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Black Rednecks & White Liberals

4.19 of 5 stars 4.19 · rating details · 594 ratings · 74 reviews

This book presents the kind of eye-opening insights into the history and culture of race for which Sowell has become famous. As late as the 1940s and 1950s, he argues, poor Southern rednecks were regarded by Northern employers and law enforcement officials as lazy, lawless, and sexually immoral. This pattern was repeated by blacks with whom they shared a subculture in the...more

Hardcover, 372 pages

Published June 1st 2005 by Encounter Books

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Jan 09, 2013 Vannessagrace Vannessagrace rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

It’s not often that a reader opens a work of non-fiction and the words written on the first page has such an impact that it smacks the reader so hard the reader has to rub his/her cheek to soothe the blow.

This is the impact I felt with Black Rednecks and White Liberals. The first page drew me in and made it a challenge not to call work and say I wouldn’t be in because I didn’t want to put the book down.

What I liked about Black Rednecks and White Liberals is that it reinforced what I already knew

...more

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Dec 09, 2008 Seth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Fantastic approach to race and discrimination. I enjoyed his research about the roots of "redneck culture" originating in Scotland and other fringe areas of the Brittish Empire.

I thought the views on "middle-men minorities" and "segregated schools" were especially insightful. He approaches every topic with a balanced yet incisive perspective.

For example, he forgives Washington's slave ownership. He reminds us that men of fortune during the colonial period viewed their family fortunes as someth...more Fantastic approach to race and discrimination. I enjoyed his research about the roots of "redneck culture" originating in Scotland and other fringe areas of the Brittish Empire.

I thought the views on "middle-men minorities" and "segregated schools" were especially insightful. He approaches every topic with a balanced yet incisive perspective.

For example, he forgives Washington's slave ownership. He reminds us that men of fortune during the colonial period viewed their family fortunes as something to preserve and to be passed down to others. Washington viewed his role as a steward and not as an owner of his property (implying that he wasn't at liberty to free his slaves because they were not his to free but his entire family's). Washington freed his slaves in his will because there were no heirs to his estate, thus, releasing Washington from the responsibility of preserving it. Washington thoroughly explained in the will how his slaves would be supported by the estate. Some of his slaves were supported for decades after Washington's death.

He makes a similar defense for Jefferson. He dismisses any historical perspective that pretends the "west" is the originator of evils such as slavery, violence, and conquest. He compares the "west's" treatment of slaves to the "east's" and finds middle eastern and Asian countries less civil and more barbaric in regards to slavery, racism, and conquests. He persuasively argues that had it not been for the West's views of freedom and moral objections to slavery then the rest of the world would never have seen a problem with it. The uniqueness of the West is in the fact that they globally abolished it even when the rest of the world resisted.

Sowell is smart, hard hitting, honest, and freshly independent. His approach to black school's and western slavery will fascinate you. His essays on German culture are especially rewarding. The fact that he is black gives him a certain level of freedom in his criticism of black culture and liberal correctness that makes this book one of a kind.(less)

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Jan 09, 2013 Anthony rated it 4 of 5 stars

I would've made this book a five star, but found that some of the opening essays regarding crackers and the history of northern England dragged a bit.
What picked up this books for me where the essays on the history of African-American education in the United States, the history of middle man racism (racism against those who play a middle-man role in society) and the history of Germany and the impacts of Nazism of people's attitudes towards the German people.
Picking one of these in particular, mi...more

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Dec 13, 2007 Nicko rated it 4 of 5 stars

That Thomas Sowell hasn't yet won the Nobel Prize for Economic Science reflects more poorly upon the economics profession's infatuation with mathematical formulas than upon Sowell's lifetime achievement. Personally, I've learned more from Sowell than from any other living economist, with the possible exception of his old teacher, Milton Friedman.

