Ferguson has
no significant macroeconomic impact. But no self-respecting blogger can ignore
all the words and scenes associated with that town near St. Louis, Missouri.
One could not get through Thanksgiving or Black Friday without constant
reminders and it threatens to keep going for some time.
My take is broader and more personal than the police case. I have heard and read so much about Ferguson coming from so many
different viewpoints that it does none of us any good for me to regurgitate or
pile on.
Ferguson
makes me think of what happens in every family. Ashley screams – Jason hit me.
Jason explains that Ashley kept bugging him. Ashley retorts that she bugged him
because he took her soccer ball. Jason explains that all was great before
Ashley was born. It is pretty obvious that no amount of accusation is going to
solve anything.
Timeout for both of them is a temporary but an effective way to
restore peace and quiet. Jason and Ashley are now grown and are great friends.
How did we get from there to here?
I don’t mean
to make light of racial issues in the US. But it does seem to me that if we get
beyond the actual legal case in question, we quickly realize that much of the
intensity of the aftermath involve whites and blacks talking or shouting over
each other’s head. From my vantage point nothing very constructive is
happening. It is like Jason and Ashley when they were kids. A timeout is called
for.
Another
parental approach for rival siblings is to follow timeout with a second stage.
Okay – the two of you will go into one room with a locked door and you may not
come out to play or eat or send texts or do anything until you explain how you
are going to get along better in the future.
That’s what
I would love to see. Let’s face it. Blacks can charge that some whites are
racist and they place numerous roadblocks to prevent Black success. Whites can
point to persistent social problems among black communities that contribute to Black problems. Inasmuch we shouldn’t for a moment – whether we are Black or White – praise the progress that has been made in race relations. The elephant in the
shop is a shameful lack of racial progress.
That’s where
this gets personal. I remember growing up in Miami – I was born there and then left
to go to Atlanta to college. Racial segregation was the ruling culture in
Miami. As a barely middle income kid, my neighborhood was on the border of the
black section of Coconut Grove. I saw lots of black people. But I never went to
school with one in segregated public schools. As you may know, blacks were
required to sit in the back sections of buses. I never had a black friend until
a summer job when I was 18 years old.
I could go
on but you get the picture. The point of the picture is that my parents taught
me that segregation is immoral. They believed there was no excuse for the way Black people were discriminated against and they firmly believed that in my
lifetime things would change for the better. I never challenged that. It was
hard to believe – especially after the Civil Rights movement, that segregation
and discrimination would be measurable 50 years later.
My parents were
both right and wrong. While Black ghettos remain, many escaped segregation and
many have done well despite being minority citizens in a majority White country.
While the advancements are real and recognizable they remain insufficient.
That’s the elephant in the room. Damn it, it is deplorable that so much
inequality and discrimination still exists.
And of
course, depending on your race or your ideology you are now ready to fight. And
you might want to start with me! Whites point their fingers at Blacks and vice
versa. But in my humble opinion, neither side is willing to admit that both are
responsible for the lack of progress. But they are. Both Blacks and Whites contribute
to segregation and inequality. Both blacks and whites hold on to extreme
ideologies and historical mistrusts and hatreds. Both blacks and whites hold on
to stories that “prove” they are right.
Well, they
can hold onto all that destructive crap all they want. Maybe it serves the
wealth and power of some. Maybe it is easier to stay segregated? All I know is
that we can and should do better. Segregation and racial hatred are immoral and
wasteful. What I know is that it will take REAL leaders on both sides who
really care about human beings. It will take sitting together in a room for as
long as it takes to begin a sincere dialogue about mutual errors and potential
successes.
I spent time
this Thanksgiving holiday with some of my grandchildren. Maybe you did too.
What are we supposed to tell them about the next 50 years? That’s what Ferguson
means to me.
Some may call me simplistic to believe that leaders could sit down and make progress on something that has festered for more than half a century. And maybe it won't happen. But let's face it, doing nothing or relying on violence is just going to make things worse. I'd rather harp on the real but unpopular than to continue the disastrous status quo of finger pointing. Now where is that JD?
