Discrimination and Disparities
Discrimination and Disparities
By: Thomas Sowell
“The assumption that discriminatory bias can be automatically inferred when there are differences in socioeconomic outcomes— and that the source of that bias can be determined by where the statistics were collected— seems indefensible. Yet that seemingly invincible fallacy guides much of what is said and done in our educational institutions, in the media, and in government policies.”
“The actual consequences of a social vision cannot be assessed on the basis of its good intentions or even its plausibility. The real test is what has actually happened when that vision has been applied, and what the implications are of those social consequences.”
“Contrary to much that has been said, disparities in socioeconomic outcomes are neither improbable from a theoretical standpoint nor uncommon from an empirical standpoint.”
Ibram X. Kendi, famous anti-racist activist, has famously said, “When I see racial disparities, I see racism.”
Do disparities equal discrimination?
Thomas Sowell, influential African-American economist and social theorist, has written this book to examine the prevailing social vision which says that racial disparities must be caused by racial discrimination.
This book is a presentation of facts and research that tear substantial holes in the progressive narrative and reveal, unsurprisingly, that there are a lot of causes at play when we look at disparities in America and in the world at large.
Sowell argues that though racial discrimination does exist, it is neither the sole nor primary cause for racial disparity. Just because there are some disparities between groups, does not necessarily mean it’s someone’s fault and requires ‘fixing.’
This book should be required reading.
If you even have an inkling of interest in social justice, economics, or what creates disparities in the world, you will find this book very enlightening.
I love that Sowell begins with this quote from Democratic politician and sociologist Daniel Patrick Moynihan:
“You’re entitled to your own opinion, but you’re not entitled to your own facts.”
I’ve done a lot of reading on this topic and I have yet to be presented with compelling evidence of systemic racism as the cause of disparities and Sowell’s book affirms this stance. But this message of racism as the cause for poverty, income gaps, and employment disparities is on repeat— their opinion is clear but their facts are lacking.
I cannot recommend this book enough to offer a logical, intelligent, and easy to understand presentation of empirical evidence that will better inform your view of how the world works.
I cannot include all the quotes and information I have noted from this book or my review would be way too long. I’ll share some here but you might as well just read it yourself.
You can purchase it from my affiliate link below.
“Discrimination as an explanation of economic and social disparities may have a similar emotional appeal for many. But we can at least try to treat these and other theories as testable hypotheses. The historic consequences of treating particular beliefs as sacred dogmas, beyond the reach of evidence or logic, should be enough to dissuade us from going down that road again— despite how exciting or emotionally satisfying political dogmas and the crusades resulting from those dogmas can be, or how convenient in sparing us the drudgery and discomfort of having to think through our own beliefs or test them against facts.”
What’s really important about this book is the way Sowell helps the reader think through this whole controversy. As we know, correlation does not equal causation. We’ve been told lately ‘what’ to think, not ‘how’ to think. Discrimination and Disparities will help you think critically.
“Emotional manipulation is only one of the dangers when words are used in ways that obscure both realities and the connections of cause and effect behind those realities.”
“If we are serious about seeking causation, we must look beyond emotional words, which are not necessarily intended to inform or convince, but often achieve their goal if they simply overwhelm through repetition or silence through intimidation.”
“The mere omission of one crucial fact can turn accurate statistics into traps that lead to conclusions that would be demonstrably false if the full facts were known. This often happens in comparisons of different ethnic groups and different income classes, among other comparisons.”
When we hear certain phrases or statistics, are we thinking through what they’re really talking about? Are we questioning what could be alternative reasons for the ‘facts’ they provide? Are we questioning the criteria they are evaluating?
One thing I really liked about Discrimination and Disparities is that Sowell doesn’t just look at disparities in America. He shows us research from all over the world of disparities between various ethnic minorities and majorities. Disparities are not just an American phenomenon. His understanding of global economics and the realities of how the world functions as a whole gives insight on how America fits into this picture.
He offers many examples that skewed or unequal outcome distributions is actually very common. We see it in people, institutions, and in nature.
What does ‘equal’ mean?
It’s unclear what people are striving for when they desire ‘equality’ and the elimination of disparities. For one thing, we can’t expect equal outcomes if we have unequal inputs.
The Coddling of the American Mind talks about unequal outcomes in regards to educational institutions and college sports and reminds us that we must account for people’s differences in interests, priorities, goals, and desire.
This idea of ‘equality’ doesn’t have any long-term promises. People make different choices and have different preferences and priorities. Is this vague sense of ‘equality’ definable, measurable, and sustainable?
