As a black woman, finding Thomas Sowell in high school was the most liberating thing that ever happened to me. It allowed me to stop thinking that i was doomed, and to stop listening to people that insisted that i was at a disadvantage so that i could start taking responsibility for my own grades in school and ultimately determine my own future. The greatest thing society can do for any 'disadvantaged group' is to leave them alone and to stop telling them they are incapable of achieving.
I wish I had found out about Mr. Sowell while I was in high school! A teacher of teachers. Even though I'm puerto rican, I look up to this man and pray for more like him. This is the kind of role model we should steer our youngters towards. No matter what color you are. Truth is truth.
Final remark is very enlightening: why political leaders are seldom enthusiastic about individual freedom? Because if you love freedom, leaders are not important in your life.
Victorio Puddu Ironically his last statement the only statement that I disagreed with. In the case of black Americans, many did well under good and constructive leadership. Men like Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X and Dr King had immediate and powerful results in improving the black community, not only in areas of education but in upward mobility, crime decrease and enterprise. I believe that if men like that had been able to continue their work without interference, black Americans would not have half the social problems they suffer from today. If there was ever a community in need of constructive leadership then it is black Americans. However I am no intellectual, so I cannot tell you why this is the case or why black Americans need leadership when the Japanese and/or east Indian Americans do not.
dan theman Interesting point of view. There are leaders and leaders. Maybe we can separate them into two groups: those who want to empower you, and those who want to convince you that you need them.
Just found out this man served in the Korean war with the Marines. As a Marine vet, I want to thank him for his service, in and out of the military. He's my hero.
this is gotta be THE MOST honest and free discussion of this now considered unspeakable subject that I have EVER seen. Why don't we do interviews like this anymore?
They do exist but not of this caliber. A couple reasons i can think of explain this. Buckley and Sowell both were intelligent conservatives that knew how to debate without ad hominems. Journalism and TV are much more toxic now. Secondly there are only a few black conservative intellectuals that were produced by academia since then. Sowell and Clarence Thomas were excommunicated from liberal media and intelkectual circles for their audacity to disagree. Anyway. Check out JAson Riley and John McWhorter, they carry Sowell's torch.
David Owen I don't agree with everything Sowell says, I think he's a bit too far on the right. For example what he said about the American health care system is just bogus. But the point was how this conversation was carried forward, as you say, without ad hominems but with very calm and reasonable manners in questioning and answering. That's how it should be done, with anybody. We don't see this anymore sadly. It's all about "the feeeeeelllls!" now
Free Information This is kind of a straw-man. Nowadays every interview also asks questions that the interviewee has answered in his/her book, or even what the interviewee has answered in other interviews or videos that if you just spend 20 to on hour watching all the answers would be there, but what ended up being is simply emotional attacks if it's a controversial topic. The questions the interviewer asked here are actually VERY critical, they are questions that I would've asked. They are much more on point than most other questions that I've seen being asked in nowadays, which generally consist of ad hominem attacks.
Yeah most present interviews, debates, discussions and like could certainly need more quality from all participants. I'll give you that. And Sowell is indeed well articulated. And his standpoints here has also outlined most of how affirmative actions has been handled in practice since the 1970s. Women, black, Latinos, Mexicans, you name it all these groups has been used to compete wages and working conditions into the ground. Very clever. For the 1 % who has profited.
+shankyxyz i noticed black people usually look really old or really young he isnt the first black dude ive seen who is in his 50s and looks like he is in his 30s my guess is genetics perhaps it has something to do with black skin pigmentation not being so adversely effected by sunlight?
Love Sowell. I owe him a debt of gratitude. He has given a voice to many blacks who have dared to think outside the box on issues of race and culture and who have embraced conservative and/or libertarian political worldviews.
I just love the contrast between Buckley and Sowell. Their accents and styles are so different. I loved watching Sowell, Buckley and Friedman debate a bunch of leftists, it was like the dream team!
Try and find a Cadillac car dealer/salesman and ask him if it really matters what kind of car you buy-or a dealer/salesman selling any brand of automobile for that matter. So if a leader says leadership is not really all that important, he/she is in fact either a bold faced liar or a certifiable moron.
