The Economic Lot of Minorities

Nov 12, 1981 (New York City, NY) Mr. Sowell had taken a great deal of flak from the establishment for his dissection of cliches about racial discrimination, but he simply makes his points and defies anyone to misunderstand him: "People often say that I'm denying that there's racism. On the contrary, racism exists everywhere around the world, down through history. That's one of the reasons it's hard to use it as an empirical explanation for anything. In the United States, for example, Puerto Ricans have lower incomes than blacks. I don't know of anyone who believes Puerto Ricans encounter more discrimination than blacks. Obviously there must be something else involved besides discrimination." ... Examiner* Harriet Pilpel: "Are you against labor unions?" Mr. Sowell: "You asked what were some of the factors that stood in the way of black economic progress, and I said that one of them was the labor union. That is a fact, and I'm simply reporting facts, not prejudices." - The Firing Line Archives @ The Hoover Institute, Stanford University