For example, in "Are Jews Generic?" Sowell outlines the tendency of the masses to persecute "middle-man minorities" such as Jews, Armenians, and the Ov...more

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Nov 16, 2008 Danelley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Adam was telling me about this book, and about the amazing man that is Thomas Sowell. Read his bio -- he's led a very interesting life. It's interesting that many of the "undesirable" qualities of the South, e.g. working to feed the family when needed, rather than having a steady work ethic and income, may have come from original settlers from wilder areas like Ulstead County, Ireland, and Wales, and Northern Scotland, where many of my ancestors are from! (Back in the 17th-18th centuries, they w...more

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Dec 18, 2011 Frederick Glaysher rated it 5 of 5 stars

Thomas Sowell. Black Rednecks. White Liberals. MCRI[return]November 28th, 2006[return][return]Thomas Sowell, Black Rednecks and White Liberals. Encounter Books, 2005.[return][return]Black RednecksThe approval by voters of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative corroborates Thomas Sowell’s observation in his Preface to the book, referring to “a growing willingness to consider views that differ from the racial orthodoxy that has prevailed largely unchallenged from the 1960s onward in intellectual ci...more Thomas Sowell. Black Rednecks. White Liberals. MCRI[return]November 28th, 2006[return][return]Thomas Sowell, Black Rednecks and White Liberals. Encounter Books, 2005.[return][return]Black RednecksThe approval by voters of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative corroborates Thomas Sowell’s observation in his Preface to the book, referring to “a growing willingness to consider views that differ from the racial orthodoxy that has prevailed largely unchallenged from the 1960s onward in intellectual circles and in the popular media.” The education, government, business, and media elites of Michigan all banded together to hammer into the population the same old tiresome racial orthodoxy, to no avail. The people had had over forty years of it, experienced it in lived life, and would have no more of it. By an overwhelming fifty-eight percent, they voted to change direction, try something different from the orthodoxy of the liberal elites. Thomas Sowell’s book Black Rednecks and White Liberals suggests further lines for reconsideration and change.[return][return]In this context, I believe the most interesting essays in the book are “The Real History of Slavery” and “Black Education: Achievements, Myths and Tragedies.” Rejecting the Kunte Kinte view of slavery found in Alex Haley’s Roots, Sowell emphasizes that slavery was a worldwide phenomenon practiced by virtually all peoples and nations, not at all exclusively by white Western nations. Sowell perceives why the contemporary discussion of slavery is usually so distorted:[return][return] “Why would anyone wish to arbitrarily understate an evil that plagued mankind for thousands of years, unless it was not this evil itself that was the real concern, but rather the present-day uses of that historic evil? Clearly, the ability to score ideological points against American society or Western civilization, or to induce guilt and thereby extract benefits from the white population today, are greatly enhanced by making enslavement appear to be a peculiarly American, or a peculiarly white, crime” (111).[return][return]All of this feeds directly into the radical politics of affirmative action racial preferences. It skews our understanding of the real historical evils of slavery and substitutes emotional Hollywood distortions for the complexity of human experience.[return][return]Narrowing the history of slavery from the long record reaching back over three thousands years, in Europe, Africa, China, India, every region of the world, it was nevertheless only the Western world that developed moral compunctions against slavery and launched a “bitter worldwide struggle, which lasted more than a century, to destroy the elaborate systems and institutions for the ownership and sale of human beings” (114). Of particular interest is Sowell’s discussion of slavery under Islamic societies, in North Africa and elsewhere, which enslaved far more people than were ever brought to the Western hemisphere. Cervantes in Don Quixote has an incredible account of his five-year enslavement after the battle of Lepanto in 1571. Sowell’s discussion throws interesting light on the conditions to which European and African slaves found themselves subjected. Many millions of Europeans and Africans were enslaved over the centuries in Islamic countries, facts that ought to be studied much more after 9/11.[return][return]Similarly, Sowell emphasizes it was black tribal leaders who practiced slavery “before, during, and after the white man arrived” (120). Connecting the real history of slavery with its distorted uses by those who today want to fight for racial spoils, Sowell writes,[return][return] “Yet what was peculiar about the West was not that it participated in the worldwide evil of slavery, but that it later abolished that evil, not only in Western societies but also in other societies subject to Western control or influence. This was possible only because the anti-slavery movement coincided with an era in which Western power and hegemony were at their zenith, so that it was essentially European imperialism which ended slavery. This idea might seem shocking, not because it does not fit the facts, but because it does not fit the prevailing vision of our time” (134-135).[return][return]Visions hang on beyond their time, beyond their usefulness, such has been the case with racial preferences, which are predicated on a distorted sense of actual historical slavery. By addressing the real history of slavery, Sowell restores the proper perspective needed to come to terms with the complexity of American slavery and the perspective needed to find new ways to work together today. He observes at one point “Africans did not treat Europeans any better than Europeans treated Africans. Neither can be exempted from moral condemnation applied to the other” (139). If Michigan is seeking a new understanding of equality, one place to begin might be to realize, as Sowell says elsewhere, the prevailing vision of slavery of the “morally self-anointed” is wrong. To find a new future, we must recognize our understanding of the past is flawed, reconsider its complexity, understand no one is blameless, and move forward together.