This man is really amazing. Sharp intellect and intellectual honesty. Deep and true insights. Most politically incorrect. Perhaps too discomforting for the western selfserving ideologs.
Thank you Dr. Thomas Sowell for my Daly dose of Sowell. Always appreciate your Real History Lesson. Shame we don’t have more Teachers like him. A True American 🇺🇸 Treasure and Patriot that should be Treasured for all eternity. All day long Yahoo
Thomas Sowell is a national treasure and with the death of Walt Williams earlier this year, is one of the last standard bearers of sanity left in academia. He will be sorely missed.
This man is amazing, a real inspiration to all! If everyone would be more like him, it would be nearly impossible to be racist. Everyone, of every race, should be more like this guy and be inspired by him to work study and succeed!
Thomas Sowell was able to rise above difficult obstacles and in a meritocracy, his intelligence , wisdom, and hard work couldn't be denied. Contrast that with today's victomhood mentality. What has the country done for me? The 1619 project, BLM, and codified diversity policies are clearly doubling down on idiocy. God help us.
His books are basic economics especially his book Basic Economics. My 16 year old brother is reading it right now quickly gaining a better understanding of economics than most of his teachers.
Just came here from a sociologist talking about the mystery of why there's so many poor among blacks and this man had already figured out over 30 years ago
Jesse Jackson an other so called black leaders have set the image of blacks in america decades back. We need more people like Thomas Sowell to be a more visible voice in the political discussion.
He is simply brilliant. And lest this be lost he is a SENIOR FELLOW at the Hoover Institute. They do not hand out fellowships like candy corn. You must prove your worth for that distinction.
Pandering - so they can be seen to be doing something. Other that that they would have to tell you the hard truth. Your on your own - you got it or you haven’t and you trim the cloth and your ambitions to suit.
Spot on and Brilliant. My family and I used to be homeless for 3 years but through adversary, we pulled out of that situation and now have left our previous impoverish conditions. I did not give up but kept going through my disappointments. Now, I may agree that blacks, Hispanics, can have a high income through having a college education but the issue in 2018, there are a huge skills gap among American college graduates. Why? No common sense in our schools since college and universities are offering gender and feminism studies.
I believe the intentions of affirmative action are excellent intentions. The intentions of affirmative actions are to help prevent discrimination, racism, etc, which are excellent intentions. The problem with affirmative action is that with affirmative action, people are often hired for a job, chosen for a job, chosen for a college, etc due to their skin color instead of their qualifications, skills, etc. When bosses are forced to hire a certain percentage of people of a certain race in order to fill a quota, it makes bosses so desperate to hire people of a certain race that bosses frequently (not always) don't hold some employees to the same hiring standards as other employees. When a boss doesn't have anyone of a certain race working at his or her company, that doesn't mean the boss is racist. A lot of times when a boss doesn't have anyone of a certain race working at his or her company, it's because that boss hasn't found any qualified applicants of that particular race for the job; not because of racism. Conservatives tend to be against affirmative action not because of them being racist, but because affirmative action has the tendency for bosses to choose candidates for a job based on their race instead of their character, work ethic, skill level, qualifications, talents, etc. Conservatives don't like it when less qualified applicants get chosen for a job or college over more qualified applicants, which is understandable since the fair thing is for the most qualified people to be chosen over the applicants that are not as qualified. People should be chosen for a college based on their work ethic, skill level, grades, recommendation letters, etc. People should be chosen for a job based on their character, work ethic, skill level, qualifications, talents, etc.
Unfortunately, a lot of people have emotional attachments to their political beliefs, which is why they tend to plug their ears when confronted with reasoning that conflicts with those beliefs. That's why I like Sowell.. .he never lets his emotions overpower his reasoning, and he always has data to back up his claims.
I was arguing with a feminist about affirmative action and the gender wage gap. I told her to youtube and read Thomas Sowell. She asked who Sowell was....things went downhill from there. She youtubed him and read a couple of his studies (if I believe her)then responded that she would not entertain Sowell's fringe arguments. She basically plugged her fingers into her ears and repeated "Nyaah Nyaah Nyah I can't hear you!"...I think we are doomed.
