Why inequality still exists for a large portion of the US black population

Since the end of slavery, there has always existed inequality between the labor force participation of black women and men, which caused an imbalance in the roles of husband and wife, even before desegregation. But since 1980, the black family institution has declined precipitously. The vast majority of blacks born in this country are born into single-parent households, mostly run by single black women.

Why is that? In an age in which blacks are free to marry each other, and they enjoy drastically expanded education activities and political rights, it would seem that there would be a blossoming of middle-class black culture in this country. Well, let’s go back to Herskovits and liberalism for a minute. The logical extension of the anthropologists’ love affair with the native tends to perpetuate dysfunctional traits. Liberals in many ways defined what "real" black culture was in this country, and it was the "noble savage" mentality that they depicted. I’ve seen this over and over again in practice; liberals go out of their way to find the most dysfunctional aspects of black culture and celebrate them. When they see a black person who displays any evidence of culture and refinement, they dismiss him as inauthentic. They want a slave narrative to make them happy, and will stop at nothing until they get one.

Unfortunately, the black community has been all too willing to give them what they want. You want me to speak Ebonics? Fine, I’ll show you Ebonics in return for a government education grant. You want to fund welfare instead of businesses? Fine, we’ll make sure to have plenty of children out of wedlock so as to qualify. The effect of liberal intervention into almost all aspects of black American life, while in some ways well-intentioned, has suffered from the law of unintended consequences: Despite the billions spent on government programs for minorities, fully 50 years after the "Great Society" was instituted, the majority of black Americans are worse off both politically and economically than before the civil rights movement began.

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