30 Comments

Ms. Gray’s assertion that Black parents care just as much about their children’s education as other races may be true. However, all things being equal, a single parent has less time to read, etc. to his/her child than a parent who has a co-parent living in the home. So, educational outcomes will be worse in a demographic with higher rates of single parenthood. This isn't complicated stuff. I wish you had made this point.

As for Ms. Gray, I wish she had a chance to live in the Soviet Union, or Cuba, or Venezuela, or any other socialist country. So unfortunate that she and so many others do not understand human nature, the value of incentives, and how amazing our country is and can be.

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It was interesting. So so much discussion on "race" issues which I can't, in my wildest imagination, generate practical solutions. Why? Well, because if your neighbor gets help for the same issues you are having because they are a different race or ethnicity than you . . . you might have problems accepting that.

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Okay Glenn, for this week's Q&A, on Briahna's YouTube page the comments suggested you were being nice to her. And I am sure you do not pack stats in your holster like Sowell. You did do a fantastic job of maintaining decorum though. Having reflected on the conversation, what are the important points you want to add?

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Ms Gray could also have suggested that ALL communities alter their behavior to match African Americans: single motherhood, routine use of cannabis, absent fathers, drive-by shootings in every community just like Detroit, Chicago, Buffalo, etc. Wouldn't that also reduce the disparities?

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People of color (male and female) are underrepresented in STEM fields. Is a degree in social work or education as valuable as a degree in engineering or chemistry?

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Disheartening discussion in so many ways. To the criticisms cited by others here I would add that though she talks glibly about management by workers she is unaware that worker self-management was tried and implemented in Tito's Yugoslavia. It wasn't particularly successful. Also, union workers in Germany have a lot of input into how their firms operate. What does Briahna think of those?

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What’s all this about black women being the most well-educated group in the US? She just asserted that with no evidence. Such a claim needs extensive scrutiny, which Glenn began doing, but I’d also question:

1) What is the percentage of black women who hold degrees?

2) Which degree subjects did they take?

3) What are their grades?’

If the vast majority hold critical theory or postmodernism-based degrees (as opposed to STEM, finance, economics or the like) then their education - far from equipping them with thinking skills for work, life and success - is actually training them to be complainers. Which in turn explains why pay & employment gaps remain.

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I turned this off after about halfway through, since it was more a discussion about socialism than racism, and I've heard all Brianna's fashionable dorm room socialist arguments before, and it was clear Glenn wasn't really in the mood to fight her on them. He would probably have to in order for this discussion to truly be meaningful.

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This was another interesting discussion between two intelligent and articulate people like the recent one with Lara Bazelon, a good example of "The Conversation" which some people say has to take place in this country. At some points, however, I wished Glenn could have made a stronger case for his positions. When he expressed his concerns about issue of books in the home, time spent by parents reading to their children, etc., Briahna challenged him for hard evidence to back up his claims, he had to admit he had none. And when she was singing the praises of state socialism and the virtues of the Soviet Union, he could have pointed her to the "Black Book of Communism" published in the 1990s which documents the nearly 100 million people who were killed "through executions, man-made hunger, famine, war, deportations, and forced labor".

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This made me appreciate how few commercials Bloggingheads.tv inject into their programs, wow.

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My favorite part was when she referred to the election of Barack Obama as a "superficial gain." Talk about cynical! The same for black billionaires. Both Obama's election and insanely successful black Americans "ultimately serve the purpose of disguising exactly how insidious the gross racial and economic disparities that exist under capitalism really are."

She was a good conversationalist, though, in that she presented her case logically. (As someone else pointed out, black women are not actually the "most educated" group, so she did misspeak about that, whether intentional or not.) She gained points with me when she conceded the left plays up certain statistics over others for political gain. A simple and obvious acknowledgement, sure, but surprisingly few on the left or right admit even such obvious things. However, she then said the right uses statistics in a way as to "weaponize" them. I see it differently: The right is pummeled nonstop -- and it is truly nonstop -- with claims of "racist cops" and "white supremacy." So it seems to me pointing out the actual numbers to disprove the left's claims is self-defense, not weaponization!

Regarding the use of statistics, the contrast between Briahna Joy Gray and Roland Fryer (whom I listened to last night) was stark. I prefer Dr. Fryer's "let the cards fall where they may" attitude.

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Wow. When she said America cannot take credit for beating the Nazis because we only lost 300,000 people compared to 25 million Soviets lost was the most telling moment of the podcast. We lost so few because we value life. Stalin used the front line to send all of his political enemies to their deaths. Just amazing.

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That was painful and depressing.

Brianna is obviously an intelligent and caring person but this interview leaves me with little hope.

She has obviously grown up in a very protected and privileged environment. Kudos to her parents for providing that. Unfortunately such a privileged upbringing only leads to destruction... whether it's Rome or Russia the children of the privileged hate their society and wish to tear it down. In its place the hybristic Young build hell... her defending of the USSR makes me want to cry... This willful ignorance of the world perpetrated by the University system is a shame on the west.

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Is anyone aware of any studies (even just subjective self-proclaimed levels of "prioritization" or "value" that find black americans place more valueor emphasis on education than other racial groups?

This claim was made by Briahna, quasi challenged by Glenn, but I have looked and been unable to find any such polls or surveys.

(and I think measures of things like hours in front of TV vs Hours of homework, or hours spent reading to children, or consumption of luxury goods vs consumption of education/cultural goods would be more accurate measures... but I don't think Briahan has even ever seen the surveys which she cites.)

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@ 24min Briahna makes the absurd claim that Black women are the most educated demographic group in the USA. This isn't even close to true, and I knew it immeditely upon hearing it. It seems like something only believable by someone completely out of touch with the reality in America, or totally blinded by biases into believing what he/she wants to be true.

There is, however, a larger education gap betwn male/female black americans than there is a gender gap in education for other racial groups.

https://familyinequality.wordpress.com/2016/06/07/no-black-women-are-not-the-most-educated-group-in-the-us/

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Cuba. They always come back to Cuba. My working class father had to leave in 1960 to get out from under that nightmare. I wouldn't waste my time talking to people like this. They arise every few decades and are blind to history, human nature and reality. God forbid they ever come to power. It's ideology vs. people. Very telling what she said about the pitting our beloved partners vs. our opinions. She came close to saying that ideology is more important. That's been my experience in 58 years when it comes to ideologues. They will throw you under the bus whenever it suits them.

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