[return][return]In “Black Education: Achievements, Myths and Tragedies,” Sowell reconsiders the prevailing vision of the actual history of black education and demonstrates that it too is much different from the skewed account so many politically motivated radicals and liberals use to justify failed educational programs and policies:[return][return] “The quest for esoteric methods of trying to educate black children proceeds as if such children had never been successfully educated before, when in fact there are concrete examples, both from history and from our own times, of schools that have been successful in educating black children, including those from low-income families. Yet the prevailing educational dogma is that you simply cannot expect children who are not middle class to do well on standardized tests, for all sorts of sociological and psychological reasons” (203).[return][return]Sowell further states that this dogma is false for both black and other minority children and discusses a number of outstanding schools reaching from after the Civil War to the present, such as the M Street School, later to become known as Dunbar High School in Washington, DC.[return][return]After a long survey of these and other schools, Sowell writes,[return][return] “What the record of successful minority schools shows, both in history and among contemporary schools, is that educational achievement is not foredoomed by economic or social circumstances beyond the school grounds, as the education establishment constantly strives to prove. Poverty, broken homes, and unruly environments are not to be ignored, downplayed or apologized for. But neither are the failings of others proof that the education establishment is doing its job right. Perfect students with perfect parents in a perfect society cannot learn things that they are not being taught–and that includes an increasing number of basic things in our public schools” (217).[return][return]While the howls of protest to this passage might be the usual ones from the education establishment, I would argue his stress on working with students where they are and expecting “work and discipline” (221) from them is a no-nonsense approach that ought to be tried more often than not, instead of the latest pitying, enabling, undermining educational theory that asks little or nothing of kids and gets little or nothing in return. Higher expectations of their families, whether single parent or not, ought to play a part, though Sowell dismisses the idea that without parental involvement there is no hope for the child, insisting that the individual student can take charge of his or her life and achieve despite the family situation.[return][return]Excoriating the victimhood approach to education, Sowell laments that “the history of successful black schools has attracted virtually no interest from either historians or educators. That history does not advance any contemporary political agenda, though it might help advance the education of a whole generation of black students” (225). Far from blaming all educational problems of black students on racism, the usual liberal scapegoat, Sowell has no patience with such facile excuses and lays the blame squarely on the students themselves: “By and large, black students do not work as hard as white students, much less Asian students” (228). He goes on to blame a culture of non-achievement, comparing it to red-neck and lower-class whites and Asians who suffer from “the same counterproductive attitudes toward education” which are “just as self-defeating.” Failure is not restricted to any particular pigmentation or race, nor are the real reasons for such failure always unique to any particular race.[return][return]In a fine section of this chapter on education, Sowell highlights the views of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois, documenting that their attitudes on educational expectations and other matters were much closer than the common politicized opinion today would have it. The necessary resources and exemplary individuals run rife throughout black history and experience. I would argue what is needed is for more people to hear and respect such scholars as Thomas Sowell, learn from them, and work together to chart a new path together into the future.[return][return]In his conclusion Sowell essentially challenges educational leaders and students “to work harder and abandon the counterproductive notion that seeking educational excellence is ‘acting white’” (244). He ends his essay on black education in a way that calls to mind Bill Cosby’s recent addresses wherein Cosby has said more studies are not needed. The problems are known. The black community is in crisis and needs to take action:[return][return] “Despite the heartening achievements of some black schools, which have repeatedly demonstrated what is possible even with children from low-income backgrounds, the general picture of the education of black students is bleak. Much of what is said–and not said–about the education of black students reflects the political context, rather than the educational facts. Whites walk on eggshells for fear of being called racists, while many blacks are preoccupied with protecting the image of black students, rather than protecting their future by telling the blunt truth. It is understandable that some people are concerned about image, about what in private life might be expressed as: “What will the neighbors think?” But, when your children are dying, you don’t worry about what the neighbors think” (245).[return][return]Though bleak, attitudes are changing, will continue to change, will, as Ward Connerly has remarked, take time to change, creating a new climate of expectations and performance, on all sides. The passage of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) registers such change. Neighbors of goodwill do exist, are distressed, worried, and concerned, willing to help, where they can, if allowed. It needs to be said much more often that 14% of black voters approved the proposal. They are people who want much of what Sowell discusses in terms of education for their children and community. These two essays ought to be read by anyone serious about assessing where we are after the passage of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, and where, together, we are all going from here.[return][return]Frederick Glaysher [return]http://www.fglaysher.com (less)

