Low-Income Blacks and Illegal Immigration

by La Shawn Barber - May 31st, 2007 - Townhall.com

I first read the name “Carol Swain” while scanning a 2004 Boston Globe column by Cathy Young, who’d written about a panel discussion that took place around the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education – the Supreme Court case that outlawed government-mandated racial segregation in government schools.

Swain, a professor at Vanderbilt University Law School, talked about subcultural factors that impede the academic progress of black students, such as a lack of parental involvement in schools, the “acting white” phenomenon, and lowered standards and expectations. Quoting Swain, Young wrote that these factors “created a negative incentive structure for African-Americans who have either internalized societal messages about inferiority or have chosen an easier path of not exerting themselves too vigorously.”

While Swain probably wouldn’t describe herself as politically conservative, her ideas certainly are atypical of many liberals. She’s written about the negative effects of illegal immigration on low-income black Americans and the Congressional Black Caucus’s (CBC) stunning silence on the issue.

This is an excellent article that talks about the difference between the needs of poor blacks and the refusal of democratic and black leadership to offer anything but welfare dependence as a solution.

This issue is becoming huge because of the impact on border security and the consequences will be profound for the future of our country. The American dream is far more important than the political survival of the demagogues who are selling out poor blacks on the issues of immigration and school choice.

It is good to see people like Ms Barber have the courage to stand up to the power structure in both the democrat party and the black community. It takes courage because they are a powerful group with vested interests that are not in the interest of the poor of our nation.