To reach blacks, libertarians must begin to understand the African-American experience

[jmdrake]

Yes. However you appear to believe that everyone should be given equal stuff and unless they are, they shouldn't be responsible for their actions.

nayjevin never said that.

Edit: I was going to leave this at that one sentence, but I decided to go further. This is the quote from the original article that caused the thread to go off kilter.

Jim Crow’s death is worth celebrating but hardly sufficient for establishing equal opportunity in any meaningful sense, especially when our society still effectively traps people in these conditions by both law and custom, based in no small part on their race. - See more at: http://rare.us/story/to-reach-blacks....FKgO8GZg.dpuf

Now, Ron Paul apparently agrees with that in the sense that he feels that drug laws, among other things, effectively trap people in bad conditions based in no small part on their race. That's why I posted the video that I did. If you agree with what Ron Paul said, then you should agree with the fact that just getting rid of "Jim Crow" isn't/wasn't enough. The problem is that some have latched onto the "establishing equal opportunity" phrase and turned that into "Libertarians must support affirmative action and the welfare state" when nobody has freaking said that! Do minimum wage laws contribute to black unemployment? If so, then getting rid of minimum wage laws helps "establish equal opportunity". Really, you are doing exactly what the liberal media did with Clive Bundy. You extrapolated something that you believed someone else was saying from what that person actually said.

 

[nayjevin]

Yes. However you appear to believe that everyone should be given equal stuff and unless they are, they shouldn't be responsible for their actions.

I don't know, but maybe if you tried reading what I wrote again looking for something I said that makes you believe this, you would realize that it doesn't exist? Maybe then you can recognize a tendency to put people into categories and assume they hold the characteristics of others you have seen in that category? i.e. liberals, blacks

 

[jmdrake]

I don't know, but maybe if you tried reading what I wrote again looking for something I said that makes you believe this, you would realize that it doesn't exist? Maybe then you can recognize a tendency to put people into categories and assume they hold the characteristics of others you have seen in that category? i.e. liberals, blacks

In reality, this thread itself shows why libertarians have a hard time reaching minorities. Rather than recognizing how a libertarian philosophy could help alieve problems in the black community, some would rather pontificate about "who's fault" the problems are. If we believe big government generally causes more harm than good than we should just stick with that message. I realize that liberals have pointed out external sources to problems in the black community in order to increase government power. There's no reason libertarians can't do the same thing but with the aim of reducing government power.

 

[philipped]

You can't be upset that they just don't "get it". Many of us didn't "get it" either. Find common ground. Respect the fact that people's fears are real to them even if they are illogical to you.

As a fellow black man who is very fond of libertarianism, this has been the biggest battle so far.