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Nov 02, 2010 Void lon iXaarii rated it 4 of 5 stars

I tend to follow experts in their fields... which often doesn't translate to other fields, as many people successful in one field turn out to be not that knowledgeable or skilled in another. Thomas Sowell is, for me, one of the few exceptions i know of. I Started reading his books because of his economics knowledge but i can so relate to his way of viewing the world that I can't stop following his books even when they're not directly in the field. Why? Because unlike many others he doesn't take...more

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Mar 12, 2010 Don Fox rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow, what an achievement. Though a more accurate title might have been "Essays in Ethnology", "Black Rednecks and White Liberals" consists of six amazing essays, which collectively constitute the best book I've ever read. Every page presents startling, important, and little known facts that are apparently little known because they contradict the prevailing narrative about race and ethnicity. Did you know, for example, that:

* "...labor force participation rates were higher among non-whites than a...more

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Apr 28, 2013 Andy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This can be a good conversation starter, but it has flaws.

The biggest disappointment is a lack of evidence-based recommendations for what will work here and now. Sowell makes a really big deal about evidence, so that is a fair expectation. He praises KIPP schools, but KIPP so far has failed in the long-term despite impressive isolated short-term results. He doesn't talk at all about the experience of the schools in Raleigh, North Carolina, which as far as I know is the one example of an entire...more This can be a good conversation starter, but it has flaws.

The biggest disappointment is a lack of evidence-based recommendations for what will work here and now. Sowell makes a really big deal about evidence, so that is a fair expectation. He praises KIPP schools, but KIPP so far has failed in the long-term despite impressive isolated short-term results. He doesn't talk at all about the experience of the schools in Raleigh, North Carolina, which as far as I know is the one example of an entire American metropolitan area with children succeeding: see Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Schools in Raleigh . I would have liked much more about that and other programs that actually work.

One of the main excuses he brings up over and over for why whites in the South wouldn't end slavery is that they were afraid of a race war because of the rebellion on Santo Domingo (Haiti). What he never clarifies is that those slaves had been liberated previously by the republic founded in the French Revolution and were then re-enslaved by Napoleon a few years later. That's a rather important detail . (A captivating recent book about this is The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo). The relevant part of the story for the white Americans' fear of race war is what happened after the initial emancipation. Did the newly freed blacks kill the whites? No. So the story of Santo Domingo is actually not a legitimate excuse for fear of race war, and could be used more accurately to make the opposite point!

The story of the emancipation by the French Revolution is completely absent from the book, despite the fact that it occurred well before the later action by the British Empire, which does get a lot of attention from Sowell. Of course this factual history does not fit with Sowell's ideology since it would mean giving credit to leftist secularists instead of to the "religious right."

One of the main points of the book is that black people in America mainly jumped in prosperity before the Civil Rights Act, not after, and the implication of that is that government programs don't help. The problem is that there are many factors involved and you have to control for them to say something meaningful. In the years from 1945 to 1965, middle-class prosperity overall in America jumped a lot, much of that on the strength of government policies designed to increase middle class prosperity. Did the prosperity of black people jump less, the same, or more than that of other people during this time? That, for starters, would be very important to know for the argument.

The book goes off on a tangent about German anti-semitism. Sowell quotes Hitler as saying that if Jews didn't exist, he would have had to invent them. I can't find a source verifying where Hitler said this. It seems hard to believe. I think the actual quote is from Sartre's "Reflections on the Jewish Question" where he writes that If the Jew did not exist, the anti-semite would invent him. I don't think the German stuff matters too much for the main topic, but this indicates the kind of weak scholarship Sowell criticizes in his opponents.

It seems that Sowell is more interested in scoring political points than in giving the reader a full picture. It's nice as Sowell advertises, to look at facts, and to test conventional wisdom. It's OK to accuse opponents of cherry-picking facts and misquoting , etc. but then you have to avoid doing that yourself. People need to understand that this is a political opinion book, not serious history. I think that is clear enough from the title, etc. but then it is annoying how much Sowell trumpets his own supposed thoroughness and objectivity.

