending White folks to help them. They need them to get out of the way.
35 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
chagrined 5/7/2025 7:07:11 PM (No. 1946709)
Ummm, I'm a little confused. Didn't Thomas Sowell write about this exact same thing roughly 30 years ago? SMDH
32 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
DVC 5/7/2025 8:35:33 PM (No. 1946739)
Ask Thomas Sowell, and Walter Williams would agree, but is not able to answer.
21 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
seamusm 5/7/2025 9:19:22 PM (No. 1946753)
So we now have multiple generations - mostly Black - who have been harmed by affirmative action. Single parent families, fatherless boys, rampant criminality, drug addled citizens. God alone is able to reverse this and heal our nation.
21 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
JimBob 5/7/2025 10:26:28 PM (No. 1946759)
Thomas Sowell wrote on this- I read his book Basic Economics. In the book, he states that economic freedom and the rate of intact families are the large determinants of economic success. Economic freedom for a society as a whole, and an intact family as an indicator of family financial success. He stated that before the 1960's 'Great Society' welfare state, black people had a higher rate of intact families than white people, and were gaining on the white people regarding family economic success.
We have all seen what happened thanks to the Welfare State..... a large percentage of single mothers, fatherless boys turning to crime and gangs, the collapse of the large Democ'RAT run cities.
22 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
kiwikit 5/8/2025 5:32:06 AM (No. 1946796)
Jason wrote a biography of Thomas Sowell who was another proponent of blacks doing better without affirmative action.
Did he give credit to Thomas in this new book? I've not read it yet but am looking forward to it.
4 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Krause 5/8/2025 6:40:41 AM (No. 1946814)
Being born in the USA, and having good parents, can make it fairly easy to become successful in life.
12 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
janjan 5/8/2025 6:56:57 AM (No. 1946817)
People live the lives they choose. If you want to be segregated and claim life long victim status have at it. I’m over it.
9 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Venturer 5/8/2025 8:06:15 AM (No. 1946845)
Affirmative Action placed many people in job they were not qualified for.
Then the jobs became overloaded with Affirmative Action employees and the job stopped being done properly.
That my friends is where our Government stands today the Deep State.
5 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
crashnburn 5/8/2025 8:53:56 AM (No. 1946867)
When black leaders got into power, they did not take their eyes off economic achievement for their constituency, they never had their eyes on it. They had their eyes on maintaining their power, and the easiest way they could was to put blacks on plantations of government dependency and keep them there. So far, it's working out great for the politicians, not so much for their constituents.
6 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Zigrid 5/8/2025 10:16:17 AM (No. 1946909)
Hooray...someone get's it....I grew up in the 50's and had many black friends at my schools...they had their neighborhood and I had mine...where I lived in concert with my natural country origin....Sweden...so I lived in comfort with people racial like me and my family....I learned about blacks which were called negro ....an acceptable "N" word....was there racism...I'm sure there was...but the negros were thriving and I learned from my black friend George how to dance the chicken....and ate lunch with Lorraine-a...WE all got along.... then the democrats figured out a plan how to get the black vote...and the rest is now history....
7 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
chumley 5/8/2025 11:11:01 AM (No. 1946949)
I was asked to join a trap shooting team way back when. I wasn't very good and they gave me a handicap; an artificial boost in the scores. I never did get good and only lasted one season. Being the affirmative action shooter didnt set well with me. I'd rather lose on my own merits than win by cheating.
4 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
bpl40 5/8/2025 11:31:22 AM (No. 1946963)
Beside handicapping Blacks for the rest of their lives Affirmative Action does irreparable harm to the rest of society. America is the land of equal opportunity. AA turns us into a society chasing desired outcomes - destroying equality. In the long run this is a fatal blow to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
4 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Ida Lou Pino 5/8/2025 1:04:12 PM (No. 1947004)
Thomas Sowell exposed this - - brilliantly - - many decades ago.
I commend Jason Riley - - but he's standing in the shoes of a giant. I hope he acknowledged that.
Long live Dr. Sowell
4 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Strike3 5/8/2025 2:21:03 PM (No. 1947042)
Before Affirmative Action, successful and ambitious blacks rose to the top naturally, like creme in a bottle of milk. When people rise up without having put forth any effort, they never get better. That's when mediocrity takes hold.
3 people like this.
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