1 00:00:00,400 --> 00:00:05,480 Speaker 1: The Michael Berry Show. Democrats talk about reparations for slavery. 2 00:00:06,160 --> 00:00:10,119 Speaker 1: They form commissions in places like California to study it. 3 00:00:11,080 --> 00:00:15,160 Speaker 1: Candidate's running for office promise it. There are many questions 4 00:00:15,200 --> 00:00:18,520 Speaker 1: involving reparations, including well, who's going to pay for it, 5 00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:24,560 Speaker 1: who gets it, how much should be paid out? However, 6 00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:30,320 Speaker 1: one question that's rarely asked is will it ever happen? Well, 7 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:35,080 Speaker 1: Thomas Sole was asked that question, and here is that 8 00:00:35,159 --> 00:00:36,200 Speaker 1: great man's answer. 9 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:41,200 Speaker 2: Something moved in the California legislature calling for formal reparations 10 00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:45,199 Speaker 2: to African Americans. How do you respond to that one? 11 00:00:45,479 --> 00:00:47,760 Speaker 3: I know and they know it's not going to happen. 12 00:00:49,040 --> 00:00:52,120 Speaker 3: So what we're looking at is someone who wants votes 13 00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:55,880 Speaker 3: or followers and that this will get them votes or 14 00:00:55,880 --> 00:00:58,280 Speaker 3: get them followers and finances. 15 00:00:58,760 --> 00:00:59,279 Speaker 4: But it's not. 16 00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:03,360 Speaker 3: All it would do is something tael the country apart what. 17 00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:05,520 Speaker 5: We see in the United States in terms of the 18 00:01:05,560 --> 00:01:10,039 Speaker 5: bad things you see all around the world. If you 19 00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:13,880 Speaker 5: were to give reparations to everyone whose ancestors had been slaves, 20 00:01:14,319 --> 00:01:16,880 Speaker 5: I suspect that you would have to give reparations to 21 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:21,039 Speaker 5: more than half the entire population of the globe. Slavery 22 00:01:21,120 --> 00:01:24,959 Speaker 5: was not confined to one set of races. I suspect 23 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:27,080 Speaker 5: that most of the people who were either slaves or 24 00:01:27,120 --> 00:01:30,240 Speaker 5: slave owners around the world were neither white nor black. 25 00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:35,840 Speaker 5: I mean, this was a universal curse of the human species. 26 00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:38,200 Speaker 2: Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and. 27 00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:44,240 Speaker 5: It continued elsewhere long after it was abolished in the 28 00:01:44,280 --> 00:01:48,600 Speaker 5: western countries. The other thing, I have a slight sidebar, 29 00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:51,200 Speaker 5: and they are on the history of slavery, the history 30 00:01:51,240 --> 00:01:55,600 Speaker 5: of slavery. Slavery existed all over the world for thousands 31 00:01:55,680 --> 00:01:59,800 Speaker 5: of years, among all sorts of people, as far back 32 00:01:59,800 --> 00:02:04,040 Speaker 5: as the history of the human species goes. It's one 33 00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:08,639 Speaker 5: of many evils that the left tries to localize, when 34 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:13,480 Speaker 5: in fact there's a universal evil. But more than that, 35 00:02:14,680 --> 00:02:17,560 Speaker 5: as much as slavery is repudiated around the world today, 36 00:02:18,720 --> 00:02:22,079 Speaker 5: prior to the eighteenth century, I know of no serious 37 00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:24,959 Speaker 5: effort to abolish the institution anywhere. 38 00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:28,480 Speaker 2: Anywhere, anywhere, Not in Africa, not in the Arabian not. 39 00:02:28,440 --> 00:02:32,480 Speaker 5: In Africa in the twenty first century. Adam Smith wrote 40 00:02:32,639 --> 00:02:35,520 Speaker 5: in seventeen seventy six that the only place in the 41 00:02:35,560 --> 00:02:39,040 Speaker 5: world where slavery had been abolished completely was Western Europe. 