Some may call me simplistic to believe that leaders could sit down and make progress on something that has festered for more than half a century. And maybe it won't happen. But let's face it, doing nothing or relying on violence is just going to make things worse. I'd rather harp on the real but unpopular than to continue the disastrous status quo of finger pointing. Now where is that JD?
"I think the more that people have an equity stake in the local economy the less violent they will be and the more they will cooperate with the police. It is a good sign that there are stories today about how the business owners and community leaders were surprised at the violence. Nobody was surprised at the violence in the 1960s. Being surprised means that many had a stake in the local economy. More need to have that stake. Having said this, we also need to enforce the law on those who are trying to spark violence for their own purposes, starting with the "Burn the bitch down" guy."
ReplyDeleteIMHO all the hoopla about multiculturalism has done more to widen the racial divide than anything else. When we all accept that we are not "hyphenated Americans," things may start to improve.
ReplyDelete"The Ferguson episode has starkly revealed several key and sometimes contradictory elements of the elite liberal mindset. The elites are in deep denial about black underclass behavior. They seem to believe that black crime is no higher than white crime, leading to the presumption that law-enforcement activity, if unbiased, would be equally spread between white and black neighborhoods. Ezra Klein is dumbfounded that Michael Brown would have refused to move from the middle of the street or cursed at or attacked an officer. Klein has clearly not spent much time in Central Brooklyn. Yet the liberal elites have also so lowered their expectations for black behavior that they accept criminality as normal. Stealing from a store clerk or assaulting an officer is now considered beneath mention. And black rioting, too, is both understandable and, it would seem, justified when, as in Ferguson, the police are “justifiably seen as an alien, occupying force that is synonymous with state-sponsored abuse,” in the Times’ words.
ReplyDeleteI left out the source of the above words...
DeleteThere is another aspect of this that should be said. From the National Review Online "The Meaning of Ferguson" which is a reaction to the NY Times editorial blaming police.
"The Ferguson episode has starkly revealed several key and sometimes contradictory elements of the elite liberal mindset. The elites are in deep denial about black underclass behavior. They seem to believe that black crime is no higher than white crime, leading to the presumption that law-enforcement activity, if unbiased, would be equally spread between white and black neighborhoods. Ezra Klein is dumbfounded that Michael Brown would have refused to move from the middle of the street or cursed at or attacked an officer. Klein has clearly not spent much time in Central Brooklyn. Yet the liberal elites have also so lowered their expectations for black behavior that they accept criminality as normal. Stealing from a store clerk or assaulting an officer is now considered beneath mention. And black rioting, too, is both understandable and, it would seem, justified when, as in Ferguson, the police are “justifiably seen as an alien, occupying force that is synonymous with state-sponsored abuse,” in the Times’ words.
Hmm. First, I liked reading that thoughtful piece in an economics blog.
ReplyDeleteThen, if I may, add two related observations. One source comes from my work in Norway where I met and older work colleague. In the late 1980's he attended an academic conference and for he first time met a white peer engineering professor from Poland. The brilliant Polish professor attended the conference wearing threadbare rags. He simply had nothing better to wear. In their conversation, he explained why European people think Polish people are crooks because at that time theft and corruption in Poland were a major problem. The Polish professor said people steal because many need to survive, even to steal shingles from a jobsite to keep the rainwater from their house.
The second source is the writings of Harvard economist Dr. John Kenneth Galbraith, in either the book New Industrial State or book the Affluent Society. He said people use violence and drugs as and escape gloom reality. He also notes the academic disciple of economics originated 300 years ago because smart people grew sick and tired of being poor at a time when nearly everyone worldwide was poor. Galbraith said the essential purpose of economics is to use its skills and talents to raise living standards to a civil level.
What I like most about your blog today because it implies that economists have an ideal about raising living standards for those at the economic bottom and not only of those who are already wealthy. Thank you for keeping that beautiful and noble flame alive!
