A Danger Of Being Obamatized
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, June 18, 2008 4:20 PM PT
Election '08: How disappointing to see trailblazing intellectuals who
should
know better beguiled by the oratory of a candidate who'd lead this nation
to
disaster. An exciting politician is no excuse to switch from right to
wrong.
John McWhorter, Manhattan Institute senior fellow and UC Berkeley
linguistics professor, is one of the nation's most insightful analysts of
race and culture.
In his masterly 2000 book, "Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black
America," he compellingly argued that the black community was
self-destructively embracing victimhood as an inescapable component of its
ethnic identity.
McWhorter's new book, "All About the Beat: Why Hip-Hop Can't Save Black
America," takes on rap music ‹ of which he is actually an ardent fan ‹ and
concludes, as he told a New York City audience on Tuesday, that it is
"marvellous, glorious, seductive noise," but "that's all there is."
Its potential value in facilitating some kind of social revolution that
could lift up the black underclass is, according to McWhorter, nil.
During the question-and-answer period, however, McWhorter was asked by
former Jersey City, N.J., mayor and Kings College, New York professor Bret
Schundler ‹ a white Republican who repeatedly received massive minority
electoral sup****t ‹ if there was a way to make hard work and commitment be
viewed as "cool" by the kind of troubled youths attracted to hip-hop
music.
McWhorter said it would take a unique leader****p figure ‹ Sen. Barak Obama
(whom McWhorter is sup****ting), or someone like him, such as Newark, New
Jersey's black Democratic Mayor Cory Booker, an advocate for innovative
reforms (such as school vouchers) going against his party's orthodoxy, but
also a big tax-and-spender.
McWhorter described Sen. Obama as "uniquely poised" to inspire nonwhite
youths toward achievement and responsibility. And he took special note of
a
Father's Day speech at Chicago's Apostolic Church of God that wowed the
establishment media.
In it, the senator accused some black males of "acting like boys instead
of
men" and said "we need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end
at conception." He chided parents: "Don't just sit in the house and watch
S****tsCenter all weekend long." Instead, make kids "replace the video game
or the remote control with a book once in a while."
Obama even seemed to scold the public school educrats who now dominate
among
party delegates:
"Sometimes I'll go to an eighth-grade graduation, and there's all that
pomp
and cir***stance and gowns and flowers. And I think to myself, it's just
eighth grade. . . . Let's give them a handshake and tell them to get their
butts back in the library!"
But when it came time to talk policy remedies, out came the well-worn
liberal laundry list:
"We need more money for our schools . . . more after-school programs for
our
children . . . we should reward fathers who pay that child sup****t with
job
training and job op****tunities and a larger Earned Income Tax Credit that
can help them pay the bills. We should expand programs where registered
nurses visit expectant and new mothers" and expand "maternity and
paternity
leave, and we should guarantee every worker more paid sick leave . . . ."
More than a quarter-century ago, Discovery Institute fellow George Gilder
knew that government benefits, in all their various forms, would fail to
solve ‹ and actually exacerbate ‹ a deeper problem.
In his landmark work, "Wealth and Poverty," Gilder reflected on how
government can "destroy the father's key role and authority. He can no
longer feel manly in his own home" and so "he turns to the street for his
male affirmations."
Sociologists, Gilder found, "fail to comprehend that to a great extent
poverty and unemployment, and even the largely psychological conditions of
'unemployability,' are chiefly reflections of family deterioration."
Having an eloquent president of colour use the bully pulpit to tell
fathers
to be fathers, and students to work hard, would undoubtedly inspire many
among society's have-nots. But as John McWhorter so correctly pointed out
this week, the tough love of the 1996 welfare reform helped many blacks
keep
out of poverty ‹ and it didn't have a beat.
Obama may speak in the language and rhythms of the streets, but his
big-government policies will only worsen the problems of the streets.
|
