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I know nothing about Rotimi Adeoye except that he's a "contributing opinion writer" for the New York Times, which is not a good start, but I admit I have a soft spot for people who state the obvious, and sometimes he's good at that:
"The anti-racism book boom made a handful of authors rich. The struggle sessions gave wealthy academic elites a new industry. Meanwhile, did any core data point move? Black life expectancy, the wealth gap, homeownership. Where’s the change? Is the country’s consciousness raised?"
I doubt Adeoye and I would agree on a whole lot, but he actually bothered to ask a good question here. We all know about the people who bought mansions off money they raised through Black Lives Matter. Adeoye, above, adds other examples.
And then he asks:
Did any of this do anyone any good -- anyone, that is, who wasn't on the take?
Thomas Sowell spent much of his career warning people not to have high expectations for what political agitation could accomplish. He noted that the Irish, who spent a lot of their social capital on politics, lagged behind American ethic groups that established themselves first and only later turned to politics.
Detroit had all the black representation you could ask for. What good did that do for the people who lived there?
Real improvement involves more than bean counting or surface-level victories. As Shelby Steele once wrote about San Jose State University, where he taught:
At the university where I currently teach, the dropout rate for blacks is 72 percent, despite the presence of several academic support programs, a counseling center with black counselors, an Afro-American studies department, black faculty, administrators, and staff, a general education curriculum that emphasizes "cultural pluralism," an Educational Opportunities Program, a mentor program, a black faculty and staff association, and an administration and faculty that often announce the need to do more for black students.
What good did all of that do?
(Yes, I know it benefited the people who were part of the racket; that's precisely my point.)
It's fashionable in academic circles, and especially in "African American Studies" departments, to laugh at Booker T. Washington — who advocated focusing on economic development and practical improvements in blacks' material condition, rather than political agitation, as the first step -- and to praise instead W.E.B. DuBois, who was the spiritual ancestor of the modern "civil rights" leader.
(Not mentioned by anyone, because it's considered impolite to bring it up, is that DuBois composed a fawning and embarrassing eulogy to -- believe it or not -- Joseph Stalin in 1953.)
People love great spectacles -- so much that they forget to ask: what good did this do? During Covid they couldn't even be bothered to ask: are any of these restrictions doing any good?
As long as the people involved parrot the correct slogans and appear to have good intentions, it's considered gauche to ask if any of it accomplished anything.
Hence my emphasis nowadays on doing practical things that have immediate effect for real people.
It's 2026, and we have technology that would have stunned everyone who ever lived, so if we can't figure out how to build something meaningful with it, and indeed to monetize it to make our lives more comfortable, something is wrong.
My step-by-step presentation this afternoon on how to start and operate a solopreneur, laptop-based business costs you nothing, and I'll tell you right now: it is darn good.
It's free, so you don't have to worry that it might stink and not be worth the money. It's worth more than plenty of $497 programs, I assure you. But it does not stink.
So what's the catch? You have to be there live, and take notes. There won't be a recording of this presentation. Reserve your spot here and I'll see you later today:
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