Thanks for your comment. It shows that people can take away very different things from one posting. I don't think I directly said anything about living standards for anyone much less the poor. But I do agree that if we solved some of these racial problems we would help a lot of people. When I do write about economics and economic growth I usually don't like to think of things in terms of class struggle. I am not a Marxian. I like the idea that a rising tide lifts most boats. But today I mostly wanted to work on the idea that we need to work on race relations just for the sake of moral and ethical reasons. Thanks again for your comments.
DeleteYou didn't comment on living standards. My point was that the unfortunate situation in Ferguson may be more about economics than about race. When white people are poor in the presence of the wealthy, even white people behave the same as other races did in Ferguson. That was my colleagues observation in Poland as well.
DeleteGot it! Thinks for the clarification. It is an interesting puzzle. If race causes economics...and economics causes problems -- then maybe we are back to race causing the problems?
DeleteDear LSD. Yesterday Philly’s mayor, Nutter, and Prez of the National Urban League, Morial, stated stats that got my attention: That w-on-w crime is as prevalent as b-on-b crime—that about 80% of offender/victim is the same race. I assume this was to defuse/negate/mitigate recent newz that b-on-b crime is rampant (relative to w-on-w crime). Curiosity got the best of me so I researched recent posts and govomit websites. The following from the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division and 2014 Census. Once again, folks present only facts that bolster their narrative. Nutter’s and Morial’s statements are kind of true, but misleading. While w-w crime is 83% of reported crimes, b-b is 91%. Note that b-on-w crime percentage-wise is twice that of w-on-b crime; 14% vs. 7%. Note also that while whites committed more crimes they account for 77% of the population whereas blacks account for 13%--as a percentage of population blacks commit relatively more crime. So, while the Nutters and Morials are trying to rationalize white crime to black crime the numbers don’t support that POV. The black crime situation is much more relatively worse than white crime. (Note: this table doesn’t account for type/severity of crime or gender.)
ReplyDeleteEveryone is saying we need that “adult” dialogue about race, that we need to close the racial divide, and to improve relations. Wunnerful stuff, true, and very soapy—all yak and no shack. We’ve had that chat since civil rights, affirmative action, voting rights, welfare programs et al (not to say that blacks are the only beneficiaries of welfare—blacks and whites share the same at about 39%) and it boggles me to explain how the black community has not improved commensurably over 60 years.
There has been a gradual degradation of U.S. culture/society affecting blacks and whites somewhat unequally—for arguments sake—but not Asians (I put Latinos in a different group). A loosening of virtue, self-reliance, respect for teachers/authority (can we say police?) and education, disintegration of the two-parent family (affecting significantly more blacks), and a general waning of mores and social values. I say unequally because these conditions I believe relate more to blacks than whites. Why not Asians? I think we can agree because of the values Asian families instill in their children. Those are not relative moral values but values of respect for family, education, authority, and achievement—and, oh, yeah, staying out of jail, not stealing Swisher Sweets, and going to the ground when a gun-aiming cop tells you to.
Anonymous refers to liberals. Our country’s incremental progress (not in the favorable sense but of movement) toward socialism since FDR/WWII has not occurred because Republican/Conservative values somehow penetrated legislation affecting our social and economic lives, but because Republicans caved and compromised. The incremental shift toward socialism is consistent with liberalism’s sweet spot—socialization of outcomes (equal winners and losers) in education, society, and economy. No one is responsible; it’s society’s fault.
That “adult” chat about race—if it ever occurs—should include, if not start with, the black community explaining how it failed to take advantage of the “investment” this country has made during the past 60 years to help it toward parity. Maybe some coaching from the Asian community would help. Maybe blacks embracing Republican values would help.
Offender
Total 2014%
White Black Crimes of Pop.
Victim
White 83% 14% 3,078 77%
Black 7% 91% 2,640 13%
The table at the bottom did not turn out right. This blog spot is not flexible in some ways. I apologize. LSD.
Delete