Archived Columns From 2020

by Walter Williams

2020 January

Colleges Dupe Parents and TaxpayersJanuary 01, 2020

Colleges have been around for centuries. College students have also been around for centuries. Yet, college administrators assume that today’s students have ...

The New RacismJanuary 08, 2020

A voter may dislike a black, homosexual or female candidate, but it’s not likely that he would openly admit it. However, diversity-crazed leftist/progressive...

Unappreciated Crime CostsJanuary 15, 2020

Criminal activity imposes huge costs on black residents in low-income neighborhoods of cities such as Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit, St. Louis, Philadelphia an...

Diversity and Inclusion InsanityJanuary 21, 2020

It’s nearly impossible to have even a short conversation with a college administrator, politician or chief executive without the words diversity and inclusio...

Democracy and TyrannyJanuary 29, 2020

During President Donald J. Trump’s impeachment trial, we’ll hear a lot of talk about our rules for governing. One frequent claim is that our nation is a demo...

2020 February

Economics RealityFebruary 05, 2020

I have been teaching economics since 1967 — 40 years of it at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. During that interval, economic reality has not ch...

A More or Less Perfect UnionFebruary 12, 2020

“A More or Less Perfect Union” is a three-part series, produced by Free to Choose Network, that will air on various PBS stations across the nation starting i...

Political Bias and Anti-Americanism on College CampusesFebruary 19, 2020

A recent Pew Research Center survey finds that only half of American adults think colleges and universities are having a positive effect on our nation. The l...

Stop, Question and FriskFebruary 26, 2020

Before former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg threw his hat into the 2020 presidential race, he defended the New York Police Department’s use of “stop,...

2020 March

Another African TragedyMarch 04, 2020

Here are a few headlines about an African tragedy: “Africa’s Worst Locust Plague in Decades Threatens Millions” (The Wall Street Journal), “‘Unprecedented’ L...

Rights Versus WishesMarch 11, 2020

Sen. Bernie Sanders said: “I believe that health care is a right of all people.” He’s not alone in that contention. That claim comes from Democrats and Repub...

Socialism's PastMarch 18, 2020

Senator Bernie Sanders’ call for socialism has resonated among many Americans, particularly young Americans. They’ve fallen prey to the idea of a paradise he...

Progressive Cities and Black EducationMarch 25, 2020

A recent report by Chris Stewart has shed new light on some of the educational problems faced by black youth. The report is titled “The Secret Shame: How Ame...

2020 April

Managing a DisasterApril 01, 2020

I’m not sure whether COVID-19, first identified in Wuhan, China, in the U.S. qualifies as a true disaster. Putting the disease in perspective, we might look ...

Manipulation Through Racial HoaxesApril 08, 2020

We black people are so convenient and useful to America’s leftists. Whenever there’s a bit of silencing to be done, just accuse a detractor or critic of raci...

Fixing College CorruptionApril 15, 2020

America’s colleges are rife with corruption. The financial squeeze resulting from COVID-19 offers opportunities for a bit of remediation. Let’s first let’s e...

Benefits vs. Costs and COVID-19April 22, 2020

One of the first lessons in an economics class is everything has a cost. That’s in stark contrast to lessons in the political arena where politicians talk ab...

Today's Americans and Yesteryear's AmericansApril 29, 2020

Dr. Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, a military historian and a professor emeritus of classics at Cal...

2020 May

The Nation's Report CardMay 06, 2020

The Department of Education just released results of the quadrennial National Assessment of Educational Progress tests in U.S. history, civics and geography ...

Let's Not Waste a CrisisMay 13, 2020

Former Barack Obama adviser Rahm Emanuel, during a recent interview, reminded us of his 2008 financial crisis quotation, “Never allow a crisis to go to waste...

Rotten Education Isn't PreordainedMay 20, 2020

Black politicians, civil rights leaders and their white liberal advocates have little or no interest in doing anything effective to deal with what’s no less ...

Insane News TidbitsMay 27, 2020

Is it important to have racial or sexual diversity in our fight against the COVID-19 pandemic? Heather Mac Donald suggests that some think it might be in her...

2020 June

Some Facts Worth KnowingJune 03, 2020

Imagine that you are an unborn spirit in heaven. God condemns you to a life of poverty but will permit you to choose the country in which you will spend your...

The True Plight of Black AmericansJune 10, 2020

While it might not be popular to say in the wake of the recent social disorder, the true plight of black people has little or nothing to do with the police o...

Now What?June 17, 2020

No decent person can support George Floyd’s mistreatment, or the mistreatment of anyone else, at the hands of police officers with the sworn duty to uphold t...