There may be ways to increase opportunity, wealth, or education, but if we can’t be honest about what we’re measuring, if we can’t recognize the empirical evidence that exists, then the prevailing social vision of the day may be promoting policies and ideas that actually do the opposite of what they claim. We have to understand the reality of how the world and people work to understand how to function within it.
Sowell tackles disparities in terms of employment, income, education, and geography. He addresses slavery, taxes, minimum wage laws, public housing, social justice, culture preservation, crime and violence, welfare, politics, wealth distribution, terminology like ‘change,’ ‘opportunity,’ ‘violence,’ ‘diversity,’ and ‘privilege.’
Some interesting things Sowell talks about:
Birth order is an element of disparities. Firstborns, on average, have a higher IQ than siblings born after them- A study of a National Merit Scholarship finalists showed that “finalists from five-child families, the first-born was the finalist more often than the other four siblings combined.” It was also the same for 2, 3, and 4 child families. There is not an equality of outcomes among siblings raised in the same family, so why would we expect to see equal outcomes when more factors are different?
“In the United States, income differences between middle aged people and young adults are larger than income differences between blacks and whites.” Age is an element of disparities. With the advancement in technology human knowledge and experience is more valuable in the job market. As people get older and gain more human capital (knowledge, skill, experience) they make more money. Pair this with the fact that ethnic groups in the US have varying median ages (sometimes 20 years different), we would expect to see disparities in income between ethnic groups as a whole.
Lots of interesting minimum wage laws discussion. In 1948 there was no minimum wage law and the unemployment rate between young black and white males showed no significant difference. Yet after minimum wage laws went into effect unemployment for young black males was regularly twice as high as young white males in subsequent years. Minimum wage increases can also decrease the number of jobs available or the number of hours employees work. Studies looking at number of employees and number of hours worked showed that in 2016 minimum wage laws actually “lowered low-wage employees’ earnings by an average of $125 per month.” Also, in the 1920s (under Coolidge) when there were no minimum wage laws, unemployment ranged from 4.2% down to 1.8%.
Education disparities might be helped if viewed differently. The Success Academy charter schools in New York showed high success for black and Hispanic minorities from low-income families compared to white and Asian students from high income families in the public schools. “Successful charter schools give a glimpse of what can be accomplished by black children in low-income ghettos when self-sorting frees them from the disruptions and violence of unruly classmates, just a small number of whom can prevent a whole class from getting a decent education.” This is also a criticism of the ‘No child left behind’ policy that can often keep kids from getting a good education that would give them “a chance for a better life.” Ironically, the NAACP wants to ban charter schools. Statistics also change in regards to educational outcomes when hours of time spent on schoolwork is considered and the peer pressures of certain ethnic groups in their attitudes toward success in school or lack thereof.
An empirical study shows that companies using criminal background checks tended to hire more blacks than companies which did not use such checks.
Discrimination charges can be filed against companies strictly based on the make-up of their employees. There does not have to be an individual person claim they experienced discrimination. This hurts communities made up of more minorities because “Employers therefore have incentives to locate their businesses away from concentrations of minority populations, so that they will not be as legally vulnerable to costly charges of discrimination if their work force does not end up with the same demographic makeup as that of the surrounding population.” Companies also tend to settle these charges outside of court because of financial and reputational cost. Then these settlements are used to ‘prove’ discrimination in large companies when, in fact, there was often times no particular claim of racial discrimination.
Tax rate decreases are often misunderstood. We just hear the rhetoric ‘tax breaks for the rich’ as if it’s a terrible thing. But if the tax rate is so high, ‘rich’ people will invest their money in tax-exempt investments. By decreasing the tax rate, it makes more sense for people to invest their money in investments with a higher rate of return and pay the taxes on those funds. So actually, tax rate cuts increases tax revenue. So in these terms, tax increases for the rich actually ends up being wealthy people paying a lower percentage of the tax revenue by a pretty large percentage.
Distribution of wealth is a major topic heard today. But Sowell explained the fallacy of this idea really well in his book. This idea of re-distributing wealth originates from the idea that wealth is distributed in the first place. But “Most income in a market economy is earned directly by providing something that someone else wants, and values enough to pay for it, whether what they are paying for is labor, housing, or diamonds. People who are unable to understand why John D. Rockefeller in the past, or Bill Gates in the present, received so much money might ask what each of them supplied to others that millions of others were willing to pay for, with their individually modest payments that added up to gigantic fortunes.” He said it would be like saying Babe Ruth took more than his fair share of the New York Yankee’s home runs. What Gates got “was a share of the value added, as judged by the people who chose to spend their own money to get it.”