42 00:02:40,919 --> 00:02:43,960 Speaker 2: And so this was as late as as late as 43 00:02:43,960 --> 00:02:45,960 Speaker 2: the as late as the year this country was founded. 44 00:02:46,160 --> 00:02:48,560 Speaker 5: Yes, and so the idea that this is something that 45 00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:51,840 Speaker 5: the United States had that nobody else had, or or 46 00:02:52,440 --> 00:02:56,120 Speaker 5: other other countries that didn't have. It's been estimated that 47 00:02:56,160 --> 00:02:58,600 Speaker 5: there are more slavers in India than in the entire 48 00:02:58,680 --> 00:03:02,480 Speaker 5: Western hemisphere. And that's quite and that's before and after 49 00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:08,280 Speaker 5: Columbus got here. Right. There are various laws and policies 50 00:03:08,320 --> 00:03:11,080 Speaker 5: that benefit one group at the expense of another, But 51 00:03:11,200 --> 00:03:14,240 Speaker 5: I think firmative action has the distinction of being one 52 00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:18,360 Speaker 5: that harms everybody, though in different ways. 53 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:18,720 Speaker 4: And so. 54 00:03:20,639 --> 00:03:23,560 Speaker 5: There's a lot of evidence that there are black kids 55 00:03:23,639 --> 00:03:27,000 Speaker 5: who have all the qualifications to be successes in college 56 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:31,680 Speaker 5: who nevertheless a failures because they are systematically mismatched with 57 00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:35,280 Speaker 5: institutions whose standards they don't meet, even though they may 58 00:03:35,320 --> 00:03:37,720 Speaker 5: meet the standards of eighty or ninety percent of the 59 00:03:37,760 --> 00:03:41,240 Speaker 5: colleges in America. I remember first aware of this when 60 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:44,200 Speaker 5: I was teaching Cornell, and I found that half the 61 00:03:44,200 --> 00:03:47,240 Speaker 5: black students at Cornell were on some kind of academic probation. 62 00:03:47,880 --> 00:03:50,240 Speaker 5: And so I went over to the administration building to 63 00:03:50,240 --> 00:03:53,080 Speaker 5: look up the SATs, and these students. The average black 64 00:03:53,120 --> 00:03:56,200 Speaker 5: student at Cornell at that time scored up the seventy fifth. 65 00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:59,040 Speaker 2: Percentile, which is pretty darn good. 66 00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:02,480 Speaker 5: Yes, And that means that in that in most colleges 67 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:05,200 Speaker 5: in this country, they would have no trouble and many 68 00:04:05,240 --> 00:04:08,080 Speaker 5: of them would be on the dean's list. But at Cornell, 69 00:04:08,520 --> 00:04:11,080 Speaker 5: the average liberal arts student at that time was in 70 00:04:11,120 --> 00:04:14,440 Speaker 5: the ninety nine percentile. And and when you when you 71 00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:18,000 Speaker 5: when you're teaching the students like that, you teach at 72 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:22,440 Speaker 5: a pace that most people of any race cannot keep 73 00:04:22,520 --> 00:04:25,240 Speaker 5: up with. And I was it was always complained that 74 00:04:25,279 --> 00:04:28,600 Speaker 5: I was assigning all kinds of reading. But he you know, 75 00:04:28,640 --> 00:04:30,640 Speaker 5: I'm teaching kids who are in the top one percent. 76 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:32,960 Speaker 5: They can they can keep up with it with the 77 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:34,120 Speaker 5: reading that I'm assigning. 78 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:37,520 Speaker 2: Uh So, Cornell was taking very talented black kids and 79 00:04:37,560 --> 00:04:40,560 Speaker 2: spending four years teaching them to feel inadequate. 