The conservative community has known for years that in many ways, the War on Poverty set up the black community for failure. The irony was that blacks were making significant progress into the 1950s, economically and culturally:
In 1965, when the Great Society began in earnest following the massive electoral landslide reelection of LBJ, the out-of-wedlock birthrate among the black community was 21 percent. By 2017, this figure had risen to a whopping 77 percent. In some cities, this rate is as high as 80 percent, with most of the unwed mothers being teenagers. We have documented extensively in our article on the death of civil society in the United States the negative effects of the single-parent household on child development and outcomes. The black community is now entering its third generation of single parenthood as the norm, something that rose astronomically with the advent of the Great Society.
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In any event, black women were more likely to be married than white women as late as 1950. It’s also worth looking at single parenthood over time: In the 1950s, 52 percent of all black children lived with both parents until the age of 17. By the 1980s, that number had plummeted to 6 percent.
In addition to outcomes, there is also a wide divide between the percentage of black families in poverty when there is a father present. Among married black families, the poverty rate is 8 percent. Among black households headed by a single mother, that rate jumps to 37 percent.
As much as leftists like to boast about liberating the black community through the War on Poverty, their effort was a disaster.
What happened?
Up until the 1960s, the black community believed it could be successful on its own. But Lyndon Baines Johnson wanted to follow in the footsteps of his hero, Franklin Roosevelt, by demonstrating that any problems that existed among blacks could be solved by the government:
Johnson and his staff lost no time after Kennedy’s murder, beavering away around the clock to design a series of new programs that would be financed by America’s post-World War II abundance of wealth and prosperity. ‘I am a Roosevelt New Dealer,’ Johnson said the day after the assassination. ‘Kennedy was a little too conservative to suit my taste.’
In order to sustain this dependence on government and continue to dismantle the black community’s independence, the ideology of systemic racism was resurrected and promoted. Pseudoelite members of the black community joined the Progressive movement: the primary goal was to convince working-class blacks that the system was rigged against them, all the while grifting off the race-hustling. Ibram X. Kendi for example, won fame writing about systemic racism and critical race theory, at the same time that he mismanaged $50 million for the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University, producing nothing of value for the institution. In the meantime, he and others convinced blacks they were helpless to change their situation. That would leave him alone at the top.
Systemic racism was here to stay.
But it was all a lie.
A story in the Bible suggested to me that the war against blacks convinced the black community that their conditions were hopeless, and that story is in what some call the Old Testament, Numbers, 13: the story of the spies. Briefly, God had ordered spies to be sent to the land of Canaan to check out the condition of the land and the nature of the people. When the spies returned, all but two spies reported that the land was verdant, but the people were giants and would destroy the Hebrews when they entered. Even though the two spies who disagreed with the others protested the report, the people insisted on believing the other ten. The spies were said to be “well-intentioned.”
Ultimately, because of their unwise choice to submit to fear, the people were doomed to wander in the wilderness for forty years.
The problem for the Hebrews was not a fear of failure, but a fear of success. In many ways they probably liked the simplicity of wandering in the wilderness: they were given food, water, and could read Torah all day. If they went into the new land, what would that mean for them? Would they have to plant, harvest, and work for a living? Would they have to work that way forever?
I’m proposing that the barriers the black community are encountering are similar to the Hebrews in the wilderness: they only have their own internal barriers, not outside barriers. They’ve grown accustomed to the largesse of government; for many, the idea of striving for success must be terrifying.
This country has become more diverse and accepting than ever before. Blacks need only to trust in themselves. They need only believe they can become more competent and successful if they learn to be self-reliant. And they need to stop believing in those who cry “white supremacist” or “racism.”
One organization that supports the black community is the National Center for Public Policy and Project 21. Chairman Cherylyn Harley LeBon says:
‘Although they were conceived with good intentions, the programs of the War on Poverty have ultimately had a negative impact on the lives of black Americans. Even Franklin Roosevelt warned that the welfare state ‘must not become a narcotic and a subtle destroyer of the spirit.’
LeBon continued: ‘While some good things did come out of the 1960s, many of these programs — including Head Start — have become ineffective and, some argue, damaging over time. In fact, some of the major disasters plaguing minority communities — including drugs, higher incarceration rates and a rise in unwed mothers — couldn’t have just coincidentally began escalating at the same time. At this point, when we can reflect upon what has happened and what is needed, we should now support and expand policies encouraging small business expansion, improving educational opportunities, and strengthening faith and families.’
Black people don’t need to fear the outcomes of success.