Black Rednecks and White Liberals

Thomas Sowell

The book focuses on the historical and cultural dynamics that have profoundly shaped various social groups, particularly focusing on the Redneck culture and its enduring legacy, as well as the role of White Liberals in contemporary race relations.

It aims to untangle complex historical issues and challenge prevalent misconceptions, offering a deeper understanding rather than prescribing simplistic solutions.

Challenging Misconceptions and Seeking Understanding

Race and rhetoric have long been intertwined, often obscuring facts that contradict widely held beliefs and fallacies about racial and ethnic issues. Many prevailing misconceptions that poison race relations today stem from simple ignorance or, at times, more complex and less innocent reasons.

The Enduring Redneck Culture

The distinctive redneck or cracker culture, with its specific attitudes towards education, violence, and sex, did not originate in the American South. Instead, its roots lie in certain parts of the British Isles, from which many White Southerners migrated.

This culture, characterised by a unique social pattern, long ago faded in its place of origin in Britain. However, it persisted and survived in the American South, and, remarkably, elements of it continue to be found today in the poorest and most troubled urban Black ghettos.

It is a common historical phenomenon for a transplanted culture to endure longer and retain archaic characteristics in its new home than in its place of origin, much like the French spoken in Quebec or Spanish in Mexico.

Characteristics of the Redneck Culture:

Before the political and cultural unification of the British Isles, the "rednecks" of these regions were often described as among the most disorderly inhabitants of a deeply disordered land.

In a world of ineffective laws and constant dangers, individuals prioritised fleeting pleasures, with prudence and long-range planning offering little reward. This environment was not conducive to the promotion or admiration of intellectual pursuits like books, businesses, technology, or science. Instead, manliness and its forceful projection were highly valued.

Key social patterns prevalent among Southern whites who embodied this culture included:

• An aversion to work that was not recreational, particularly to steady, routine labour. While there was no aversion to strenuous physical activity in dancing, fighting, or hunting, entrepreneurship and scholarship were not prominent interests.
• A proneness to violence, often stemming from a touchy pride and leading to situations where acts of killing could occur with social approval and impunity. Observers noted that enemies might exchange insults, and one would shoot the other, claiming self-defence. Such actions were often condoned by juries who felt they would have acted similarly. Public murders, even duels culminating in brutal butchery, were permitted, with the perpetrators sometimes seeing their social standing advance. This cultural aspect finds chilling parallels in the behaviour of contemporary ghetto gangs who commit violence over perceived disrespect or dissing.
• Neglect of education and intellectual activity. Studies of 17th-century colonial Virginia records revealed widespread illiteracy among White males.
• Sexual promiscuity and improvidence.
• Drunkenness.
• A distinctive style of religious oratory marked by strident rhetoric, unbridled emotions, and flamboyant imagery. This style, originating in Britain, also carried over into the political oratory of the Jim Crow and Civil Rights eras, continuing into modern times among Black politicians, preachers, and activists. Unlike the "meeting and lecture" approach of colonial Massachusetts, this Southern religious style featured loud, dramatic, and emotionally charged sermons.

The Persistence and Transformation of Culture:

While cultural patterns do not remain rigidly unchanged over centuries, and differences exist between White and Black individuals within this subculture, the continuity is remarkable.

Blacks and Whites in the South share the bonds of a common heritage, a common tragedy, and often speak a common language, despite rarely acknowledging it. The intimidating ethnic style of many underclass Black males and the high rates of Black-on-Black violence, often driven by a lack of respect, echo the touchy pride and hair-trigger violence of historical rednecks and crackers.

A significant cultural transformation occurred in the South through institutions established by New England missionaries, such as Oberlin College and Dunbar High School. These institutions sought to deliberately supplant the existing culture by transplanting "Yankee Virtues" of industry, thrift, correct English, courteous speech, and strict morality.

They aimed to make Black students different from the Black masses and their emotional religious practices. This approach, however discordant with contemporary multicultural views, was remarkably effective.

This cultural difference, rather than biology, led to striking socioeconomic disparities among Blacks, just as it did among Whites. Those immersed in the redneck culture consistently lagged behind.

The Role of White Liberals in Perpetuating Counterproductive Lifestyles

A significant factor in the persistence of this counterproductive culture among Black Americans is the support it has received from White liberals, acting in various capacities as intellectuals, politicians, celebrities, judges, and teachers. They have inadvertently or deliberately aided and abetted the perpetuation of a self-destructive lifestyle among "black rednecks."

This perpetuation is enabled by several mechanisms:

• The Welfare State has insulated individuals from many painful consequences of this lifestyle, which historically forced previous generations to abandon the redneck culture and its values.
• Lax law enforcement has allowed the violent and criminal aspects of this culture to persist without adequate deterrence.
• Non-judgmental intellectual trends have enabled this culture to escape moral condemnation. Intellectuals, particularly White intellectuals, have been instrumental in transforming the "black redneck culture" into a sacrosanct symbol of racial identity.

They have promoted historical misconceptions and misreadings of contemporary life, presenting the problems of Black people primarily as consequences of white actions, past or present. This provides a blanket excuse for shortcomings and even crimes.