I think the book would have been much more powerful if he had stuck to the idea of cultures of failure/success and dug deeper into how you move from one to the other. (less)

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Jan 28, 2011 Fred R rated it 4 of 5 stars

An excellent book. He often makes points that, with less intelligence or support, I had been groping my way towards. Occasionally he dips into the bad Thomas of his political columns, where he seems more concerned about making meaningless partisan points than anything else. Moreover, some of the essays are more concerned about attacking certain popular misconceptions than really advancing our understanding. I can't particularly fault him for this, given how prevalent these misconceptions are, bu...more

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Dec 27, 2012 Kent rated it 3 of 5 stars

The three star rating surprised me. On first opening this book I would have guessed a solid four stars. But while Sowell easily demolishes many left-wing truisms on race and culture in America, the closer he approaches to constructive suggestions or prescriptive implications, the more deficient his reasoning proves.

In the first (eponymous) essay, Sowell takes on the notion that the modern development of "ghetto" culture among blacks is somehow "true" black culture, and that even the violence an...more The three star rating surprised me. On first opening this book I would have guessed a solid four stars. But while Sowell easily demolishes many left-wing truisms on race and culture in America, the closer he approaches to constructive suggestions or prescriptive implications, the more deficient his reasoning proves.

In the first (eponymous) essay, Sowell takes on the notion that the modern development of "ghetto" culture among blacks is somehow "true" black culture, and that even the violence and promiscuity it glorifies ought to be embraced, or at least somehow "appreciated", by those who wish to remain authentically African.

Sowell endeavors to show, instead, that these attitudes are not ethnically African, but instead originated in the lawless culture of the "Celtic fringe" of the British Isles, which emigrated to the backwoods of the American South and there exerted a dominant influence on the development of American black culture. He cites many instances of similarities in contemporary descriptions of the "Celtic fringe," Southern rednecks, and Southern blacks who emigrated north in the early twentieth century. In isolated enclaves throughout New England, indeed, there were communities of blacks known for their educational attainments, industry, and thrift--not only the opposite of the "true African" ghetto culture promoted by (mostly white) liberals today, but also the opposite of the Scots-derived redneck culture of both whites and blacks in the South.

Sowell concludes from these examples that modern black ghetto culture is the direct child of Southern redneck culture, and as such ought to be rejected by blacks as an utterly failed and destructive culture. His prescription is for American blacks to turn their backs on their Southern/ghetto roots and embrace the examples of the New England enclaves.

Like I said, much foolishness is put to rest by Sowell's reasoning and statistics, and much that is constructive could be derived from recovering a basic factuality in our understanding of black history in America. But as you might have suspected from my summary above, his counter-solution is infected with some taint of ideology of his own, and his history is a little too black-and-white to be quite judicious. For one thing, he allows absolutely no virtue for the Southern redneck culture that he argues has influenced black culture. As far as he is concerned in this essay, blacks learned only three things from their time in the South: dissipation, promiscuity, and violence. In contrast, the small enclaves of antebellum blacks influenced by New England culture learned the values of industry, education, and frugality. The history of the North proves that New England culture is successful; the history of the South proves that redneck culture is a destructive failure.

Before opening this book, I too was convinced that (real) black culture is an easily-recognized subset of Southern culture. Unlike Sowell, however, I don't think the answer for blacks lies in the rejection of their historic culture and the embracing of a peculiar, ex-Puritan, Anglo-Saxon subculture centered around commerce and technology (these are the statistical categories Sowell appeals to most often as self-evident examples of the success of New England culture). To magnify and promote New England culture as the correct path to success for blacks, it would seem that Sowell has to ignore most of the real contributions of American blacks--not so much managerial or commercial as oratorical, musical, culinary, agricultural, athletic, or poetical (contributions also typical of the rednecks and Celts Sowell links to traditional American black culture).

