See also John Derbyshire: Ray Wolters’ THE LONG CRUSADE And VDARE.com
Let me begin by saying that social science theories, whether they are right or wrong, are more influential than is commonly acknowledged. I’d like to illustrate this point by discussing three theories of race relations.
- One was put forward by W. E. B. Du Bois in his book of 1899, The Philadelphia Negro .
- Gunnar Myrdal presented a second theory in his book of 1944, An American Dilemma.
- And James S. Coleman modified Myrdal’s theory in a report of 1966, Equality of Educational Opportunity. [PDF]. I will also have something to say about Human Bio-Diversity and a current revival of interests in the evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin.
W. E. B. Du Bois invented "white guilt", and he did so by emphasizing white responsibility for black failure.
Before Du Bois, most of the scholarship on American racial problems had regarded human nature as the source of black deficiency. Du Bois challenged the conventional wisdom of his era when he blamed whites for the problems of blacks.
Du Bois conceded that blacks, although only four percent of the population in Philadelphia, committed 22 percent of the serious crimes. Du Bois also recognized that, as he put it, “sexual looseness” brought “adultery and prostitution in its train.” And Du Bois did not ignore the importance of self-help. In 1896, he told one group of blacks that “the first and greatest step [toward progress] is the correction of the immorality, crime and laziness among Negroes themselves.”
But even more, Du Bois praised Read more >>