Cover of Black Rednecks And White Liberals

Black Rednecks And White Liberals

by Thomas Sowell · first published 2005

22mentions
14recommended by
18HN commenters
2012–2023first – last mentioned

78% recommend22% neutral

Why HN recommends it

Essays arguing that much of ghetto culture traces to Southern white 'redneck' culture, plus a global history of slavery and chapters on education and race; suits readers wanting a contrarian take on race and culture.

Summarised by Claude from recommending comments

In a series of long essays, Black Rednecks and White Liberals presents an in-depth look at many of the long-prevailing assumptions about blacks, about Jews, about Germans, about slavery, and about education. Plainly written, powerfully reasoned, and backed with a startling array of documented facts, Black Rednecks and White Liberals takes on not only the trendy intellectuals of our times but also such historic interpreters of American life as Alexis de Tocqueville and Frederick Law Olmsted. Black Rednecks and White Liberals deftly challenges dogma and dispels cliches that have long clung to

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Mentions per year

50 2007: 0 mentions2008: 0 mentions2009: 0 mentions2010: 0 mentions2011: 0 mentions2012: 1 mention2013: 0 mentions2014: 0 mentions2015: 0 mentions2016: 2 mentions2017: 2 mentions2018: 0 mentions2019: 1 mention2020: 5 mentions2021: 4 mentions2022: 2 mentions2023: 3 mentions2024: 0 mentions2025: 0 mentions2026: 0 mentions200720172026

What Hacker News says

  • greenhatglack · Jun 16, 2020 · Recommends

    …"gender-science", especially in tax-heavy countries. No one ever dares to question it, and it's "good" causes that could use some of the workers income. I'll be contrarian and recommend Thomas Sowell's "Black Rednecks and White Liberals" instead.

    on “For black CEOs in Silicon Valley, humiliation is a part of doing business” ↗
  • beaner · Jul 2, 2020 · Recommends

    …learning from their assumptive misinformed peers and that there isn't necessarily an interest in the history. Thomas Sowell, a black man, had some interesting historical perspectives on these figures in Black Rednecks and White Liberals, which is worth a read. This is just a small excerpt from a google search, and in itself can't directly address everything people are trying to erase, but it's a starter for listening to more and broadening…

    on “MS will ban Forza players who add the confederate flag to their digital cars” ↗
  • ghufran_syed · Sep 7, 2020 · Recommends

    Slavery has occurred in almost every society over the years, until the last two or three hundred years, including in Nigeria https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Nigeria See "Black rednecks and white liberals" by thomas sowell for more info (Thomas sowell is a black american economics professor and writer, for any in the audience who decide what is worth reading based on the skin color or ethnicity of the…

    on “Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge” ↗
  • sreque · Oct 5, 2021 · Recommends

    …government with a small military. > And keeping the poors and minorities in their places. The left wish they were the righteous ones helping the poor and minorities. I'd suggest reading the first essay in "Black Rednecks and White Liberals" by Thomas Sowell. He argues strongly that the "white saviours" that are liberals have made the plight of minorities far worse than had they never intervened. As Sowell often emphasizes, results matter…

    on “Whistleblower to Congress: Facebook products harm kids and democracy” ↗
  • PathOfEclipse · Oct 12, 2022 · Recommends

    …religious beliefs packaged into an ideology. > Can we explain it by intrinsic differences? You can explain it a billion different ways. The question is: who is right, and how do you prove it? Read "Black Rednecks and White Liberals" by Sowell, and "Intellectuals and Race" while you're at it. You'll find plenty of explanations that have nothing to do with either racism or of innate genetic differences. It is proponents of CRT who…

    on “What “diversity and inclusion” means at Microsoft” ↗
  • clock_tower · Sep 22, 2016 · Recommends

