Home » Nikole Hannah-Jones takes on Thomas Sowell

Comments

Nikole Hannah-Jones takes on Thomas Sowell — 32 Comments

  1. I read his first major work, Knowledge & Decisions and virtually everything available since then, save and except some of the pure economics, as I felt I had an adequate grounding in that area as a result of my undergraduate major in the subject. His interests have been many and he has educated me about various minorities, migration and even geographical influences on development.

  2. It is rather comical that an intellectual midget (bearing a striking resemblance to Bozo) should challenge an intellectual giant. Sowell’s new book (tentatively entitled Social Justice Fallacies) is to be published in the late summer. One fears that it may well be his last.

  3. Getting people to read books one recommends is, in general, hopeless — reading a book is a real project. So I’d recommend instead, for an intro, Sowell’s ~1,400-word speech-become-essay titled “‘Multicultural’ Education,” from about 1990: https://tsowell.com/spmultic.html

    Among other highlights, it contains two paragraphs on slavery that were my first serious education on the subject, and I was in my 50s when I first read it!

    And since, even for Neo’s readers, providing such a link may well engender “I’ll get to it later … ,” here’s the full text:

    “MULTICULTURAL” EDUCATION
    by Thomas Sowell

    Most of the arguments for so-called “multicultural” education are so flimsy, inconsistent, and downright silly that it is hard to imagine that they would have been taken seriously if they were not backed up by shrill rhetoric, character assassination, and the implied or open threat of organized disruption and violence on campus.

    Let us examine the multiculturalists’ questions, one by one:

    Why do we study Western civilization, to the neglect of other civilizations?

    Why is that question asked in English, rather than in some non-Western language? Because English is what we speak. Why do we concern ourselves with the Earth, which is an infinitesimal part of the known universe? Because that is where we live. If we want to understand the cultural and institutional world in which we carry on our daily lives, we need to understand the underlying rationale and the historical evolution of the way of life we have been born into.

    None of this has anything to do with whether English is a better language than some other languages. English is in fact more inconsistent and less melodic than French, for example. But we speak English for the same practical reasons that cause people in China to speak Chinese. Attempts to turn this into an invidious comparisons issue miss the fundamental point that (1) languages exist to serve practical purposes and (2) they serve those purposes better, the more people in the same society speak the same language.

    Why don’t we study other civilizations equally? The most obvious answer is the 24-hour day and the limited number of days we spend in college. It is stretching things very thin to try to cover Western civilization in two semesters. Throw in a couple of other civilizations and you are just kidding yourself that you are educating anybody, when all that you are really doing is teaching them to accept superficiality. Those whose real agenda is propaganda are of course untroubled by such considerations.

    Any suggestion that any aspect of Western civilization has been admirable, or better in any way than the corresponding aspect of any other civilization, will of course be loudly denounced as showing bias instead of being “non-judgmental.” However, the one thing that no civilization has ever been is non-judgmental. Much of the advancement of the human race has occurred because people made the judgment that some things were not simply different from others, but better. Often this judgment was followed by abandoning one cultural feature and using the other instead.

    We use Arabic numerals today, instead of Roman numerals, even though our civilization derived from Rome, and the Arabs themselves got these numerals from India. Arabic numerals (or Indian numerals) have displaced other numbering systems around the world because they are better– not just different. Paper, printing, and books are today essential aspects of Western civilization, but all three came out of China– and they have displaced parchment, scrolls, and other forms of preserving writings all around the world. Books are not just different, they are better– not just in my opinion, or in the opinion of Western civilization, but in the practice of people around the world who have had an opportunity to make the comparison. Firearms have likewise displaced bows and arrows wherever the two have come into competition.

    Many of those who talk “non-judgmental” rhetoric out of one side of their mouths are quick to condemn the evils of “our society” out of the other side. Worse, they condemn American society or Western civilization for sins that are the curse of the human race all across the planet. Indeed, they condemn the West for sins that are worse in many non-Western societies.

