‘Until it changes, racial profiling is going to be an issue’.
Many black Americans are making bad choices from having children out of wedlock and embracing a violent inner-city culture that keep them from reaching their potential, and liberal government policies are encouraging them to make those bad decisions, argues Wall Street Journal editorial board member Jason Riley.
Riley is author of “Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make it Harder for Blacks to Succeed.” Instead of encouraging black people to dream big and take responsibility for their actions, he said liberal politicians and civil-rights leaders are more interested in telling them who to blame for their condition.
“They want to keep the focus on white behavior, not black behavior,” he said. “That’s the agenda of the black leadership today, from the NAACP to Al Sharpton to Jesse Jackson: We’re not talking about black behavior. All the bad black outcomes we see are a result of white racism. That’s their narrative, and they want to stick to it.”
As policy experts debate the effectiveness of Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” Riley said the path to advancement is the same for black people as it has been for all other demographics: less government assistance and more individual achievement.
“Blacks must ultimately help themselves by developing the same habits and behaviors and attitudes that other groups in America had to develop in order to rise here,” he said. “To the extent that a government program or policy – however well-intentioned – interferes with that self-development, it does more harm than good.”
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