Please Stop Helping Us

By Jason Riley

Subjects: African Americans, nyt:race-and-civil-rights=2014-12-07, Government policy, Social condtions, New York Times bestseller, Social mobility, United states, social policy, Social mobility, united states, Liberalism, Economic conditions, African americans, politics and government, Social policy, Social conditions, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Discrimination & Race Relations, African americans, economic conditions, African americans, social conditions, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Freedom & Security / Civil Rights

Description: The author believes that "many efforts by liberals to help the black underclass not only fail but often harm the intended beneficiaries. The intentions behind welfare programs may be noble, but in practice they have slowed the self-development that was necessary for other groups to advance. Minimum-wage laws may lift earnings for people who are already employed, but they also have a long history of pricing blacks out of the labor force. Affirmative action in higher education was intended to address past discrimination, but the result is fewer black college graduates ... than would have existed in the absence racial preferences"--