It seems snobbish of Sowell to take for granted the superiority of the one over the other. And more problematic than snobbery is implicit axiology Sowell reveals in his assumption that the superiority is self-evident. Rather than identifying redneck culture as exclusively destructive, and urging blacks to abandon it, why not take a broader view, acknowledge the good as well the evil, call them to re-embrace the best of their roots and stop chasing the twin dead-ends of ghetto culture on the one hand, or a sterile technocratic life on the other? Whatever Sowell accomplishes in the service of truth and pointing the way forward, at bottom he seems to buy into the same philosophy as the white liberals he castigates for mismanaging and destroying the possibilities of racial reconciliation and progress.(less)

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Apr 13, 2010 Longanlon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Образът на типичния американски чернокож е добре познат на всички от телевизията и киното (а на американците е добре познат от улиците). Характерният диалектен говор, предизвикателното държание, обилната бижутерия и изобщо крещящ кич в облеклото и поведението…

Всичко това е характерно само за определен тип хора – по-голямата част от бедните чернокожи, живеещи в градските гета – но въпреки това, в последните десетилетния именно то се представя като “автентичната черна култура” на САЩ, произлизаща...more Образът на типичния американски чернокож е добре познат на всички от телевизията и киното (а на американците е добре познат от улиците). Характерният диалектен говор, предизвикателното държание, обилната бижутерия и изобщо крещящ кич в облеклото и поведението…

Всичко това е характерно само за определен тип хора – по-голямата част от бедните чернокожи, живеещи в градските гета – но въпреки това, в последните десетилетния именно то се представя като “автентичната черна култура” на САЩ, произлизаща от африканските корени на американските чернокожи. Едва ли не, само този вид чернокожи са “истинските” чернокожи, а останалите, нормалните човешки същества с образование и работа, само се правят на бели (acting white).

Бедността и престъпното поведение на гето-чернокожите пък, в модерния политически коректен свят, се дължат на робството и дискриминацията, а не на начина на живот и ценностите на тези хора.

Черният академичен изследовател Томас Соуъл обаче има някои сериозни възражения относно всички тези схващания.

В серия от 6 големи есета, в книгата си наречена “Черни селяндури и бели либерали”, той доказва как това, което в момента бива наричано “черна култура” всъщност няма нищо общо с Африка или чернокожите, а е запазената култура на американския Юг, която пък е привнесена преди повече от 300 г. от размирните райони по границите на Англия с Шотландия и Ирландия чрез масовата емиграция на хора от там – където вече отдавна е изчезнала.

Типичните за гето-чернокожите днес езикови конструкции и говор (използването на I be и He ain’t, вместо I am и He isn’t и много други), любовта към показност и кич в държание и облекло, лесно наранимата гордост и агресивността – всички тези белези са характерни точно за уелсците и ирландците от английските гранични области, а по-късно за големи части от южните щати, където огромната част от черните роби са живеели и където те са попили тази култура.

Тази “култура на гордостта”, както я наричат други автори, забелязали сходството и историческите й корени, има и други черти, особено важни в икономически и социален смисъл – приемане на предприемачеството, упоритата работа и образованието като маловажни дейности, под достойнството на истинския мъж, силно маскулинизиране на обществените отношения и силна обективизация на жените и т.н.

Всички тези характерности, в исторически библиографски план, са описвани многократно от автори, говорещи за белите южняци на САЩ – за техния мързел, нежелание да се развиват, склонност да инвестират доходите си в символи на статуса (скъпи дрехи, бижута), за провлачения им говор, популистичните и емоционални политици и проповедници на юга. Сравнението със сегашните гето-чернокожи е фрапиращо.

Накратко – робството и дискриминацията ли са виновни за сегашното незавидно икономическо и социално положение на голяма част от чернокожите в САЩ? Безспорно те имат голяма вина. Но с направените от автора описание на други култури със сходни проблеми, но много различни крайни резултати, чрез подробен анализ на робството като институция по света, чрез анализ на развитието на училищата за чернокожи и техните образователни методи и резултати още от създаването им в САЩ, изводът, който сам се налага е един:

Не толкова дискриминацията, колкото самозатворената и самоподхранващата се деструктивна култура е причина за проблемите на американското черно гето. И именно тези, които я подкрепят и славословят като “автентичната черна култура” допринасят много за това все повече чернокожи да я приемат и да не искат да се “правят на бели” (т.е. да ходят на училище, на работа, да третират жените си като човешки същества, а не предметна украса и т.н.).