80 00:04:40,160 --> 00:04:44,080 Speaker 5: Yes, and succeeding at that terms of political leaders, all 81 00:04:44,120 --> 00:04:48,919 Speaker 5: the all the incentives politically off for black leaders to 82 00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:52,640 Speaker 5: blame all problems in the black community on the larger society, 83 00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:55,680 Speaker 5: and that enables them to take on the role of 84 00:04:55,720 --> 00:04:59,359 Speaker 5: being the defender of the black community against enemies, which 85 00:04:59,400 --> 00:05:03,360 Speaker 5: in turn, uh creates the situation in which many blacks 86 00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:05,719 Speaker 5: don't feel anything that they do is gonna is going 87 00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:09,640 Speaker 5: to help themselves unless it's done politically as a group. 88 00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:12,359 Speaker 5: That there's no point. I mean, why why would you 89 00:05:12,360 --> 00:05:15,520 Speaker 5: if you believe what that's what they say, Why would 90 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:18,240 Speaker 5: you want to knock yourself out into school knowing that 91 00:05:18,279 --> 00:05:20,200 Speaker 5: the man is not going to let you get anywhere. 92 00:05:20,920 --> 00:05:23,640 Speaker 5: One of the most pathetic things I heard in recent 93 00:05:23,720 --> 00:05:26,240 Speaker 5: years was a young black man saying that, you know, 94 00:05:26,279 --> 00:05:29,120 Speaker 5: at one point he thought he would join the air 95 00:05:29,160 --> 00:05:32,120 Speaker 5: Force and become a pilot. And then he says he 96 00:05:32,279 --> 00:05:34,880 Speaker 5: realized that the white man is not going to let 97 00:05:34,880 --> 00:05:37,599 Speaker 5: a black man become a pilot. And he was saying 98 00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:42,520 Speaker 5: this decades after the Tennessee Airmen had established their reputation 99 00:05:42,640 --> 00:05:47,279 Speaker 5: in combat in Europe. You know, but but the hopelessness, 100 00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:50,320 Speaker 5: hopelessness is one of the big products of the of 101 00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:53,719 Speaker 5: the race industry. That you have, you have no chance. 102 00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:56,080 Speaker 5: I remember giving a talk at Marquette and at the 103 00:05:56,160 --> 00:05:58,120 Speaker 5: end of the talk, among the questions, it was asked 104 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:01,440 Speaker 5: young again, young black man got up and he said, 105 00:06:01,640 --> 00:06:05,800 Speaker 5: even though I'm graduating from Marquette University, what hope is 106 00:06:05,800 --> 00:06:10,000 Speaker 5: there for me? And having gone through college when I 107 00:06:10,040 --> 00:06:12,520 Speaker 5: was in the fifties, I don't remember in any blacks 108 00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:15,320 Speaker 5: saying that in the nineteen fifties when there was a 109 00:06:15,360 --> 00:06:18,240 Speaker 5: lot more obstacles to overcome than there were when this 110 00:06:18,279 --> 00:06:22,800 Speaker 5: guy's graduating from Marquette. But you have to produce that 111 00:06:22,920 --> 00:06:25,960 Speaker 5: kind of feeling in order to serve the interests of 112 00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:27,320 Speaker 5: those in the race industry. 113 00:06:29,160 --> 00:06:33,440 Speaker 2: Somewhere watching this interview, there's a young Thomas Soul, There's 114 00:06:33,480 --> 00:06:38,160 Speaker 2: an African American who's smart and wants to do something. 115 00:06:37,839 --> 00:06:38,560 Speaker 4: With his life. 116 00:06:41,080 --> 00:06:43,760 Speaker 2: What seems to me, we've already got one piece of 117 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:46,839 Speaker 2: advice you'd offer to him is stay away from the 118 00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:52,360 Speaker 2: from the racist industry, stay away from the what race hustlers? 119 00:06:52,360 --> 00:06:56,600 Speaker 2: What advice would you give a young Thomas Soul? How 120 00:06:56,600 --> 00:07:00,400 Speaker 2: do you make something of yourself as an African American 121 00:07:00,440 --> 00:07:01,599 Speaker 2: in America today? 