Insults to Black HistoryJune 24, 2020

Many whites are ashamed, saddened and feel guilty about our history of slavery, Jim Crow and gross racial discrimination. Many black people remain angry over...

2020 July

An Underappreciated American ScholarJuly 01, 2020

Dr. Thomas Sowell has been both a friend and a colleague of mine for over a half-century. On June 30, he will have completed his 90th year of life, and I wan...

Charter Schools and Their EnemiesJuly 08, 2020

Dr. Thomas Sowell has just published “Charter Schools and Their Enemies.” He presents actual test scores of students in traditional public schools and charte...

Despicable Behavior of Today's AcademiciansJuly 15, 2020

The Michigan State University administration pressured professor Stephen Hsu to resign from his position as vice president of research and innovation because...

Historical Ignorance and Confederate GeneralsJuly 22, 2020

The Confederacy has been the excuse for some of today’s rioting, property destruction and grossly uninformed statements. Among the latter is the testimony be...

Is Racism Responsible for Today's Black Problems?July 29, 2020

I doubt whether any American would defend the police treatment of George Floyd that led to his death. But many Americans are supporting some of the responses...

2020 August

Leftist Effort to Revise American HistoryAugust 05, 2020

There is very little new under the sun. The monument and statue destruction that we are witnessing has been witnessed in other times and other places. A tyra...

Are Today's Leftists Truly Marxists?August 12, 2020

Most people who call themselves Marxists know very little of Karl Marx’s life and have never read his three-volume “Das Kapital.” Volume I was published in 1...

Back to Academic BrainwashingAugust 19, 2020

Parents, legislators, taxpayers and others footing the bill for college education might be interested in just what is in store for the upcoming academic year...

Institutional RacismAugust 26, 2020

Institutional racism and systemic racism are terms bandied about these days without much clarity. Being 84 years of age, I have seen and lived through what m...

2020 September

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion NonsenseSeptember 02, 2020

Check out any professional and most college basketball teams. Their starting five, and most of their other 10 players, are black, as is 80% of the NBA. This ...

Today and YesterdaySeptember 09, 2020

In matters of race and other social phenomena, there is a tendency to believe that what is seen today has always been. For black people, the socioeconomic pr...

The Devil and Karl MarxSeptember 16, 2020

Paul Kengor is a professor of political science at Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania. He has just published “The Devil and Karl Marx,” a careful...

Language and ThoughtSeptember 23, 2020

Seventeenth-century poet and intellect John Milton predicted, “When language in common use in any country becomes irregular and depraved, it is followed by t...

Supreme Court and Rules of the GameSeptember 30, 2020

The United States Constitution’s Article 2, Sec. 2, cl. 2, provides that the president of the United States “shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and C...

2020 October

The Fight for Free SpeechOctober 06, 2020

The violence, looting and mayhem that this nation has seen over the last several months has much of its roots in academia, where leftist faculty teach immatu...

Racial DeceptionOctober 14, 2020

During slavery, many black women, often in a forcible union with a white man, bore mixed-race children. Based on their percentage of white blood, they were d...

Disgusting Professorial TeachingsOctober 21, 2020

The ugliness that we have recently witnessed including rioting, billions of dollars of property destruction, assaults, murders and grossly stupid claims abou...

Is Getting Trump Worth It?October 28, 2020

President Donald Trump is not the first president to be hated by a large segment of the American population. In more recent times, there was considerable hat...

2020 November

Blacks of Yesteryear and TodayNovember 04, 2020

I was a teenager, growing up in the Richard Allen housing project of North Philadelphia, when Emmett Till was lynched in Money, Mississippi, on Aug. 28, 1955...

Should Blacks Support Destruction of Charter Schools?November 11, 2020

The academic achievement gap between black and white students has proven resistant to most educational policy changes. Some say that educational expenditures...

Correct Diagnostics NeededNovember 18, 2020

You present to a physician with severe abdominal pain. He examines you and concludes that your ingrown toenails are the cause of your abdominal distress. He ...

Discrimination and PrejudiceNovember 25, 2020

Some of the confusion in thinking about matters of race stems from the ambiguity in the terms that we use. I am going to take a stab at suggesting operationa...

2020 December

Black Education Tragedy Is NewDecember 02, 2020

Several years ago, Project Baltimore began an investigation of Baltimore’s school system. What they found was an utter disgrace. In 19 of Baltimore’s 39 high...

Costs Must Be Weighed Against BenefitsDecember 09, 2020

One of the first lessons in an economics class is every action has a cost. That is in stark contrast to lessons in the political arena where politicians virt...

Eulogy for DadDecember 16, 2020

The following column is by Devon Williams, daughter of Walter E. Williams.