No. I had to put forth a hell of a lot of hard work all the same. I had a 4.0 and a 42 on my MCAT. Being a Native American was just icing on the cake to them.
Are there like some 20-hour interviews of Sowell and Friedman that you cut from? It's like you stole Santa's bag and endlessly keep pulling out awesome liberty tidbits! As always thanks.
Any social program is as effective as it’s results but whom can we trust to measure objective results...the government or the politicians who drafted the programs? My guess is neither, I’d suggest you do you own research and evaluation and arrive at your own truth. But most people simply avoid using their own minds and prefer to be “given the truth.” Your thoughts?
Good thing Sowell had affirmative action to help him be somebody.....Oh wait, he didn't need affirmative action. Only a little imagination, virtue and motivation.
Such a wise man. Many should take a leaf out of his book!! He makes a point!!! I presume the liberals do not wish to listen to him as they prefer him to takes sides and not be practical and real! What an imposing man with an amazing intellect and is so eloquent!!! Common sense immense.
You just made my point for me, thank you. Institutional racism and discrimination are what they are, and splitting hairs over what they are based on tends to be a game for those who tolerate or even aim to continue to such policies.
Can you love someone without some notion of reducing your masculinity? Either way, love, love, love my brother. GFY if you hate or dislike this man, greatest HUMAN BEING EVER.
I lived through forced bussing in Cleveland. It was such a waste of money, and we were told that black folks needed to go to schools with us to succeed. The security at our school, made it feel like a prison, and we had black and white bathrooms that were established pretty fast. Most of us had zero racial prejudices because, we never been around black folks, but after we kept getting jumped and robbed, we became racists, and many still are. We didn't welcome the change, but we were not physical, or challenging to the black folks, but they did not reciprocate the same manner.
You call it conservatism (fiscal conservatism, that is), I call it common sense. People have to come to terms with the fact that economics is not a matter of what's nice, but what works.
The purpose of it may have in fact been to just cause racial tension and act as a barrier against social cohesion among groups instead of actual anti-discrimination.
Can't both things be true that society's have patterns locally they way they talk-accents and that they are in a society and that affects them also-prop #9 as an example?
"Patricia Roberts Harris, an official in the Carter Administration, once said Sowell and Walter E. Williams "don't know what poverty is." Sowell called her position "a pathetic sign of intellectual bankruptcy," saying that he "was almost 9 years old before [he] lived in a home with [hot] running water" and that she "was a campus social leader in an 'exclusive sorority' -meaning that it was for middle-class (light-skinned) women" while he worked full-time and went to the same college at night."
That was sad of her to say that because he overcame a lot to be where he is at. She should have been celebrating his success, but she decided to do the opposite.
At 5:08 what's that term he uses to describe American Jews? I'm not trying to start a fight, I just think I've heard it before and was wondering what it was.
@@davidowen6431 He observed some interesting parallels between the northern working class (UK) and blacks in the USA, in regards to their cultural rejection of intellectual pursuit and profitable careers.
He has a point, and even within the United States, there are myriad examples of whites being prejudiced against other whites. Italians, Greeks, Irish, and Polish are just a few examples of Caucasians who also experienced institutionally-imposed disadvantage. The notion that mere skin color is the only basis upon which people choose to discriminate against others is limited and inherently ignorant.
Near the end, Buckley asks Sowell about the previous decade of affirmative action and the rise of single woman black households, if it is a correlation or coincidence. Sowell responds that he doesn't understand the question, and then goes on to reiterate his previous point. I'd really like to know Sowell's position because his only answer that I've ever found is that the welfare state is to blame. What about the rise of drug use, women's lib, the counter culture? These other social phenomena, IMO, may have played a role in the family breakdown. Thoughts anyone?
Richard Kelly The probability that a child may go astray and engage in those activities you just listed is higher in a single parents home than when the kid lives in household with both parents. So now you have to ask, what caused the spike in single parent homes among black families? Welfare. The incentive to be a single parent, with all the benefits that come with it. The rise of fatherless homes.