122 00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:06,279 Speaker 5: The way anybody else would you equip yourself with skills 123 00:07:06,320 --> 00:07:07,560 Speaker 5: that people were willing to pay for? 124 00:07:09,360 --> 00:07:13,600 Speaker 4: All Right? Nowhere have intellectuals seen racial issues as issues 125 00:07:13,640 --> 00:07:19,240 Speaker 4: about intertemporal abstractions more so than in discussions of slavery. Moreover, 126 00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:22,800 Speaker 4: few facts of history have been so distorted by highly 127 00:07:22,840 --> 00:07:27,160 Speaker 4: selective filtering, as has the history of slavery. To many 128 00:07:27,200 --> 00:07:32,120 Speaker 4: people today, slavery means white people holding black people in bondage. 129 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:35,160 Speaker 4: The vast millions of people around the world who were 130 00:07:35,160 --> 00:07:38,120 Speaker 4: neither white nor black, but who were either slaves or 131 00:07:38,120 --> 00:07:41,560 Speaker 4: in slavers for centuries fade out of this vision of 132 00:07:41,560 --> 00:07:44,760 Speaker 4: slavery as if they had never existed, even though they 133 00:07:44,840 --> 00:07:48,640 Speaker 4: may well about numbered both blacks and whites. It has 134 00:07:48,680 --> 00:07:51,640 Speaker 4: been estimated that there were more slaves in India than 135 00:07:51,640 --> 00:07:55,640 Speaker 4: in the entire Western hemisphere. China during the era of 136 00:07:55,680 --> 00:07:58,760 Speaker 4: slavery has been described as one of the largest and 137 00:07:58,840 --> 00:08:02,200 Speaker 4: most comprehensive mark markets for the exchange of human beings 138 00:08:02,480 --> 00:08:06,840 Speaker 4: in the world. Slaves were a majority of the population 139 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:10,000 Speaker 4: in some of the cities in Southeast Asia at some 140 00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:13,640 Speaker 4: period or other in history. As John Stuart Mill pointed out, 141 00:08:14,240 --> 00:08:19,640 Speaker 4: almost every people now civilized have consisted in majority of slaves. 142 00:08:21,080 --> 00:08:24,760 Speaker 4: When Abraham Lincoln said if slavery is not wrong, nothing 143 00:08:24,840 --> 00:08:28,400 Speaker 4: is wrong, he was expressing an idea peculiar to Western 144 00:08:28,440 --> 00:08:32,400 Speaker 4: civilization at that time, and by no means universally accepted 145 00:08:32,440 --> 00:08:38,000 Speaker 4: throughout Western civilization. What seems almost incomprehensible today is that 146 00:08:38,040 --> 00:08:41,280 Speaker 4: there was no serious challenge to the moral legitimacy of 147 00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:46,400 Speaker 4: slavery prior to the eighteenth century. Christian monasteries in Europe 148 00:08:46,440 --> 00:08:50,880 Speaker 4: and Buddhist monasteries in Asia both had slaves. Even Thomas 149 00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:57,680 Speaker 4: Moore's fictional ideal society Utopia had slaves. Although intellectuals today 150 00:08:57,800 --> 00:09:01,559 Speaker 4: may condemn slavery as a historic evil of our society, 151 00:09:02,400 --> 00:09:05,640 Speaker 4: what was peculiar about Western society was not that it 152 00:09:05,679 --> 00:09:09,360 Speaker 4: had slaves like other societies around the world, but that 153 00:09:09,400 --> 00:09:13,920 Speaker 4: it was the first civilization to turn against slavery, and 154 00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:17,280 Speaker 4: that it spent more than a century destroying slavery not 155 00:09:17,360 --> 00:09:21,319 Speaker 4: only within Western civilization itself, but also in other countries 156 00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:25,160 Speaker 4: around the world over the often bitter and sometimes armed 157 00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:29,960 Speaker 4: resistance of people in other societies. Only the overwhelming military 158 00:09:30,040 --> 00:09:33,640 Speaker 4: power of Western nations during the age of imperialism made 159 00:09:33,640 --> 00:09:37,600 Speaker 4: this possible. Slavery did not quietly die out of its 160 00:09:37,640 --> 00:09:40,800 Speaker 4: own accord. It went down fighting to the bitter end 161 00:09:41,080 --> 00:09:44,120 Speaker 4: in countries around the world, and it has still not 162 00:09:44,200 --> 00:09:46,800 Speaker 4: totally died out to this day. In parts of the 163 00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:51,199 Speaker 4: Middle East and Africa. It is the image of racial slavery. 