    Perhaps the classic case is slavery. The widespread revulsion which this hideous institution inspires today was largely confined to Western civilization a century ago, and a century before that was largely confined to a portion of British society. No one seems interested in the epic story of how this curse that covered the globe and endured for thousands of years was finally gotten rid of. It was gotten rid of by the West– not only in Western societies but in other societies conquered, controlled, or pressured by the West.

    The resistance put up by Africans, Asians, and Arabs was monumental in defense of slavery, and lasted for more than a century. Only the overwhelming military power of the West enabled it to prevail on this issue, and only the moral outrage of Western peoples kept their governments’ feet to the fire politically to maintain the pressure against slavery around the world. Of course, this is not the kind of story that appeals to the multiculturalists. If it had been the other way around– if Asian or African imperialists had stamped out slavery in Europe– it would still be celebrated, in story and song, on campuses across America.

    Why are the traditional classics of Western civilization written by dead white males?

    Take it a step at a time. They are written by dead people for two reasons: First, there are more dead people than living people. Second, a classic is not something that is hot at the moment but something that survives the test of time. There may be things written today that will survive to become classics, but we won’t be here when that happens. The things we know are classics were almost by definition written by dead people.

    Why were they white? Do we ask why the great classics of China were written by people who were Chinese? If we found that the great classics of China were written by Swedes, wouldn’t we wonder what the hell was going on?

    Should there be any mystery as to why they were written by males? Is anyone so utterly ignorant of history that they do not know that females had more than enough work to keep them busy for most of the history of the human race? Maybe men should have shared some of that work. But history is what happened, not what we wish had happened. If most of the people who were educated were male– as they have been throughout history, and even are today in some societies– then most of the people who leave the kind of written material left by educated people will be men. You don’t get great mathematical discoveries from people who were never taught algebra.

    Much the same reasoning applies to other groups considered to be (1) oppressed and (2) “under-represented” among those whose historic achievements and contributions are recognized. But how can a people’s achievements be unaffected by their oppression? One of the many reasons to be against oppression is that it keeps people from achieving all that they could have achieved if they had been treated more decently. To proclaim oppression and still expect to find the oppressed equally represented among those with historic achievements and contributions is almost a contradiction in terms.

    The past is many things, but one thing it is, is irrevocable. A past to your liking is not an entitlement.

    Don’t we need multiculturalism to get people to understand each other and get along with each other?

    Since this is an empirical question, you would expect people to seek an empirical answer, yet most of those who talk this way seem content to treat the matter as axiomatic. But is there any evidence that colleges that have gone whole hog into multiculturalism have better relations among the various groups on campus? Or is it precisely on such campuses that separatism and hostility are worse than on campuses that have not gone in for the multicultural craze?

    You want to see multiculturalism in action? Look at Yugoslavia, at Lebanon, at Sri Lanka, at Northern Ireland, at Azerbaijan, or wherever else group “identity” has been hyped. There is no point in the multiculturalists’ saying that this is not what they have in mind. You might as well open the floodgates and then say that you don’t mean for people to drown. Once you have opened the floodgates, you can’t tell the water where to go.

    How are we to be part of the global economy, or engage in all sorts of other international activities, without being multicultural?

    Ask the Japanese. They are one of the most insular and self-complacent peoples on Earth today. Yet they dominate international markets, international finance, international scientific and technological advances, and send armies of tourists around the world. This is not a defense of insularity or of the Japanese. It is simply a plain statement of fact that contradicts one of the many lofty and arbitrary dogmas of multiculturalism.

  4. Amen to all these sentiments. It is very sad how little brilliant people are read and how influential the fools.

  5. You realize this woman has been overpraised and overpromoted for 30 years. AG Sulzberger was all set to begin another round when he was shamed into retreat by academic historians. Then another round courtesy the University of North Carolina and then another from Howard.

    If she were a Waterloo bus driver’s daughter with white skin, it’s a reasonable wager she’d have attended not Notre Dame but one of Iowa’s three state schools, majored in some occupational subject, had salaried positions in business or in government, and been treated more or less normally by her supervisors. She would be someone you’d never have heard of, someone more content with life than she is, something other that what she is: a narcissistic monster.

