I don’t have anything to add to the larger discussion, so I’ll just shut up.

2. But while history cannot be erased and might teach us lessons, it does not solve present and future problems. There is not an excuse for (some) blacks to not study in school because some grandfather went to a shabby segregated school. There is not an excuse for (some) blacks to have disfunctional “families” because 300 years ago, an ancestor was chained in the hull of a slave ship.

3. I am not as upset over there being some historical grudges in the South Side of Chicago as I am upset that much of the South Side of Chicago resembles a drug ridden Gaza strip of crime and ignorance in schools that spend $10,000 + / per pupil. Oh, what the hell, my grandfather was tortured by the Nazis so I guess I should hold up a liquor store. { My kid was abandoned by her parents in China so why should I tell her to study? }

I wonder if anyone will catch on to the allegory. Attributed variously to Mark Twain and others, the operative phrase is, “Never try to teach a pig to sing — it wastes your time and annoys the pig”.

Thumbs up to your superb article!

As to comments from the other sid(t)e, the “new” leftists of the scholastic-hair-splitting type like to portray themselves as “open-minded” and “complex” thinkers who are willing to allow for additional variables to explain this or that fact; in short, to “debate” the issues be it race, colonialism, inequality, or what not.

However, when it comes down to the crucial task to test their theories and offer solutions to combat poverty, crime, and the widespread sense of despair and hopelessness, all their “complex thinking” boils down to naive hope that the middle-of-the road kind of collective efforts involving affirmative action, welfare payments, universal health care etc. will SOMEHOW effectuate the transformation of the minds and deeply disturbed social culture of the affected group to become responsible parents, to recognize the virtues of non-violent social interaction, of education, independence, individualism, productiveness.

It’s significant that intellectually, that is, in their search for the root cause the “complex” thinkers fail too. The powerful institutional barriers of slavery and Jim Crow era haven’t been operative for many decades now. To keep referring to them as still exerting decisive influence, first, goes against the evidence and, second, diverts the attention from the real root cause. And here the real need for debating is very much in place. We all need to know, particularly the disadvantaged groups, what works and what does not if the goal is peace, freedom, prosperity, happiness.

The “new left” by virtue of its limited intellectual edifice will always represent a disturbing force but it can be overcome because the reality is on our side.