Thomas Sowell Is the Left’s Worst Fear

Following the facts wherever they lead, Sowell’s words ring truer than ever…

When interviewer Peter Robinson asked Thomas Sowell about the 1930s Harlem he knew as a boy, the celebrated economist replied: “Yes, it was safe at night. When I would wake up in the middle of the night, I would get up, get dressed and go out to a corner newsstand where there was a little old man, who was white, selling newspapers at midnight—today,” laughed Sowell, “he and I would both be taken in for mental observation.” He went on to add, “The Harlem schools at the time were among the best in the country; test scores of kids in Harlem were almost identical with the kids in the Lower East Side who were almost all white.” Robinson, dismayed, asked what had happened to cause the schools’ dramatic subsequent decline. Sowell replied, “The teachers became social workers, social theorists. They became propagandists for all kinds of new fads, concerned with making students feel good about themselves, and they ended up with no education.”

Education has been a shining constant in Sowell’s unparalleled six-decade scholarship. As early as 1972, the intellectual giant published the semi-autobiography Black Education: Myths and Tragedies, where he detailed his frustration as a black scholar searching for academic excellence. There, Sowell warned of the ills of positive discrimination and institutions compromising education by knowingly admitting incapable, underprivileged black students. Six decades on, he continues to caution against the social activist narrative robbing not just blacks, but all children, of real knowledge.

“A great deal of time and energy is spent on non-academic subjects, which are essentially psychological exercises,” explained Sowell, “as if you can somehow educate people's feelings rather than their intellect.” He went on to criticise the idea that the child is supposed to make their own decisions and pick their own values on which to make those decisions. “The whole history of the human race is thrown out the window as Johnny is supposed to draw upon his eight or nine years of experience in the world, to decide what his values ought to be,” he asserted. The result of this, according to Sowell, is a generation of students who are intellectually incompetent, morally confused, emotionally alienated, and socially maladjusted. “The problem is not merely that Johnny can't read or even that Johnny can't think, Johnny doesn't know what thinking is, he confuses it with feeling,” he said. This social tragedy is particularly hard on those from low-income backgrounds who rely on a good education to escape poverty.

But it is not just education; the social justice narrative, orchestrated by meddlesome social engineers, has infiltrated every aspect of life. As Sowell argued, in area after area, the Western world has been replacing “what worked with what sounded good.” From crime, to education, to housing, to race relations, “the situation has deteriorated after the impressive new theories were implemented.”

Why Did Europe Conquer Africa Instead of Vice Versa?

Thomas Sowell is an esteemed empiricist, renowned for his world-leading economic and political research. He is an astonishingly prolific author whose work spans the globe and the history of mankind. Drawing on facts and evidence, Sowell has conducted research of vast, unprecedented magnitude to try and understand the role of cultural differences. He has travelled the world to analyse every culture present and past, using economics to explain why certain cultures gained dominance in trade while others failed. His genius is in superimposing deep economic data onto historical questions; why have some cultures survived while others perished? Why have certain empires conquered others but not vice versa?

“Too often the influence of geography on wealth is thought of narrowly, in terms of natural resources,” explained Sowell, “but geography influences even more profound cultural differences among the peoples themselves.” Steven Pinker reflected on Sowell's illuminating findings, asking, “Why did Europe conquer Africa instead of vice versa?” According to Sowell, sophisticated cultures are those that sit in the middle of a catchment area where innovations from other cultures can be aggregated, kind of like greatest hits collections. Cultures in geographical areas allowing the movement of people and ideas via rivers, highways, and port cities thus become more sophisticated. On the other extreme of the geographical scale, cultures isolated by mountains, jungles, or other geographical handicaps have usually been backward.

Voice of Reason Where None Exists

Thomas Sowell's commitment to intellectual integrity and rigorous fact-checking meant that he never conformed to popular beliefs, cultural trends, or political correctness. This in turn allowed his predictions and assertions to be proven accurate. In the 1960s, Sowell spoke out against the civil rights movement's focus on achieving equal outcomes rather than equal opportunities. He argued that the utopian vision of equal results in income and representation fails every time and is not supported by evidence, but continues to be imposed by the Left. Where race hustlers associated disparities with injustice, Sowell provided empirical evidence to demonstrate that cultural values, human capital skills, work habits, and attitudes towards education and entrepreneurship are more significant factors in explaining disparities.

It was Sowell who argued decades ago that electing black officials into office is not a silver bullet for bridging disparities and that affirmative action can be harmful and even detrimental. His assertions were proven true and yet, the policy continues to be a failure. He likens this refusal to question the status quo to the case of an alcoholic: “we have become wedded to certain non-empirical propositions that no matter what happens, these doctrines are not to be questioned, [it] is like the alcoholic who wakes up with the hangover and has to have a drink to get over this.”

What Shall We Do with the Negro? Do Nothing with Us!

For decades, Thomas Sowell has argued that the welfare state ignores the value of incentives, instead subsidizing people to fail and become dependent on handouts. He notes that during the 1930s, black Americans had lower unemployment rates than white Americans and that up until the 1960s, the majority of black families were two-parent households. According to Sowell, this was when the “mindset” of the liberal welfare state emerged, where welfare was no longer stigmatised. The consequences of this shift were clear: in 1960, 22 per cent of black children were raised in single-parent homes, a number that had more than tripled by 1990. This was not the result of slavery, but rather the result of policies created by intellectuals who fail to recognise the real world, instead believing “it is the real world which is wrong and needs changing.” These individuals come up with new ideas but bear no responsibility for their failure.