“Despite the high poverty rate among black Americans in general, the poverty rate among black married couples has been less than 10 percent every year since 1994.” This percentage is less than white people as a whole.
There is a lot of interesting data to look at when considering the top 20% of people based on income and the bottom 20%. He highlights the high turnover rate of people between these groups (highest turnover being in the top quintile), the misleading statistics because of capital gains, and the aspects of age, education, and skill. “IRS data show that half the people who earned over a million dollars a year at some time during the years from 1999 to 2007, did so just once in those nine years.”
Conclusion
This is a must-read book.
Do I have the qualifications to judge all of his statistics and sources? No, but his bibliography is sooo many pages long and if one had the time, one could consider it. I am not that one. Sowell’s intelligence, influence, and knowledge precedes him. There has been nothing I’ve read from sources promoting the prevailing social vision that compels me to reject any of the evidence Sowell presents here.
Even if you don’t expect to agree with everything he says or how he says it, this would still be a valuable read. He gives so much to consider, think about, discuss, and learn and at the very least, it will jump start your critical thinking muscles!
Just get the book and read it. Please.
[More quotes below because I just couldn’t pare it down]
Grammar Sidebar: Sowell does not make use of the Oxford comma, so any addition of those in the quotes listed is my own… cuz I just hafta…
Further Reading
Discrimination and Disparities is a more economically based book. But here are some others that also consider whether progressive policies actually do what they think they’re doing and other ways of thinking through the prevailing social justice narrative:
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell (Sowell quotes this book; super interesting read!)
Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe by Voddie T. Baucham Jr. (this has the element of how Christians respond in these times, but he includes a lot of statistics and explanations of things you don’t here in the media)
Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democratic Plantation by Candace Owens (Owens is a controversial conservative voice but she still presents compelling evidence in her books as well)
Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth: 12 Questions Christians Should Ask about Social Justice by Thaddeus J. Williams (this also is written for Christians but there are a lot o presentation of facts and statistics as well)
Quotes:
“Because someone ended up failing at some endeavor, that does not automatically mean that he was denied opportunity or access at the outset… achievement does not necessarily mean they must have been privileged at the outset.”
“Children who are currently being raised with the kinds of values, discipline and work habits that are likely to make them valuable contributors to society, and a source of pride to themselves and to those who raised them, are called ‘privileged,’ and are taught in schools to feel guilty when other children are being raised with values, behavior, and habits that are likely to leave them few options as adults, other than to live at the expense of other people, whether via the welfare state or through a life of crime or both.”
“Verbal vogues have more than verbal consequences. In so far as they create a false equivalence between violence and socioeconomic conditions, they excuse lawlessness and social disorders whose principal victims are the less affluent, both immediately and in the longer-run repercussions.”
“Many intellectuals, living in the safety and comfort of free societies, have found it expedient to redefine freedom, so that an expansion of government determination of economic outcomes, through an expansion of government compulsion, is not seen as a trade-off of freedom, but as simply an expansion of freedom, as conveniently redefined.”
“The very possibility that what different groups want to do, or have had a background to do, or are prepared to invest their efforts in doing, can affect their representation in different endeavors is ignored in assumptions as to how outcomes can differ so much in particular endeavors.”
“All too often, there is an implicit assumption that the cause of some disparity is located where the statistics on that disparity were collected… This implicit assumption has been embedded int the law of the land by the Supreme Court of the United State, which has treated disparities in the employment, pay and promotions of people from different groups as evidence of discriminatory bias by employers under its ‘disparate impact’ standard. That approach ignores the very possibility that what happened to people before they reached an employer— or a college admissions office or a crime scene— may have had a ‘disparate impact’ on the kinds of people they became and the kinds of skills, values, habits, and limitations they bring with them to the places were statistics are later collected.”
“Morally neutral factors seem to attract far less attention than other causal factors which stir moral outrage, such as discrimination or exploitation. But our personal responses tell us nothing about the causal weight of different factors, however much those responses may shape political crusades and government policies.”
“Among the dire consequences for society as a whole are widespread resentments, bitterness, disorder, and violence on the part of those who have been told incessantly that they are ‘entitled’ to a demographically defined ‘fair share’ of what is produced, and that this ‘fair share’ is being denied to them by others who are guilty of maliciously keeping them and their loved ones down.”
“Before we can say who has ailed, or who has succeeded, in some endeavor, we must first know who was trying to succeed in that endeavor in the first place. Those who are not trying are not likely to succeed, regardless of how much innate ability they may have, and regardless of how much opportunity may exist.”
“We can learn how dangerous it is, to a whole society, to incessantly depict outcome differences as evidence or proof of malevolent actions that need to be counter-attacked or avenged.”
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