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National Review Hosts All-White Symposium on Black Unemployment

by Michael Triplett | 3:48 pm, April 1st, 2010

» 12 comments

Maybe African American unemployment isn’t as bad as they say, given the National Review‘s inability to find an actual African American conservative to participate in its online “symposium” on Black unemployment and the racial recession. Hopefully everyone was just too busy working.

There’s some good thoughts about why unemployment rates are so high for African Americans and the commentators offer some interesting libertarian and private market solutions. Sure, there’s the usual handwringing over racial categories and the obligatory argument that charter schools are the answer to all ills.

But wouldn’t it have been interesting to have an actual African American make one of those suggestions? If you are going to talk about African Americans and minorities, doesn’t it make sense to actually invite someone up to the virtual boardroom?

It’s not as though National Review doesn’t know any African Americans conservatives. Peter Kirsanow is a regular poster at the Corner and an expert in labor and employment law, as well as a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Delroy Murdock often shows up at the National Review and the folks over at the magazine and website are in love with economist Thomas Sowell, who likely knows a thing or two about unemployment and the economy. Or they could have even called up Michael Steele, who could use a break from sorting through credit card receipts from bondage-themed nightclubs.

Instead, they rounded up the usual suspects like Roger Clegg, someone from the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal, a fellow from the libertarian Reason Foundation, and one of the Thernstroms. The irony is that the American Enterprise Institute‘s Kevin Hassett even sees there is a conservative problem with minorities, explaining “[i]f conservatives want to appeal to black Americans, they can start by admitting there is a problem.”

A good first step to admitting there is a problem would be asking some actual black Americans to the symposium.

Delroy Murdock, Kevin Hassett, Michael Steele, National Review, NRO, Peter Kirsanow, The Corner, Thomas Sowell

http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Boyer/602168764 John Boyer

So after admitting some good points were made, this is still an issue how?
felixw

Thanks goodness we have Michael Triplett to keep tabs on people’s skin color and evaluate their work based on their pigmentation.
Ted

Next up: National Review hosts a panel discussion on women in the workplace; naturally, without any women on the panel. Just an innocent oversight.
Snipzor

Christ, I’ve heard of extreme symbolic intersectionality, but this is just silly.
felixw

Michael, you really need to have people tell us their skin color before posting comments here. That will allow you to evaluate the quality of their contributions, and decide who needs to excluded.
Ted

felix – Suppose they had a symposium on the tea-party without the tea-baggers? You’re not getting this are you.
michiganruth

Ted–I can’t quite tell if YOU get it. since you use the idiotic “tea-bagger” locution, I kinda doubt it.

a “symposium on the tea-party without the tea-baggers” is exactly what MSNBC and CNN have on every nite (except for weekends, when that hard-news channel MSNBC goes all Jerry Springer on us with programs like “Blood and Bondage: the Sarasota Rapist”).
http://www.thecobraslair.com Cobra

Why should we be surprised? The National Review had an editorial position OPPOSED to Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1543/article_detail.asp

–Cobra
Ted

michiganruth – you sully the name of my beloved home state with your obtuse comment. Please try harder.
Craig57

Michael Triplett is right,i never see African-Americans discussing race without a white person in the discussion.I never see women discussing anything that has to do with men without a man being in the discussion,RIGHT.Just the same old liberal B..S.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Green/570009771 Mike Green

African-American here. Or Black man, whichever you prefer. I’ve been called a lot of names in my 47 years. You don’t get to grow up in the deep south during the 60s and 70s and escape racist repartee.

The main problem with National Review’s Symposium on Black Unemployment with a room (online) filled with only Whites … is that no one seems to recognize the irony. America’s history is overflowing with Whites sitting around discussing the problems of minorities, failing to recognize that no one in the room can contribute an understanding from the perspectives of the affected class of peoples. The experiences of the impacted community aren’t represented in the room.

The consistency of this sort of institutionalized mindset among some in the privileged elite class is astounding. Throughout the media industry we witness the affliction of amnesia among top-level decision-makers. Diversity is, to many editors and publishers, an unattainable luxury for which they have neither time nor energy to attempt to achieve.

I wonder how many of those well-informed Whites at National Review could tell me why the positive statistics in Black America prior to 1964 began to plummet in 1965 and were replaced by skyrocketing negatives across the board within a decade? Or, maybe none of that data has any relevance to the case of rampant unemployment in Black America today? Without knowing our history, we are doomed to repeat it.

But, I’m sure those White folks at the National Review Symposium on Black Unemployment are well aware of the historical problems impacting Black America today … some of which were caused by Whites sitting in a Whites-only room.
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