Walter E. Williams bio photo

Walter E. Williams

Bradley Prize Winner 2017

Professor of Economics.
wwilliam@gmu.edu
(703) 993-1148
D158 Buchanan Hall
Department of Economics
George Mason University

Related Sites:
The homepage of George Mason University.
Homepage of the Department of Economics at GMU.

Racial charges by many black politicians, civil-rights spokesmen, self-appointed black leaders and guilt-ridden whites are just plain nonsense. They get away with them because we’re ill-informed or are too timid to question their assumptions and assertions. Let’s pretend we’re social detectives, do a bit of investigative work and find the racists causing all the problems for black people.

Black illegitimacy hovers around 65 percent nationally. It’s a devastating start to life when a child is born to a 16-year-old girl, his grandmother is 30 and he doesn’t know who or where his father is. Let’s search for the racist villain with a few questions for that child’s mother; let’s call her Tamika.

“Tamika, we know that giving birth, dropping out of school and going on welfare doesn’t bode well either for your future or that of your child. We want to ensure that other young black women aren’t victimized. We want to find, arrest and bring to trial the racists responsible for your plight. Can you help us by giving us a description of your victimizer?”

During our questioning of Tamika, we might come to realize that not all black 16-year-olds are victimized like that. As such, it creates an enigma for us: Why do racists victimize some black girls and let others off the hook?

Illegitimacy is not the only major problem facing black Americans; crime is another. According to Department of Justice statistics, from 1976 to 1999, over 46 percent of all murder victims were black. How can we stop this racist atrocity?

We might begin our investigation by interviewing survivors. They might be able to give us descriptions of the assailants. Then we could arrest and prosecute the racists responsible for the havoc and misery in the black community.

But we should be alert to racist propaganda. The U.S. Department of Justice claims that, between 1976 and 1999, 94 percent of black murder victims were murdered by blacks. That’s just an evil racist plot to protect racists and in the process frame, jail and execute innocent black men.

There are some cities where racists have completely taken over and have had a field day destroying black lives and prosperity. The nation’s capital is one of them. In some of its neighborhoods, black people are huddled in their homes afraid to walk the streets, or even come to their windows, for fear of stray bullets. It’s so unsafe that retailers often refuse to make deliveries. Illegitimacy is the order of the day. Murder, rape and robbery is rife. Washington’s public schools provide black children with the nation’s worst education. The children are just one notch from the bottom in academic achievement.

The racists who’re controlling Washington - rampaging its black community, destroying black families, and stifling black achievement and prosperity ought to be brought before the bar of justice. If we can’t get the U.S. Department of Justice to act, we ought to ask Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. – a member of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee – to call hearings to find out why racists are allowed to destroy Washington, D.C.

Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Kweisi Mfume, the Black Caucus and most guilt-ridden white people would never seek criminal or civil charges against racists for creating these and other monumental problems facing the black community. They’d look like fools, and it would be obvious to everyone.

At one time, black Americans didn’t enjoy constitutional protections. Today, we do. As such, the civil-rights struggle is over and won. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t other problems, but they are not civil-rights problems. If we diagnose them incorrectly as civil-rights problems, however, their solutions will remain illusive.