164 00:09:51,559 --> 00:09:55,040 Speaker 4: White people in slaving black people that has been indelibly 165 00:09:55,080 --> 00:09:58,400 Speaker 4: burned into the consciousness of both black and white Americans 166 00:09:58,400 --> 00:10:02,040 Speaker 4: today by the intelligentsia, and not simply as a fact 167 00:10:02,040 --> 00:10:05,640 Speaker 4: about the past, but as a causal factor used to 168 00:10:05,760 --> 00:10:09,720 Speaker 4: explain much of the present and an enduring moral condemnation 169 00:10:10,200 --> 00:10:14,719 Speaker 4: of the enslaving race. Yet two crucial facts have been 170 00:10:14,760 --> 00:10:19,280 Speaker 4: filtered out of this picture. One, the institution of slavery 171 00:10:19,400 --> 00:10:23,160 Speaker 4: was not based on race, and two, whites as well 172 00:10:23,160 --> 00:10:27,520 Speaker 4: as blacks were enslaved. The very word slave is derived 173 00:10:27,600 --> 00:10:30,880 Speaker 4: from the name of a European people, Slavs, who were 174 00:10:30,960 --> 00:10:34,320 Speaker 4: enslaved for centuries before the first African was brought in 175 00:10:34,400 --> 00:10:37,960 Speaker 4: bondage to the Western Hemisphere. It was not only in 176 00:10:38,040 --> 00:10:40,760 Speaker 4: English that the word for slave derived from the word 177 00:10:40,800 --> 00:10:43,960 Speaker 4: for slav. The same was true in various other European 178 00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:49,079 Speaker 4: languages and in Arabic. For most of the history of slavery, 179 00:10:49,200 --> 00:10:51,559 Speaker 4: which covers most of the history of the human race, 180 00:10:52,160 --> 00:10:56,400 Speaker 4: most slaves were not racially different from those who enslaved them. 181 00:10:56,880 --> 00:11:01,760 Speaker 4: Not only did Europeans enslave other Europeans, Asians enslaved other Asians, 182 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:07,200 Speaker 4: Africans enslaved other Africans, Polynesians enslaved other Polynesians, and the 183 00:11:07,240 --> 00:11:11,480 Speaker 4: indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere enslaved other indigenous peoples 184 00:11:11,480 --> 00:11:16,600 Speaker 4: of the Western Hemisphere. Moreover, after it became both technologically 185 00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:20,560 Speaker 4: and economically feasible to transport masses of slaves from one 186 00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:23,839 Speaker 4: continent to another, that is, to have a whole population 187 00:11:23,920 --> 00:11:27,199 Speaker 4: of slaves of a different race, Europeans as well as 188 00:11:27,240 --> 00:11:30,960 Speaker 4: Africans were enslaved and transported from their native lands to 189 00:11:31,080 --> 00:11:36,040 Speaker 4: bondage on another continent. Pirates alone transported a million or 190 00:11:36,080 --> 00:11:39,680 Speaker 4: more Europeans as slaves to the Barbary coast of North Africa, 191 00:11:40,240 --> 00:11:43,319 Speaker 4: at least twice as many European slaves as there were 192 00:11:43,400 --> 00:11:47,080 Speaker 4: African slaves transported to the United States and to the 193 00:11:47,120 --> 00:11:51,840 Speaker 4: thirteen colonies from which it was formed. Moreover, white slaves 194 00:11:51,880 --> 00:11:54,520 Speaker 4: were still being bought and sold in the Islamic world 195 00:11:54,840 --> 00:12:00,000 Speaker 4: decades after blacks had been freed in the United States. 196 00:12:00,080 --> 00:12:03,079 Speaker 4: Marked the modern era of slavery in the West was 197 00:12:03,120 --> 00:12:07,959 Speaker 4: the fact that, as distinguished historian Daniel Borston pointed out, now, 198 00:12:08,080 --> 00:12:11,000 Speaker 4: for the first time in Western history, the status of 199 00:12:11,080 --> 00:12:15,720 Speaker 4: slave coincided with the difference of race. But to claim 200 00:12:15,880 --> 00:12:19,560 Speaker 4: that race or racism was the basis of slavery is 201 00:12:19,600 --> 00:12:22,600 Speaker 4: to cite as a cause something that happened thousands of 202 00:12:22,679 --> 00:12:26,360 Speaker 4: years after its supposed effect. As for the legacy of 203 00:12:26,440 --> 00:12:29,240 Speaker 4: slavery