Тази книга има много какво да ни научи за интеграцията на малцинствата у нас.(less)

3 likes · like · see review

May 12, 2010 David Robins rated it 4 of 5 stars

Another excellent collection of essays. Eye-opening as usual - the title essay is especially enlightening: much of black culture that is negative actually comes from Southern whites which in turn came from border regions of England and Scotland: those areas have since improved their education, speech, manners, and so on, but the detrimental parts of their culture survives among poor blacks. Calling an interest in education "acting white" is an insult to the many black educational pioneers that w...more

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Jun 18, 2009 Devon rated it 2 of 5 stars

I thought this might turn into a ridiculous right wing rant, and it didn't take that long. The premise is interesting: basically that American ghetto culture - which has zero redeeming qualities in the mind of the author - is an adaptation of what Malcolm Gladwell calls the "culture of honor" and Sowell simply calls "redneck" culture. This social system originated with the Scotch-Irish immigrants to the American south and lived on in the Appalachians and other poor white areas of the South. The...more

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Feb 15, 2013 Jimmy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Imagine the rabbit-duck image. In the simple ambiguity of that outline you see a rabbit, and you declare this interpretation of that shape as most intuitive. (Perhaps you had a pet rabbit, received a plush one as an early birthday gift, or are a fan of Watership Down. Perhaps this personal context predisposed you to a particular way of seeing.)

Now someone begins to add detail to the image—they shape a nostril into the ear, shade feathers where you see want to see fur—until the image becomes nons...more

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Jul 26, 2011 Steven Percifield rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A few years after reading "A conflict of Visions" by Sowell a friend of mine (who is African-American) recommended this book to me. We had been debating our individual impressions of racial relationships between black and white friends. I had made the comment that there were "archetypal motiffs" common to persons on both sides of the color line.

Although my friend agreed with me "...on average," he suggested that I read this book as it would give me a new perspective of a black intellectual's opi...more

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Feb 25, 2012 Jordan rated it 5 of 5 stars

An attention-grabbing title, but this book is much more. A broader world-history perspective on western civilization and why we should celebrate it, rather than feel guilty for historic injustices against particular ethnic groups. Great dialogue about Jews, Chinese, Koreans and other thrifty middle-man minorities throughout the world who have contributed greatly to the western world economy. Also an excellent look at the history of quality education, the ethnic groups that value it, and it's aff...more

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Jan 11, 2013 Dave rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: political, general-non-fiction, historical

This book challenges prevailing assumptions about blacks, Jews, Germans, slavery, and education. Reason based and backed by documented facts, it takes on trendy intellectuals and historic interpreters. Eye-opening insights into the historical development of the black identity—this is a culture being cheered on toward self-destruction by white liberals who consider themselves "friends" of blacks. “The Real History of Slavery” how it is distorted, the reasons for the venomous hatred of Jews and mu...more

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May 22, 2011 Rodney rated it 4 of 5 stars

I can say I found this book of 200+ pages long to read, but I mean this in a good way. The book was filled with so many facts that I found myself reading a chapter and then jumping on the internet to do further research. I love books that challenge your current thinking. Some of the things Dr. Sowell laid out are not clear cut, but there were many others where as they say.. "hit the nail on the head".

Dr. Sowell comes out swinging with haymakers and bombs as he unleashes on the subject of African...more

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May 27, 2011 Anthony rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed-books, books-i-own, political

Thomas Sowell is one of the best conservative authors that I have read. This was the first book by him that I read which is a collection of six essays dealing with various subjects such as slavery, race relations in the United States, and education. Given the fact that he is a black man, Sowell is able to speak more openly and frankly about race relations than white people are allowed, making his essays refreshingly non-politically correct and pro-Western Civilization.

Black Rednecks and White Li...more

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Jun 06, 2009 Robquarles rated it 5 of 5 stars

Very thought provoking and challenging to popular history but supported with good data and research. Six provocative essays ranging from slavery, to the Germans who were mandated to leave their homeland after WW2. Did you know that the word "aks" as in "you ought to aks me a question?" was originally used by white hillbillies of the Kentucky and Tennessee area? Sowells reveals simple truths like this in this book, that beg other questions.

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Aug 03, 2012 Dennis rated it 5 of 5 stars

I can not recommend Mr. Sowell's work highly enough, he is a rational treasure who has rare ability to expand the mind of any reader, regardless of political views. I've bought and enjoyed 7 of his books, but this book has a political creep. I love Mr. Sowell's more political books like Visions and Intellectuals, but this book has a Hybrid feel to it where at times he moves between is views and his other Work a little too easily for my taste. I don't mean to say this is a bad book or you shouldn...more

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Jun 02, 2011 Kevin Farrell rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow. Take a look at this book. Thomas Sowell is smart and a gifted writer. So you think you have everyone all figured out in this country (US)? This book may change your mind. No speculations here. Sowell does his homework and backs all of his conclusions with references.

Read this. I dare you. I double dog dare you.