• A selectively applied solicitude is directed towards Blacks primarily as victims, welfare mothers, criminals, or countercultural symbols. There is notably less interest in Black individuals who advance themselves within existing societal structures, such as military members or successful Black educators and entrepreneurs.
• There is a tendency to ignore or evade black anti-Semitism and hostility towards other minorities (e.g., Koreans). The very definition of "racism" has been arbitrarily redefined to exclude groups without power, conveniently overlooking racism originating from Black communities.
• The thuggish and brutal lifestyle glorified in gangster rap is not merely condoned but often celebrated by many White intellectuals, who may justify it as a "political voice of the poor" or a form of social justice protest.
• An identity fetish has emerged in the post-1960s era, promoting the idea that Black individuals who do not conform to the "ghetto" or "black redneck" culture are not "authentic Blacks." This leads to accusations of "acting White" against those who prioritise education and academic achievement.

This is deeply ironic, as those making such accusations are perpetuating a redneck culture from a bygone era, echoing the violence, arrogance, and self-dramatisation common for centuries in White redneck culture and its British antecedents.

This "identity fetish" also fosters a rigid Conformity of beliefs among Black people, ostracising those with differing viewpoints. This intellectual intolerance mirrors the "intellectual blockade" prevalent in the antebellum South against any questioning of slavery.

Misconceptions of History and the Reality of Slavery

Many prevailing misconceptions about the history of both Black and White Americans arise from attempts to conflate morality with causation. The profound moral evil of Slavery is frequently used as a causal explanation for contemporary negative social phenomena, even when these phenomena have distinct historical bases. For instance, the touchy pride and propensity for violence among White Southerners are often attributed to their perceived unbridled domination over slaves. However, these very same attitudes were present among their ancestors in Britain, where slavery did not exist, and also in parts of the South where slaves were virtually absent.

Slavery has become an all-purpose explanation for a range of social issues, from broken families to poor education, low labour force participation, and high rates of crime and violence.

Yet, historical evidence often contradicts these assertions; for example, census data shows that non-White labour force participation rates were higher than those of Whites in 1920 and 1930. Regardless of its origin, counterproductive behaviour must be addressed if genuine progress is the goal.

The narrative often presented, particularly by those with incentives to magnify their own roles in racial progress, frames the advancement of Black people as primarily a consequence of the Civil Rights movement and political action. This conveniently overlooks a factual history showing more significant economic advancement before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 than after it.

Slavery in a Worldwide Perspective:

Contrary to popular portrayals, slavery was a worldwide institution that existed for thousands of years, not a peculiar evil of American society, the White race, or Western Civilisation alone.

While the horrors of transatlantic slavery should not be ignored, downplayed, or excused, the lopsided historical coverage often ignores the even larger numbers of Africans enslaved in Islamic countries, vast numbers of Europeans enslaved by North African pirates, and forms of serfdom and servitude within Europe itself.

Interestingly, Europeans, despite being leading slave traders in the 18th century, became the primary destroyers of slavery around the world in the 19th century.

This abolitionist movement, driven initially by very conservative religious activists, coincided with the zenith of Western power and hegemony, making it essentially European imperialism that ultimately ended slavery globally.

Non-Western societies, by contrast, developed no such fervent anti-slavery movements, often viewing abolition as incomprehensible or even impious, given its acceptance in texts like the Quran.

Africans were not innocent victims baffled by white men taking them in chains; the region of West Africa from which many slaves came was a significant slave-trading hub, and many Africans participated in the capture and sale of other Africans.

The abolition of slavery in the American South was a traumatic process, culminating in the Civil War, which cost one life for every six slaves freed. The "three-fifths compromise" in the US Constitution, which counted a portion of the slave population for representation, was a political compromise to achieve agreement, not a statement about the inherent value of Black individuals.

Historical figures like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, often subjected to moral condemnation today, actively worked within the constraints of their times to limit and eventually end slavery, despite facing significant opposition.

Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was a strategic military necessity, not a purely moral declaration, carefully crafted to maximise its constitutional and political viability. These historical actions, taken amidst immense challenges, are frequently overlooked by those who judge the past by present-day moral standards and instrumental agendas.

Black Education: Achievements, Myths, and Challenges

The narrative surrounding Black education is often dominated by prevailing fashions and political agendas rather than empirical evidence.

Yet, there are concrete historical and contemporary examples of highly successful schools serving predominantly Black and low-income minority students. Schools like Bennett Q Elementary, Wesley Elementary, and KIPP Academy have achieved remarkable improvements in reading and maths scores, often against the tide of established educational dogma.

These successes typically stem from a focus on hard work, extended classroom time, and practical, empirically-based curricula, often opposing methods favoured by education establishments, such as "whole language" or "bilingual approaches."

Despite the historical reality of courageous Black individuals seeking education even when it was illegal (e.g., clandestine schools in the antebellum South), the notion that Black students who excel academically are "acting White" is a painful irony. This counterproductive idea, alongside criticisms of grammar and composition as "pedantic," hinders educational progress.

After emancipation, the achievement of literacy by a majority of Black Americans within two generations was an accomplishment seldom witnessed in human history. However, the history of successful Black schools and this rapid literacy acquisition often attracts little interest from historians or educators because it does not align with contemporary political agendas focused on victimhood.

Similarly, claims that "Black English" or Ebonics derive from African speech patterns are largely fictitious; many of these linguistic peculiarities trace back to speech patterns in the British Isles centuries ago. Afrocentric education is often remote from Africa and serves to fill a cultural void, gaining political support and funding despite lacking educational authenticity or effectiveness.