  6. Just saw that Mayor Pete said that there were too many White Men in Construction and not enough POC’s. He should come out to CO where it seems the majority are from South of the Border (and not the restaurant). Said nothing on all the train derailments (two more today) nor all the airplane accidents.

  7. Sorry to hear of your trouble with getting people to appreciate Sowell. I have not tried, beyond giving a few friends a few copies. Not exactly a frenzy of conversion there.

    It is a terrible loss. And when I become king I will insist on Sowell being taught in every grade at every school.

    Sure, I am kidding. But I wish I weren’t. He has a unique gift and we need it. Desperately.

  8. You realize this woman has been overpraised and overpromoted for 30 years.

    We all know this is true. I want to think that people like this, in their heart of hearts, know it’s true as well. Is this wishful thinking on my part?

  9. Which brings up the question, what proof of expertise in the subject would Jones accept? Degrees? I suspect Mr Sowell has more degrees from more prestigious institutions than Jones. And his were attained before the age of grade inflation, quota admissions and advancement or censorship of critiques of works of academics if the academics were of certain groups.

  10. Anytime someone says that cross cultural knowledge brings understanding and reduces conflict, I answer, “Don’t the Germans and French live right next to each other?”.

  11. Art Deco on February 13, 2023 at 5:47 pm said:
    “… If she were a Waterloo bus driver’s daughter with white skin, it’s a reasonable wager she’d have attended not Notre Dame but one of Iowa’s three state schools …”
    ______________________________________________________________

    I had no idea that Nikole Hannah-Jones grew up in Iowa. I grew curious, so I consulted Wikipedia, where I read that “Hannah-Jones was born in Waterloo, Iowa, to father Milton Hannah, who is African-American, and mother Cheryl A. Novotny, who is white and of Czech and English descent …”

    Nickole Hannah Jones asked “[o]ther than being Black, what exactly is Sowell’s expertise in slavery or history?”

    The racial rules of Woke logic are clear and sacrosanct.
    i.) All slaves were black.
    ii.) Thomas Sowell is black.
    iii.) Nickole Hannah-Jones is only half-black.
    iv.) Consequently, Sowell is right, and Hannah-Jones is wrong.

  12. I had no idea that Nikole Hannah-Jones grew up in Iowa.

    I’ve read the obituaries of her maternal-side grandparents. They were salt of the Earth. In spite of that, she was publishing hideous race jabber in the student newspaper at Notre Dame ca. 1995.

  13. Just saw that Mayor Pete said that there were too many White Men in Construction and not enough POC’s.

    Booty-gag knows nothing of construction workers beyond the look of their pecs.

  14. Other than being Black, what exactly is Sowell’s expertise in slavery or history?

    All I can say is that I have never caught a factual error in Sowell’s books, but in a quick skimming of her 1619 Project, I caught two errors-and I took only one history course in college.

    She puts the “Soph” into Sophmoric.

  15. @ Cornflour > “iii.) Nickole Hannah-Jones is only half-black.
    iv.) Consequently, Sowell is right, and Hannah-Jones is wrong.”

    Works for Obama as well.
    And ALL the white Democrats pushing this 1619 nonsense.

  16. This is an example of how Twitter can be helpful. Lots of people who might never have encountered Sowell have now heard of him because of this, and many are no doubt googling him and some will now read him. That one embarrassing tweet launched a whole cascade of discussions that this gal can’t control. That’s why the Ruling Class (or whatever you want to call them) worked so hard to control the platform, so this wouldn’t happen — and that’s why Musk is liberating the platform, so that it will happen as much as possible.

  17. So much ignorance in one mere sentence. It just makes me sad and angry at the same time.

  18. For more – much more – about Nikole Hannah-Jones, check out this Tablet article from September of 2022:

    https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/making-of-nikole-hannah-jones-waterloo-iowa-1619-project-new-york-times

    In a discussion of her family history, this passage is particularly revelatory:

    “One day, says Hannah-Jones, when she was 8 years old, Milton [her father] sat her and her young sisters down to explain to them that they were Black and would remain so all their life, since they would always be treated as such, just as he had—and that this would never change. In interviews and in her writing, Hannah-Jones has frequently referred to this story as the ur-moment of her racial consciousness.”

