AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS ADDICT

I heard audio clips of Michelle Obama’s commencement speech at Tuskegee University. In stead of relying on the clips I heard, I decided to listen to the whole speech to get a total understanding of the message she was trying to get across. In the video below, the speech starts at 9:10. Mrs. Obama does a good job telling the history of not only Tuskegee University but the Tuskegee Airman who flew in WWII. She talks of how racism was overcome by the efforts of each individual working and persevering to become the best they could be. It’s very inspiring.

Then at 24:00 – 27:30 it starts to veer off the inspirational tracks a little bit. This is the part I heard audio clips of, and you can listen to these if you choose. I won’t comment on them. What I found interesting was the part starting at 27:35. She gives the students the solution to take on the “deep-rooted problems” that they will face. Here is what she said.

“Our history provides us with a better story, a better blue print for how we can win. It teaches us that when we pull ourselves out of the lowest emotional depths and we channel our frustrations into studying and organizing and banding together, we can build ourselves and or communities up. We can take on those deep-rooted problems and together we can overcome anything that stands in our way.”

At this point I’m thinking she is going to reference the beginning of her speech where these individuals didn’t let racism stand in the way of their accomplishments. They didn’t turn to Government or anybody else, they just figured it out and did it on their own. But instead, Mrs. Obama says this.

“And the first thing we have to do is vote. Not just once in a while…..Vote in every election at every level all of the time. Because here’s the truth. If you truly want a say in your community. If you truly want to have the power to control your own destiny, then you got to be involved. You got to be at the table. You got to vote, vote, vote, vote. That’s it, that’s the way we move forward. That’s how we make progress for ourselves and for our country.”

This is spoken like a true Statist. Gaining Government power is the answer. It’s what you should strive for? This is the complete opposite of what the founders of Tuskegee University, and the Tuskegee airman did.

I’m going to let Thomas Sowell respond to Mrs Obama’s comments in the video below. He is discussing his book Intellectuals and Race. I’ve said this before that nobody writes or speaks more clearly about race and culture than Thomas Sowell.

Thomas Sowell grew up in Harlem in the 40’s when there was more racism than there is today. He has said he is glad he didn’t grow up in Harlem in the 60’s when Government started their “Great Society”  programs to help blacks.

At 28:38 they show an excerpt form a speech President LBJ made at Howard University in 1965. LBJ talks about the plight of blacks. And the solution to their plight is Government, in general, and his Great Society Programs in particular. Watch up to 31:25 to hear Thomas Sowell’s response to LBJ’s speech.

About the plight of blacks today, Dr. Sowell says,“The first thing to be done is to understand that this was a result of policies begun in the 1960’s. This is not a legacy of what happened a hundred years before the 1960’s. He said he would roll back welfare and eliminate affirmative action, but it won’t happen because all “the incentives politically, are for black leaders to blame all problems in the black community on the larger society. And that enables them to take on the role of being the defender of the black community against enemies. Which in turn creates the situation in which many blacks don’t feel that anything that they do is going to help themselves, unless it is done politically as a group….” One of the most pathetic things I heard in recent years was a young black man saying at one point he thought he would join the Air Force and become a pilot. And then he said he realized that the white man is not going to let a black man become a pilot. And he was saying this decades after the Tuskegee Airman had established their reputation in combat in Europe. Hopelessness is one of the great products of the race industry.”

When asked “how do you make something out of yourself, as an African-American in America today”, he says; “The way anybody else would. You equip yourself with skills that people are willing to pay for.”

Watch the whole video. It is worth the time.

Related Article – Thomas Sowell: The Economics And Politics Of Race, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Best Commencement Speech Ever? Adm. McCraven Gets My Vote, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Race Politics and Lies, by Thomas Sowell, at jewishworldreview.com.