in the world of today, that is something well 204 00:12:29,240 --> 00:12:34,960 Speaker 4: worth investigating, as distinguished from simply making sweeping assumptions. Too 205 00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:37,360 Speaker 4: many assumptions that have been made about the effects of 206 00:12:37,400 --> 00:12:40,720 Speaker 4: slavery on both blacks and whites will not stand up 207 00:12:40,760 --> 00:12:45,080 Speaker 4: under scrutiny. Back during the era of slavery in the 208 00:12:45,200 --> 00:12:48,680 Speaker 4: United States, such prominent writers as the French visitor and 209 00:12:48,720 --> 00:12:52,880 Speaker 4: observer Alecxis to Touckville, Northern traveler in the Antebellum South, 210 00:12:53,040 --> 00:12:57,120 Speaker 4: Frederick law Olmsted, and prominent Southern writer Hint and Helper 211 00:12:57,600 --> 00:13:00,840 Speaker 4: all pointed to striking differences between the throm the South 212 00:13:01,440 --> 00:13:04,440 Speaker 4: and attributed the deficiencies of the southern region to the 213 00:13:04,480 --> 00:13:07,679 Speaker 4: effects of slavery on the white population of the South. 214 00:13:08,760 --> 00:13:12,160 Speaker 4: These differences between northern and Southern whites were not merely 215 00:13:12,240 --> 00:13:17,560 Speaker 4: perceptions or stereotypes. They were factually demonstrable in areas ranging 216 00:13:17,600 --> 00:13:21,480 Speaker 4: from literacy rates to rates of unwed motherhood, as well 217 00:13:21,559 --> 00:13:25,319 Speaker 4: as in attitudes toward work and violence. But attributing these 218 00:13:25,360 --> 00:13:29,200 Speaker 4: differences to slavery ignored the fact that the ancestors of 219 00:13:29,240 --> 00:13:32,880 Speaker 4: white Southerners differed in these same ways from the ancestors 220 00:13:32,880 --> 00:13:35,760 Speaker 4: of white Northerners when they both lived in different parts 221 00:13:35,800 --> 00:13:38,760 Speaker 4: of Britain, and when neither had ever seen a black slave. 222 00:13:40,160 --> 00:13:43,400 Speaker 4: Does the moral enormity of slavery give it any more 223 00:13:43,400 --> 00:13:47,720 Speaker 4: decisive causal weight in explaining the situation of blacks today 224 00:13:47,960 --> 00:13:50,360 Speaker 4: than it did in explaining that of whites in the 225 00:13:50,400 --> 00:13:54,920 Speaker 4: Antebellum South. There is no a priori answer to that question, 226 00:13:55,240 --> 00:14:00,040 Speaker 4: which must be examined empirically, like many other questions, in 227 00:14:00,040 --> 00:14:02,960 Speaker 4: the fact that so many black families today consist of 228 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:06,120 Speaker 4: women with fatherless children has been said by many to 229 00:14:06,160 --> 00:14:09,640 Speaker 4: be a legacy of slavery. Yet most black children grew 230 00:14:09,720 --> 00:14:13,280 Speaker 4: up in two parent families even under slavery itself, and 231 00:14:13,360 --> 00:14:18,400 Speaker 4: for generations thereafter. As recently as nineteen sixty two, thirds 232 00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:21,600 Speaker 4: of black children were still living in two parent families. 233 00:14:22,320 --> 00:14:25,680 Speaker 4: A century ago, a slightly higher percentage of blacks were 234 00:14:25,680 --> 00:14:29,480 Speaker 4: married than were whites. In some years, a slightly higher 235 00:14:29,520 --> 00:14:32,600 Speaker 4: percentage of blacks were in the labor force than were whites. 236 00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:36,240 Speaker 4: The reasons for changes for the worse in these and 237 00:14:36,360 --> 00:14:40,960 Speaker 4: other patterns must be sought in our own times. Whatever 238 00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:43,960 Speaker 4: the reasons for the disintegration of the black family, it 239 00:14:44,160 --> 00:14:48,520 Speaker 4: escalated to the current disastrous level well over a century 240 00:14:48,880 --> 00:14:52,160 Speaker 4: after the end of slavery, though less than a generation 241 00:14:52,520 --> 00:14:56,080 Speaker 4: after a large expansion of the welfare state and its 242 00:14:56,080 --> 00:15:02,120 Speaker 4: accompanying non judgmental ideology. To say that slavery will not 243 00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:05,600 Speaker 4: bear the full weight of responsibility for