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Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality QUOTES

Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality QUOTES

1 " Cultural differences are real, and cannot be talked away by using pejorative terms such as “stereotypes” or “racism. "

― Thomas Sowell , Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality

2 " If there is an optimistic aspect of preferential doctrines, it is that they may eventually make so many Americans so sick of hearing of group labels and percentages that the idea of judging each individual on his or her own performance may become more attractive than ever. "

― Thomas Sowell , Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality

3 " The reality of an historic struggle for civil rights has degenerated into the hustling rhetoric of Newspeak. “Equal opportunity” now means preferential treatment. “Voting rights” now include preferential chances to win. School desegregation no longer means the right to attend any public school, regardless of race, but being forced to attend where you are told, according to race. “Equal justice for all” now means compensatory benefits for some—usually the more fortunate of those who share the political label “disadvantaged. "

― Thomas Sowell , Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality

4 " However much history may be invoked in support of these policies (affirmative action), no policy can apply to history but can only apply to the present or the future. The past may be many things, but it is clearly irrevocable. Its sins can no more be purged than its achievements can be expunged. Those who suffered in centuries past are as much beyond our help as those who sinned are beyond our retribution. "

― Thomas Sowell , Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality

5 " Empirically, political activity and political success have been neither necessary nor sufficient for economic advancement. Nor has eager political participation or outstanding success in politics been translated into faster group achievement. "

― Thomas Sowell , Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality

6 " If there are not equal results among groups presumed to have equal genetic potential, then some inequality of opportunity must have intervened somewhere, and the question of precisely where is less important than the remedy of restoring the less fortunate to their just position. The fatal flaw in this kind of thinking is that there are many reasons, besides genes and discrimination, why groups differ in their economic performances and rewards. Groups differ by large amounts demographically, culturally, and geographically—and all of these differences have profound effects on incomes and occupations. "

― Thomas Sowell , Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality

7 " One of the most central—and most controversial—premises of the civil rights vision is that statistical disparities in incomes, occupations, education, etc., represent moral inequities, and are caused by “society. "

― Thomas Sowell , Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality

8 " Equal opportunity” laws and policies require that individuals be judged on their qualifications as individuals, without regard to race, sex, age, etc. “Affirmative action” requires that they be judged with regard to such group membership, receiving preferential or compensatory treatment in some cases to achieve a more proportional “representation” in various institutions and occupations. "

― Thomas Sowell , Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality

9 " The civil rights vision relies heavily on statistical “disparities” in income and employment between members of different groups to support its sweeping claims of rampant discrimination. "

― Thomas Sowell , Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality

10 " Another central premise of the civil rights vision is that belief in innate inferiority explains policies and practices of differential treatment, whether expressed in overt hostility or in institutional policies or individual decisions that result in statistical disparities. Moral defenses or causal explanations of these statistical differences in any other terms tend themselves to fall under suspicion or denunciation as racism, sexism, etc. "

― Thomas Sowell , Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality

11 " A third major premise of the civil rights vision is that political activity is the key to improving the lot of those on the short end of differences in income, “representation” in desirable occupations or institutions, or otherwise disadvantaged. "

― Thomas Sowell , Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality

12 " In short, statistical disparities are commonplace among human beings. Many historical and cultural reasons underlie the peculiar patterns observed. But the even “representation” of groups chosen as a baseline for measuring discrimination is a myth rather than an established fact. It is significant that those who have assumed that baseline have seldom, if ever, been challenged to produce evidence. "

― Thomas Sowell , Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality

13 " The civil rights vision tends to view group characteristics as mere “stereotypes” and concentrates on changing the public’s “perceptions” or raising the public’s “consciousness.” Yet the reality of group patterns that transcend any given society cannot be denied. "

― Thomas Sowell , Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality

14 " In short, despite the unpromising record of politics as a means of raising a group from poverty to affluence, and despite the dangers of politicizing race, there are built-in incentives for individual political leaders to do just that. "

― Thomas Sowell , Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality