by Jose Nino
Race has always been a controversial issue in American politics. It attracts the biggest of demagogues on both sides of the political aisle. Like most political issues these days, practically all the solutions offered involve large degrees of state involvement. The reality is that the State is the one institution that has historically hurt blacks the most. Here are some of the most notable policies that have hurt blacks:
#1. Minimum Wage
#2. Labor Unions
Labor unions are put on a pedestal by many today. Championed for their struggles against greedy businessmen and corporate abuse, labor unions are seen as the champions of the common man. The typical narrative of labor unions is that they are responsible for ending child labor and bringing about the 8-hour work week, despite evidence that points to the contrary. Little is talked about the darker side of labor unions, especially their racist origins.
Labor unions pushed for the aforementioned minimum wage polices along with above market-level wages and benefits in order to price out black labor. In many instances many of these unions turned to violence to ensure that
Labor unions may have held businesses accountable to some degree, but they have overstayed their welcome. Their rent-seeking behavior to this day leaves many workers out of the market, especially blacks. Luckily, labor unions have been on decline in the past few decades thanks to right-to-work laws that promote worker freedom and their ability to negotiate with their employees as they please.
#3. Public Education
Public education has done unspeakable amounts of harm to blacks that even the KKK could never dream of doing. Characterized by inefficiency and over-bearing bureaucracy, inner city public schools are guaranteed poverty traps for countless numbers of blacks. Many a troubled youth must turn to drug dealing and other illicit activities just to get by. To add insult to injury, these schools look more and more like prisons, as many students must pass through metal detectors and checkpoints supervised by security guards.
This is not a friendly learning environment by any means; this is a system that clearly benefits bureaucrats, administrators, and bad teachers at the expense of the students.
Free-market solutions to education are the best ways for the black community to defeat the poverty trap that is public education. There is no need to throw more money at a strategy that has failed time and time again.
#4. Occupational Licensing
One of the least discussed forms of statism, occupational licensing has kept countless entrepreneurs and aspiring professionals from practicing their professions and making a living. Costly entrance fees and a maze of regulatory hurdles to jump through make it incredibly hard or next to impossible for people of humble origins to make a living,
However, there is a more insidious history behind the origins of occupational licensing.
Occupational licensing became institutionalized after the passage of Jim Crow Laws in the South. Naturally, these barriers were created with the purpose of keeping blacks from competing with other white professionals in the same field. Despite the elimination of Jim Crow laws, occupational licensing has stayed in place as vestige of that era. These burdensome regulations still hurt aspiring black professionals to this very day.
#5. War on Drugs
Since its inception in the early 1970s, the War on Drugs has been an absolute disaster on all levels. What started out as a program whose objective was to promote order and strengthen the social fabric has done the exact opposite. It has torn families apart, created massive black markets for drug trafficking, and has destroyed countless civil liberties.
Most notable, is the disproportionate amount of damage that the War on Drugs has done towards the black community. Blacks generally face harsher punishments for possession crimes and tend to be targeted more during drug raids and busts. None of this happened in a vacuum or is a complete coincidence.
The drug prohibitionary framework that existed prior to the launch of the War on Drugs was very racist in nature. Blacks were generally associated with cocaine use that purportedly made them unruly and more likely to commit crimes. As a result, a new set of drug prohibitions was put in place to “put them in line”.
Despite not having openly racist rhetoric, the current War on Drugs campaign still affects blacks negatively. Families with no fathers, high incarceration rates, and the temptation to partake in black market activities are just some of the most deleterious effects of the Drug War. No matter how colorblind certain statist polices claim to be, they will always maintain vestiges of their originally racist results.
#6. Gun Control
The use of gun control has always been about people gun control. Historically speaking, blacks have been the primary victims of gun control since the colonial era. In the era of slavery, it was logical to disarm slaves and free blacks in order for the white populace to assert their supremacy and quell any type of uprising.
The lurid nature of these policies continued in full effect during the Jim Crow era where blacks were left defenseless in the face of racist governments and White supremacist groups. Studies show that blacks are still disproportionately hurt by current gun control measures. Unfortunately, some things never change.
#7. Welfare
The American welfare state has absolutely decimated the black community. Starting with the New Deal, the US government made significant steps in discarding the free-market model of economy that characterized it for more than 150 years. Soon followed Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society, which effectively institutionalized welfare in the United States. The Great Society is one of the largest vote-buying schemes that has benefited the Democrat Party for the past 40 years, effectively turning blacks into a monolithic voting bloc that has voted overwhelmingly Democrat year in and year out.
Unfortunately, the results of these policies have been horrific. Massive dependency on the State, breakdown of the black family structure, and crime-infested neighborhoods are just some of the many toxic effects that welfare has had on the black community. The southern plantation may be gone, but Uncle Sam’s plantation is much larger and just as insidious.
What the black community needs is the free-market, not the State, in order to embark on the road to self-improvement and empowerment. For far too long, the State has shackled this community figuratively and literally. The same state that enslaved them in the past is just as capable of shackling their potential with handouts and other top-down schemes.
No matter what policy the State pursues or how well intentioned it is, the State is the iron hand of coercion. What the black community needs, and mankind for that matter, is the invisible hand of the market that promotes social cooperation and personal development.
Less State. More Markets.