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We’ve got the great Shelby Steele on the podcast this week (read him fantastic WSJ column Black Protest Has Lost Its Power) to discuss the NFL and (the lack of) racism in the culture. Then, the indispensable Jim Geraghty guides us through the politics of shut down. Finally, finally, a real sports discussion: Vikings fan boy James Lileks on his home town team.
Music from this week’s episode: Shut Down by The Beach Boys
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Great show! Loved hearing from Mr. Steele.
James, I was groaning on the segues before Peter cottoned onto them, so it could be worse. At least he let you get into them. (As with puns, groans are a sign of approval.)
Also good to hear from Jim G. Of course, listening to 3ML every day, he is not as rare a treat as Mr. Steele.
Peter, good questions, as usual.
I recently taught two years in Title I schools in inner-est-city Dallas.
Shelby Steele is 100% correct. He is brave, he is free, and speaks the truth.
Bravo, sir. I wish you had the ears of our country’s communi-education elites.
I really wanted Steele to mention the biggie in black under-performance and failure to embrace freedom: the majority of “families” where there’s no father, no semblance of structure and rampant drug use and affiliated problems. As we know this a 50 year old problem 100% paid for by US taxpayers at city, county, state and federal level.
I have the insight provided by being a school bus driver in a 1st ring suburb in Minneapolis. The things I see …
One more thing … Trump is uniquely qualified to address this between the eyes. For one, he ain’t afraid of being called names, bless his heart. He could get some powerful black leaders in big cities to say the unsayable; essentially what Steele is saying. And back it up with stats about how his tax reform, stock market surge, employment stats etc. are and will helping blacks in the real way. Going to work! Let Trump take this on in his unique way.
“Non-essential services.” Government adds negative value beyond genuine public goods.
Mises.org and David Stockman are right about everything.
Shelby Steele said that blacks “need to organize.” In this rigged economy and political system that is dead-on. It’s also the last thing that Democrat party and the government wants.
I blame this more on the system. Regressive economy, easier to get married to the state, teachers unions—it’s hard sociologically.
I do agree about Minnesota. All kinds of wealth and progressive power and MN is still the worst state for black people, statistically.
I learn so much at Ricochet. Today I learned that the NFL is still a going concern and that the playoffs must be happening now.
I’m still shaking my head at the shutdown threat of a few years ago when the issue was funding for Planned Parenthood. The Republicans were defending the ‘ against baby killing’ position and somehow they managed to collapse to the ‘pro baby killing’ side. Amazing! That they couldn’t make political hay out of that is why they are called the Stupid Party.
Part One: Shelby Steele
Part Two: Jim Geraghty
Part Three: Minnesota Vikings
Podcast accompaniment by Wrestling with Hounds
Kind of rich of James to deny being racist as, judging by the audio, he keeps a wookie chained up in the background. I suppose he’d say we’ve made progress since Chewbacca was slighted at Yavin, but have we really?
A Wookiee. I wondered what that was. I thought maybe his house was haunted. He’ll likely say it was his dog, but don’t believe him.
I thought it was Jacob Marley, wearing the chain he forged in life.
I’m sick of the #FakeNews. @peterrobinson if you were born just as the Civil Rights movement was taking off, you’re not middle age. You’re old.
Otherwise, great podcast. Thanks.
You should hear the part we cut out…
I knew it! Peter works blue.
Men aren’t fools. They see how many women treat them in this world where divorce is used as a weapon to ruin their lives even when they have very little. I don’t know what the solution is. Perhaps some stronger prenuptial agreement laws and a court system that doesn’t hate men might help cause more men to be interested in getting married. However, look around today. Feminism seems as angry ever today even though most men are not rapists or horrible human beings.
“It’s black people who are responsible for these lousy schools in the inner cities.
“And we all know it,” said Shelby Steele. But “fear is a powerful force.”
”If you’re a victim you’re a true black.”
Steele says that he and other blacks are beginning to realize that they’ve come to the end of an era, of putting their faith in other people’s hands, and that government is not the answer.
Yes, the end of an era is nigh.
It is no coincidence that this is happening just as Hispanics are succeeding blacks as the favored client minority of the political party of the Ruling Class.
The current cause of the Schumer Shutdown makes that crystal clear.
Great interview. Steel says most blacks understand the truth of what he’s saying. I think liberals understand what they are doing and white conservatives know they are being cowardly for not saying the obvious out of fear of being called racist. White conservatives share as much blame as anyone because they have the responsibility of speaking the truth. It is not as if they were going to be rounded up and sent to Siberia or Auschwitz, they’ll just be given an opportunity to make further points before they are dismissed from the dinner party. But ultimately the truth will set them free as well. Not speaking the truth may reflect racism as well as cowardice because it assumes blacks need welfare and affirmative action, or can’t succeed on their own and find it normal to live as they do in the inner city.
Women with children and no men who can work and who had savings couldn’t get welfare. Giving up welfare to marry an employed man costs and going to work is a net negative. Do away with welfare, minimum wages in all it’s forms and provide school choice and the incentives will reverse the disaster faster than we could imagine. But it won’t happen because Democrats want blacks as loyal clients dependent on them and Republicans are cowards.
I feel this economic analysis doesn’t quite get the spiritual wounds in black America. Economics plays into this but this is mostly a malady of the spirit that can’t be fixed logically or with good policy. A longish but interesting article appeared in Sports Illustrated recently about these problems and it follows a self-destructive pattern that I notice in podcasts about the lives of poor African-Americans.
First is the social justice warrior nonsense about how everything is always racist all the time and how offended they are by it. Then they talk about how difficult it was growing up without a father. Sometimes they don’t mention that they never had a dad and they just take about their Mom. Inevitably, everything is difficult because their Mom has to do everything.
Depending on the family, they succeed or fail but often I always get the sense that they have been short-changed in life.
Also, the white interviewer always wusses out. The least interesting part of the Sports Illustrated article is the I’m-a-good-person leftism of the author.
I think the social justice warrior nonsense and the lies about systematic bigotry are there in the beginning of these interview to make up for the the very real suffering caused by black disfunction. There isn’t a rational reason for it so therefore it cannot be fixed rationally.