    “In Nikole’s daily life, however, it was Cheryl [her mother], the politically committed and socially conscious Christian, who took her daughters to “a social justice type of Catholic Church,” as Cheryl described it to me, and initiated them into civil rights activism, also starting when Nikole was only 8. “Years before it became a national holiday,” Hannah-Jones confirmed for me, “our mother would take us to the Martin Luther King marches to commemorate King’s birthday.” And what about Milton? “My father?” she asked, giggling good-naturedly at the preposterousness of such a prospect. “No! He did not come to these MLK protests. Certainly not.”

    But, within the article there is much, much more…

  19. Milton Hannah lived and died in Waterloo, Iowa. He married around age 30 to a a woman a half dozen years his junior (before or after he’d impregnated her, not sure), and remained married to her for 30-odd years until his death; he had an older daughter the issue of a teen-age tryst.. He was a bus driver. Among black men, driving buses and delivery trucks is the modal way of earning a living; there is no occupation more common. (Among black women, I think the most common occupation is nurse’s aide). His life was a mix of things very common-and-garden and things quite eccentric.

    His father-in-law was a skilled worker (machinist, I think) and his mother-in-law a schoolteacher turned housewife. I seriously doubt Milton Hannah was who they had in mind for their daughter as a husband. There is a subtype of white women with a curious affinity for all things black, and Cheryl Novotny appears to be of that type. (I’ve known a pair, contemporaries of Cheryl Novotny, who were good friends as well as being into black men). She’s also been addled by the notion that the problems of black people are things you can address by protesting; I’m wagering her late husband had more sense than that.

    The account is anachronistic in one detail. Nicole Hannah reached her 8th birthday in 1984. There was already a King holiday at that time.

    To be crass for a moment, I do wonder to what extent the life course and worldview of Cheryl Novotny and her daughters has been influenced by one blatant feature: three of the four of them are decidedly unattractive women, and daughter Nikole has added terrible grooming to the mix. The next generation is no great shakes either.

  20. But, within the article there is much, much more…

    There look to be some interesting bits of local history there, but I’m wagering a line-by-line read will tell you more about Mark Weitzman than it will tell you about Waterloo (or the problems of blacks in Waterloo).

  21. “I would like to take you seriously, but to do so would affront your intelligence.”

    William F Buckley

  22. }}} Anytime someone says that cross cultural knowledge brings understanding and reduces conflict, I answer, “Don’t the Germans and French live right next to each other?”.

    True, but everyone hates the French. Even the French. 😀

    .

    }}} She puts the “Soph” into Sophmoric.

    More importantly, she gives meaning to the term “Sophmoron”.

  23. True, but everyone hates the French. Even the French.

    And they’re fond of … the Germans?

  24. I am hardly surprised by this. The “General Social Survey” shows a shocking decline in college students IQ scores the past half century. A dramatic drop occurred among college graduates, from 113.3 in the 60s to 100.4 in the 2010 decade. For those with graduate degrees, the fall was from 114.0 to 105.8. Assuming you need a score of at least 110 on an IQ test to do college level work, this means most of the college students today can’t do college level work. That’s why you have all these courses in basket weaving, pottery, journalism, teacher education.

  25. A dramatic drop occurred among college graduates, from 113.3 in the 60s to 100.4 in the 2010 decade.

    Snooze. About 25% of the 1947 birth cohort cadged a baccalaureate degree. About 45% of the 1995 birth cohort has done so.

  26. Gringo: }}} She puts the “Soph” into Sophmoric.

    OhBloodyHell:More importantly, she gives meaning to the term “Sophmoron”.

    Yes, indeed. 🙂

  27. if the tree is lerone bennett, no wonder nhj clueless, they could liberate themselves, why was it when the union army pulled out, reconstruction ended,
    the fact that lincoln was killed by a confederate agent, cuts not ice with him, but this is the kind of high order thinking that had dubois endorsing wilson, next up his dalliance with fascism and stalinism in short order,

  28. hanna jones should offer to debate Mr. Sowell; until that happens she is simply a black race baiter

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>