Thomas Sowell on the Philadelphia Solution

Sad to say, but there is still no word from Attorney General Eric Holder or President Barack Obama in this summer’s race violence.

Happy to say, Thomas Sowell has just written a column on the topic. As always, he is incisive and to the point.

Sowell emphasizes that those who command the public airways have refused to say that the flash mob attacks of blacks on whites have anything to with race.

Sowell is horrified at the blatant dishonesty at work here.

In his words: “All around the country, people in politics and the media have been tip-toeing around the fact that violent attacks by blacks on whites in public places are racially motivated, even when the attackers themselves use anti-white invective and mock the victims they leave lying on the streets bleeding.”

As a few of us have mentioned, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter deserves great praise and credit for identifying the problem and for trying to put an end to it.

Finally, we see a politician with a moral compass.

Sowell writes: “Someone at long last has had the courage to tell the plain, honest truth about race.

“After mobs of young blacks rampaged through Philadelphia committing violence -- as similar mobs have rampaged through Chicago, Denver, Milwaukee and other places -- Philadelphia's black mayor, Michael A. Nutter, ordered a police crackdown and lashed out at the whole lifestyle of those who did such things.”

He continues: “While this might seem like it is just plain common sense, what Mayor Nutter said undermines a whole vision of the world that has brought fame, fortune and power to race hustlers in politics, the media and academia. Any racial disparities in hiring can only be due to racism and discrimination, according to the prevailing vision, which reaches from street corner demagogues to the august chambers of the Supreme Court of the United States.

“Just to identify the rioters and looters as black is a radical departure, when mayors, police chiefs and the media in other cities report on these outbreaks of violence without mentioning the race of those who are doing these things. The Chicago Tribune even made excuses for failing to mention race when reporting on violent attacks by blacks on whites in Chicago.”

Nutter was actually holding black youth to a higher standard. He was not telling them that their problems were all the fault of racism. He was telling that he expected better of them and that if they wanted to know what was holding them back, they should look first at their own behavior.

Sowell points out that this dangerous message contradicts liberal social dogma: “The prevailing social dogma is that disparities in outcomes between races can only be due to disparities in how these races are treated. In other words, there cannot possibly be any differences in behavior.”

One recalls the old line about the soft bigotry of low expectations…