    …particularly in the southern Rust Belt, where it's common for Catholic ethnics to be the middle class and hillbillies/rednecks the former factory hands. I'd recommend reading _Hillbilly Elgy_, Thomas Sowell's _Black Rednecks and White Liberals_, and of course _Albion's Seed_ for details. Jim Webb also had some essays on this subject, before he was elected to Congress; he had plans to unite hillbillies and blacks as a single interest group,…

    on “Why don't black and white Americans live together?” ↗
  • Helmet · Oct 10, 2017 · Recommends

    …rundown US history post-1865? If you want a social critique of the modern liberal "Euro-Critical" conception of racism and slavery, I'll refer you to Thomas Sowell's excellent collection of essays in "Black Rednecks and White Liberals"

    on “NextDoor Says Users Who Share Posts with Reporters Could Be Kicked Off the Site” ↗
  • travmatt · Oct 12, 2017 · Recommends

    If you found that interesting, you’d probably also like “Black Rednecks and White Liberals” by Thomas Sowell. A major theme is how major elements of ‘ghetto’ culture actually derive from the North-Britons and Scot’s these people lived near.

    on “African American Vernacular English Is Not Standard English with Mistakes (1999) [pdf]” ↗
  • ghufran_syed · Oct 24, 2020 · Recommends

    …maladaptive behaviors is not helpful to them. There are also many other reasons for poverty, many of which are not under that person's control - but that makes it more important to control what you can "Black rednecks and white liberals" by Thomas Sowell has a lot more details about cultural traits associated with persistent vs transient poverty

    on “Ask HN: Why isn’t finance a part of the core curriculum at schools?” ↗
  • baryphonic · Dec 7, 2020 · Recommends

    Yes. For the former, I'd recommend chapter three of Thomas Sowell's Black Rednecks & White Liberals, about the history of slavery.[1] For the latter, I'd recommend Illiberal Reformers, about the Progressive Era and its devotees.[2] Later Progressives were responsible for the school-to-prison pipeline and militarized police.[3] The Progressive Era has a wide array of interesting literature, inclu

  • PathOfEclipse · Oct 11, 2022 · Recommends

    No, it's not, What the GP said is true. as I responded to someone else, you really should study Thomas Sowell because he articulates this stuff better than anyone else. I would specifically recommend Black Rednecks and White Liberals for a discussion about negative cultural elements that trace back to rural areas of Scotland, Ireland, and England, were transplanted to the American south, and eventually transplanted to African americans,…

    on “What “diversity and inclusion” means at Microsoft” ↗
  • PathOfEclipse · Jun 29, 2023 · Recommends

    …is as religious a belief as ancient Greeks claiming that all lightning comes from Zeus, God of thunder. And likely to be about as wrong in hindsight. In books like "Discrimination and Disparities", "Black Rednecks and White Liberals", and "Wealth, Poverty, and Politics", the author Thomas Sowell gives many examples of minority groups that prospered far above and beyond their relative majorities despite real and systemic oppression…

    on “Affirmative action at US colleges has been banned” ↗
  • thworp · Jun 30, 2023 · Recommends

    It goes back way further. For education specifically I'd recommend this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpzsJT1snd8 as well as Sowell's book on Affirmative ACtion. The book Black Rednecks and White Liberals explores the cultural dimension pretty extensively.

    on “Affirmative action at US colleges has been banned” ↗
  • olalonde · Nov 6, 2023 · Recommends

    "Black Rednecks and White Liberals" by Thomas Sowell is pretty interesting. tl;dr: Sowell contends that the "black ghetto culture", characterized by violence, a lack of ambition, a dismissive attitude toward education, and a casual approach…

    on “Who's Behind the Swat USA Reshipping Service?” ↗
  • bennesvig · Nov 9, 2012 · Recommends

    Affirmative action doesn't make any sense. The economist Thomas Sowell has written extensively on it. The Other Side of Affirmative Action http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell060899.asp The book "Black Rednecks & White Liberals" goes further into this: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell050505.asp

    on “Obama's Secret Weapon In The South is 129 Million Years Old” ↗

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