Summary of Thomas Sowell's Black Rednecks & White Liberals

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview:

#1 White Southerners, who were largely poor and working class, were considered undesirable by 21 percent of those surveyed in Detroit in 1951, and by 13 percent of those surveyed in Chicago in 1948.

#2 Many have tried to explain regional and racial differences by invoking slavery. But this explanation falls flat when one considers the existence of this same subculture among white Southerners before the institution of slavery.

#3 The British Isles have always been a hotbed of racial tension, and the American South was no different. The British Isles were a hotbed of racial tension because they were a fringe region between Europe and Scotland. The Americans were a fringe region between Scotland and England, and their culture was heavily influenced by Scots.

#4 The British Isles were a hotbed of racial tension because they were a fringe region between Europe and Scotland. The Americans were a fringe region between Scotland and England, and their culture was heavily influenced by Scots.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Sep 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9798350031096

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights on Thomas Sowell's Black Rednecks White Liberals

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The culture of white Southerners, which was distinct from other white cultures, has long survived in the American South, and continues to survive in the poorest and most dangerous black ghettos.

#2

The subculture of white Southerners has always existed, and many have tried to explain it by slavery. However, this explanation does not take into account the fact that this subculture existed among white Southerners and their ancestors in Britain before they ever saw a black slave.

#3

Migration from Britain was not random. It was primarily motivated by the fact that many British people lived in areas outside of cultural heartland England, and their behavior on both sides of the Atlantic showed this.

#4

The rednecks and crackers were the descendants of nineteenth-century immigrants who had come to the South before the Anglicization of Scotland, Wales, and Ulster had progressed very far. They were the most disorderly inhabitants of a deeply disordered land.

#5

The white Southern subculture was made up of many of the same values and behavioral patterns as today’s black culture. They were a touchy pride, vanity, and boastful self-dramatization culture.

#6

The history of the antebellum South is full of episodes showing the same pattern, whether expressed in the highly formalized duels of the aristocracy or in the no-holds-barred style of fighting called rough and tumble among the common folk.

#7

The South was no different than the rest of the country in terms of violence and courts allowing it to go unpunished. The actions of southern courts often amazed outsiders, but what may be even more revealing of widespread attitudes were the cases that never even went to trial.

#8

During the era when dueling became a pattern among upper-class Americans, it was particularly prevalent in the South. In colonial America, the people of the English borderlands and of the Celtic fringe were seen by contemporaries as culturally quite distinct, and were socially unwelcome.

#9

Southerners, even those who were not in conflict with Northerners, often showed a reckless disregard for human life. They would race steamboats, and when they encountered each other, they would throw all their casks of bacon into the boilers to move ahead of the other boat.

#10

The violence that white Southerners are most known for, lynching, was not caused by race or slavery, but by economic reasons alone. It was only after the Civil War that blacks became the primary targets of lynching.

#11

The white population of the antebellum South was poor, and they were also lazy and did not want to work. They lived a casual and careless lifestyle, and spent their time drinking or hunting.

#12

The South had a shortage of butter, despite having plenty of cows. The South produced only 20 percent