Liberalism as an Excuse for Black Dysfunction

Paul at Stuff Black People Don't Like (link to purchase his new book) writes often about what he has deemed "Black Run America (BRA)." In a recent post, he offered a definition of the BRA:

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the reality of Black Run America; a nation where every institution is entirely devoted to protecting and promoting the interests of Black people above all others.

Every facet of life is governed by the principals of Black Run America, which means every institution must promote Black interests above all others.

In an e-mail, Paul adds:

Blacks don't run America, of course, but America is run explicity for Blacks. WIth Obama in office, that fact became obvious.

I wouldn't go as far as Paul does in reducing liberalism (after all, that's what we're talking about) to white supplication towards blacks. But his notion of the BRA connects to on an important idea that I first put forth last summer - that American liberalism is the ultimate solution to the "black problem". While Paul fastidiously describes the direct concessions whites make to blacks, I've argued that liberalism is an indirect way to do so.

We can't reduce American liberalism to one particular objective or one specific value, but the "black problem" has always been central to progressive initiatives since the mid 1800's. Prior to the great intellectual Enlightenment of the mid 20th century that supposedly dispelled archaic notions of race differences, everyone knew blacks acted differently. Of course, the intellectual community shifted, with black pathology and dysfunction blamed solely on white racism and other external forces. In fact, without immediately condemning whites for causing it, one can't even discuss the dysfunctional behavior of the black community. The taboo nature of this statistical data spurred controversy over Daniel Moynihan's seminal 1965 report on the failing black family as well as a large number of examples throughout the years.

But liberals then concocted another, perhaps more clever, plan for excusing black pathology - normalize the behavior and undermine societal shame associated with the dysfunction. Any minimally informed liberal knew that blacks had significantly higher rates of welfare use, out of wedlock births, sexual activity, sexually transmitted diseases, divorce, absentee fathers, crime, and drug use. So instead of trying to correct these problems by imposing shame through a strong set of moral values, liberals just adopted them into their grand scheme of subverting those strong moral values.

Today, liberals champion all of the above: complete sexual openness, the notion that criminals are victims or completely redeemable, divorce, drug use, and welfare and other government handouts, amongst many other black-related issues. Notice a pattern here. Instead of accepting the pragmatic and moral importance of core traditional values, liberals attempted to undermine them in an effort to free blacks from reproach. They subverted the moral order so that blacks (and women, but that's another post) could not be criticized for bad behavior.

So black criminals became victims instead of amoral predators. Welfare handouts became a "right" instead of a shameful reflection of personal laziness. Out of wedlock births and absentee fathers became part of our "expanding" definition of the family instead of illustrating one's obvious lack of probity.

Unfortunately though, the strategy has somewhat backfired in two ways. Society has changed and accepted these harmful liberal values. And this has clearly affected all racial groups, including blacks, with rates of out of wedlock births skyrocketing since the 1950's. So blacks, no longer subservient to a white culture that shames bad behavior, have gotten even worse. All the pathologies present amongst the black community, including drug use, out of wedlock births, divorce, and crime, have increased since the advent of post 60's liberalism (perhaps they have since fallen due to the controversial Freakonomics abortion argument and/or higher rates of incarceration). Second, despite all the liberal posturing, everyone still regards black communities as rampant with dysfunction. No honest white person, obviously one has to reside outside the Ivory Tower and its annexes like Evanston and Vermont, looks at the black community and excuses welfare moms, criminals, drug abusers, or "hip-hop hos". Maybe they won't discuss it as the next dinner party, but liberalism definitely hasn't clouded their thought process that much.