Warning: it will make you think.

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Apr 16, 2011 Chris Hunt rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have not completed this book, as it is a book of essays. In what I've read, however, Sowell writes in his typical iconoclastic fashion, going behind the scenes to reveal the real reasons, for instance, of a major source of the problems in the black inner city. Sowell makes reasoned, informed arguments based on sound history and is unapologetic in his views.

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Apr 20, 2012 Dash Williams rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy-and-politics, non-fiction-non-biography, african-american

Black Rednecks & White Liberals is a book with dizzy highs, and dreadfully boring lows. I believe some readers will be thrown off by Sowell's biases, but if they push on through they will have their thoughts provoked and their own biases challenged. Black Rednecks & White Liberals takes aim at the idea that the deficiencies and origins of ghetto culture and challenges those who defend it as sacrosanct. The academics, politicians, and other grievance rent seekers are taken to task for dis...more

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Apr 23, 2012 Steve C rated it 5 of 5 stars

A must read for all African Americans. Sowell presents an interesting thesis which suggests much of what is considered "African American" culture is nothing more than cultural traits hi-jacked from low class whites in the South. The evidence is powerful too. Check it out.

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Jan 04, 2008 Skylar Burris rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone who thinks liberal policies help minorities in the long run

Shelves: politics, economics, sociology

I admire Sowell's ability to look at the facts and to follow them where they lead; to recognize that agendas need to be discarded in order to examine the evidence and to behold the entire, complex picture. I admire his ability to let go of emotional, gut reactions to topics and examine them through a purely logical lens. He takes a penetrating, intellectual look at issues people often discuss in sweeping moral and emotional terms: slavery, affirmative action, culture, conquest, education, and mo...more

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Jun 19, 2012 Sharon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Interesting study of the culture and economics of black americans as compared to blacks in Europe and Africa. After the Civil War many black men who had escaped to the north came back to look for their families. Sowell contrast this to the culture today in which over 70% of black children grow up in a fatherless home. Sowell also traces 'ghetto' culture back to the Kelts of Northern Europe who were primarily the slave owners of the south. There is also a part about the work of the Puritans afte...more

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Apr 27, 2011 Marlin rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've read the audio version of this three times in about six months. It is FULL of information and provoking ideas but it seems somewhat nebulous. I think that I need to settle down with print version in order to pull all of the ideas together in mind.

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Jan 13, 2010 Kevin Heldt rated it 4 of 5 stars

Okay, this guy is a stud. I love the rare academic who will actually shoot straight with you. This was a collection of 6 refreshingly incisive essays that systematically debunked many of the pet beliefs and agendas of today's intelligentsia.

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About Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social commentator, and author of dozens of books. He often writes from an economically laissez-faire perspective. He is currently a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. In 1990, he won the Francis Boyer Award, presented by the American Enterprise Institute. In 2002 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal for prolific scholars...more Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social commentator, and author of dozens of books. He often writes from an economically laissez-faire perspective. He is currently a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. In 1990, he won the Francis Boyer Award, presented by the American Enterprise Institute. In 2002 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal for prolific scholarship melding history, economics, and political science.

Sowell was born in North Carolina, where, he recounted in his autobiography, A Personal Odyssey, his encounters with Caucasians were so limited he didn't believe that "yellow" was a hair color. He moved to Harlem, New York City with his mother's sister (whom he believed was his mother); his father had died before he was born. Sowell went to Stuyvesant High School, but dropped out at 17 because of financial difficulties and a deteriorating home environment. He worked at various jobs to support himself, including in a machine shop and as a delivery man for Western Union. He applied to enter the Civil Service and was eventually accepted, moving to Washington DC. He was drafted in 1951, during the Korean War, and assigned to the US Marine Corps. Due to prior experience in photography, he worked in a photography unit.

After his discharge, Sowell passed the GED examination and enrolled at Howard University. He transfered to Harvard University, where he graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. He received a Master of Arts in Economics from Columbia University, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Economics from the University of Chicago. Sowell initially chose Columbia University because he wanted to study under George Stigler. After arriving at Columbia and learning that Stigler had moved to Chicago, he followed him there.

Sowell has taught Economics at Howard University, Cornell University, Brandeis University, and UCLA. Since 1980 he has been a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he holds a fellowship named after Rose and Milton Friedman.

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More about Thomas Sowell...

Books by Thomas Sowell

Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy

The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy

Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One

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