all subsequent social 244 00:15:05,640 --> 00:15:09,000 Speaker 4: problems among Black Americans is not to say that it 245 00:15:09,040 --> 00:15:13,080 Speaker 4: had negligible consequences among either blacks or whites, or that 246 00:15:13,160 --> 00:15:17,400 Speaker 4: its consequences ended when slavery itself ended. But this is 247 00:15:17,440 --> 00:15:20,640 Speaker 4: only to say that answers to questions about either slavery 248 00:15:20,800 --> 00:15:24,560 Speaker 4: or race must be sought in facts, not in assumptions 249 00:15:24,640 --> 00:15:28,160 Speaker 4: or visions, and certainly not in attempts to reduce questions 250 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:32,520 Speaker 4: of causation to only those which provide moral melodramas and 251 00:15:32,640 --> 00:15:35,720 Speaker 4: an opportunity for the intelligentsia to be on the side 252 00:15:35,760 --> 00:15:40,560 Speaker 4: of the angels. Just as Western Europeans in post Roman 253 00:15:40,600 --> 00:15:44,040 Speaker 4: times benefited from the fact that their ancestors had been 254 00:15:44,040 --> 00:15:47,440 Speaker 4: conquered by the Romans, with all the brutality and oppression 255 00:15:47,480 --> 00:15:51,600 Speaker 4: that entailed. Blacks in America today have a far higher 256 00:15:51,640 --> 00:15:54,840 Speaker 4: standard of living than most Africans in Africa as a 257 00:15:54,880 --> 00:15:58,960 Speaker 4: result of their ancestors being enslaved, with all the injustices 258 00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:02,440 Speaker 4: and abuses that ined. There is no question that both 259 00:16:02,480 --> 00:16:06,760 Speaker 4: conquest and enslavement were traumatic experiences for those on whom 260 00:16:06,760 --> 00:16:10,600 Speaker 4: they were inflicted. Nor is either morally justified by whatever 261 00:16:10,640 --> 00:16:14,520 Speaker 4: benefits might come of this to subsequent generations of their offspring. 262 00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:19,840 Speaker 4: But history cannot be undone, nor does conceiving of races 263 00:16:19,880 --> 00:16:24,120 Speaker 4: as intertemporal abstractions have any such track record as to 264 00:16:24,160 --> 00:16:27,240 Speaker 4: make it look like a promising approach to the present 265 00:16:27,640 --> 00:16:28,280 Speaker 4: or the future. 266 00:16:29,400 --> 00:16:32,360 Speaker 1: If you like the Michael Berry Show and Podcast, please 267 00:16:32,600 --> 00:16:36,720 Speaker 1: tell one friend, and if you're so inclined, write a 268 00:16:36,840 --> 00:16:41,880 Speaker 1: nice review of our podcast. Comments, suggestions, questions, and interest 269 00:16:42,000 --> 00:16:45,880 Speaker 1: in being a corporate sponsor and partner can be communicated 270 00:16:45,880 --> 00:16:50,360 Speaker 1: directly to the show at our email address, Michael at 271 00:16:50,520 --> 00:16:55,000 Speaker 1: Michael Berryshow dot com, or simply by clicking on our website, 272 00:16:55,360 --> 00:16:59,840 Speaker 1: Michael Berryshow dot com. The Michael Berry Show and Podcast 273 00:17:00,160 --> 00:17:05,280 Speaker 1: is produced by Ramon Roeblis, the King of Ding. Executive 274 00:17:05,359 --> 00:17:14,200 Speaker 1: producer is Chad Knakanishi. Jim Mudd is the creative director. 275 00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:20,600 Speaker 1: Voices Jingles, Tomfoolery, and Shenanigans are provided by Chance McLean. 276 00:17:21,400 --> 00:17:25,880 Speaker 1: Director of Research is Sandy Peterson. Emily Bull is our 277 00:17:25,920 --> 00:17:33,359 Speaker 1: assistant listener and superfan. Contributions are appreciated and often incorporated 278 00:17:33,560 --> 00:17:37,119 Speaker 1: into our production. Where possible, we give credit, where not, 279 00:17:37,640 --> 00:17:40,840 Speaker 1: we take all the credit for ourselves. God bless the 280 00:17:40,880 --> 00:17:46,560 Speaker 1: memory of Rush Limbaugh. Long live Elvis, be a simple 281 00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:52,440 Speaker 1: man like Leonard Skinnard told you, and God bless America. Finally, 282 00:17:53,160 --> 00:17:56,920 Speaker 1: if you know a veteran suffering from PTSD, call Camp 283 00:17:56,960 --> 00:18:03,639 Speaker 1: Hope at eight seven seven seven PTSD and a combat 284 00:18:03,720 --> 00:18:07,240 Speaker 1: veteran will answer the phone to provide free counseling.