Sowell criticises the intelligentsia for their insistence on reorganising entire groups within society, pointing to Frederick Douglass’ words: 

“Everybody has asked the question—what shall we do with the Negro? I have had but one answer from the beginning, do nothing with us. Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. If the apples do not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are worm-eaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall. I am not for tying or fastening them on the tree in any way, except by nature's plan, and if they will not stay there, let them fall. And if the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone.” 

Sowell believes that black people should be provided with the opportunity to carve out their own path in life, rather than relying on a sense of victimhood and asking for apologies for historical wrongs. He further states that this “craze for aimless apologies” is a product of a lack of personal responsibility in society; blaming others for the actions of their ancestors.

From Jim Crow’s South to Lecturing Joe Biden

Thomas Sowell's is an astonishing tale of resilience against the odds. Born to an uneducated widow during the time of segregation in the South, Sowell grew up in a home with no running water, electricity, or indoor toilets. Following his mother's death during childbirth, he was raised by his great-aunt and her adult daughters. At 17, he left home and stayed at a homeless shelter, where he kept a knife beneath his pillow for protection. His time in the US Army taught him discipline, and he went on to earn advanced degrees from Columbia, Harvard, and the University of Chicago. 

Through his turbulent upbringing, Sowell developed a deep respect for the common sense of ordinary people, a factor he felt was often ignored by intellectuals. Even as he rose to prominence, advising governments and writing dozens of books, Sowell never forgot his roots. In Congress, he once stood before then-Senator Joe Biden to argue that though unequal treatment against blacks was wrong under Jim Crow, so was the unequal policy of affirmative action designed to favour blacks. It was this sentiment that truly reflected the lessons he had learned growing up as a black man in the Jim Crow South.

An African American Not Fitting the Victimhood Mould

Thomas Sowell has grown to become the Left's worst nightmare. His remarkable intellect, integrity, and extensive knowledge have made him an unstoppable force. “Television and print media wised up,” said Professor Walter Williams. “You can’t win an argument with Thomas Sowell, so they just ignore what he’s written.” Throughout his life, he has been criticized for not fitting the narrative of a black victim, which is an unfortunate tragedy. He has more faith in the black community’s ability to succeed than those claiming to have their best interests in mind. As Sowell puts it, “they seem to think that black people must either be led by the hand or else be handed something directly by the government.” He is not against black people, but rather against black intellectuals, who “don't represent black people any more than white intellectuals represent white people… These intellectuals are acting in their own self-interests and you shouldn't conflate the two.” 

Cosmic Justice

Reading Sowell means losing all misconceptions and learning to rely on facts, not rhetoric. It means refusing to accept that different economic outcomes can be attributed to a single factor, such as genetics or discrimination. It also involves understanding the importance of different people’s traditions, cultures and work ethics in determining their fate, and growing distrustful of the elite intelligentsia who may have an interest in perpetuating the victimhood narrative. Sowell's incisive delivery and powerful metaphors always strike true. 

For example, he compares mass admission of students into higher education to a stadium of people standing up to watch a game, stating that “if one person stands up in the stadium he sees the game better, but if they all stand up they don't all see the game better.” Regarding people’s preoccupation with corporate CEO's pay, Sowell tells the fable of Ivan and Boris, two poor peasants—the only difference between them was that Boris had a goat and Ivan didn’t. When a genie told Ivan he can wish for anything in the world, he said he wanted Boris's goat to die—too many people today are like Ivan, argued Sowell. He also pointed out that the average pay of a CEO is about one-tenth of what Tiger Woods makes and less than one-thirtieth of what Oprah Winfrey makes, noting that “but when has anyone ever accused athletes or entertainers of greed? The logic is simple: demonise those whose place or power you plan to usurp.” 

Sowell further highlights the significance of cultural differences, speaking of Jewish, Italian and Irish immigrants’ children coming to the US in the first half of the 20th century and being put in the same class, but their outcomes vary widely due to their radically different cultures—the introduction of compulsory school laws in Italy saw schoolhouses burned because parents wanted their kids to work, but in Czarist Russia where the greater population was illiterate, most Jews had books in their homes. He also criticises those who attribute all inequalities to society’s wrongs, noting that “there was no way that Shirley Temple could run as fast as Jesse Owens, that Scandinavians or Polynesians were going to know as much about camels as the Bedouins of the Sahara, or that Bedouins would know as much about fishing as the Scandinavians or Polynesians.” He concluded that “these crusaders seek to correct not merely the sins of man, but the oversights of God or the accidents of history, what they are really seeking is a universe tailor-made to their vision of equality. They are seeking cosmic justice.” 

It’s Amazing How Much Panic One Honest Man Can Spread among a Multitude of Hypocrites

“The left controls the intellectual circles,” said Sowell's biographer Jason Riley, “be it in academia, in the foundation world, in the committees that give out awards and prizes to scholars—they have effectively cancelled Thomas Sowell, despite his unparalleled scholarship.” In fact, Sowell should have been awarded a Nobel Prize years ago for the unique depth, magnitude, and reach of his examination of the human condition, his courageous and consistent championing of free markets and personal responsibility, and most importantly, for being proven so right by history. 

But would Sowell accept the Nobel Prize? On the one hand, it has been awarded to scholars he admires such as Milton Friedman, George Stiegler, and Friedrich Hayek. On the other hand, it has assumed a progressive narrative, promoting a 'woke' agenda that Sowell openly detests—culminating in the prize being awarded to Barack Obama, whom Sowell considers an elitist and the worst president in history. 

It is time for the Nobel Prize Committee to right this crying wrong and officially recognise Thomas Sowell’s unparalleled scholarship. As Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman noted, “The word 'genius' is thrown around so much that it's becoming meaningless, but I think Tom Sowell is close to being one.” What better way for the Nobel Prize to restore its dented reputation than to award the prize to this undisputed genius?