Reaching Out to the Other Side

A letter from a reader

In my most recent conversation with John McWhorter, we discussed why we continue to talk about “red meat” race issues when there are other, perhaps more technically rigorous ways we could approach problems of racial disparity from within our respective disciplines. I get why some people think we should simply shift our emphasis and stop talking about these matters. Sometimes it can feel like we’re pushing against an immoveable object.

But once in a while I receive emails like the one I’m posting below. It’s from Brad, a reader with training in economics, a technically minded, conservative-leaning guy whose views on race cut against progressive “common sense.” My conversations with John have helped this reader reach out and communicate with a liberal friend in a way that had been difficult for him before. Now, as Brad tells it, there’s a bit more mutual understanding. Perhaps he’ll even be able to change his friend’s mind.

If conversations like the ones John and I have can help people like Brad engage with “the other side” in a civil and productive way, that’s all the justification I need to keep having them. I’m interested to know if there are any more stories like Brad’s out there. Have John and I helped you engage with your “woke” family and friends? Let me know in the comments!

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Dear Professor Loury, 

Thank you for improving my relationship with my friend Alex. 

Alex is a smart young man, curious and passionate about political and social issues, especially around race. He’s also a man of the Left. This presents a challenge, as I am more of a conservative—a Burkean liberal, if I may use that descriptor. 

You have helped me by giving me a language that I can use to express myself with my friend. 

Please let me explain. 

I have an economics degree from the University of Florida. Two of my professors completed their dissertations under Gary Becker. I’ve read a little Walter Williams, a little Shelby Steele, and a lot of Thomas Sowell. I consider Sowell the successor to F.A. Hayek in many ways, and his serious books have shaped my thinking on a range of issues. I think about visions of social causation rooted in particular views of human nature; about institutions with incentives and constraints; about knowledge costs, transaction costs, and the transmission of socially valuable information. 

But I’m probably on the autism spectrum, so I like analytical language. I love Walter Williams’s dictum that, “Compassionate policy requires dispassionate analysis.” 

By contrast, Alex is very empathetic. (Why else would he put up with me?) Sowell’s analytical approach can feel uncaring to people like my friend. It risks closing them off to the insights that Sowell and others have to offer. 

I am relieved and grateful because you and Professor McWhorter have given me the language to speak to my friend. When you said, “It’s not about blame, it’s about the prospects going forward,” you gave me the words I needed. When you exploded, “I’m furious here in my 70th year of life,” you expressed a passion that my friend could connect with. When you highlighted the need for transracial alliances to improve and reform our institutions, you gave him a handle he could grasp. When you bemoaned the black men in jails “whose lives never had the chance to develop their human potential,” you spoke to a desire to promote human flourishing found among good men everywhere along the political spectrum. 

And when you told Professor McWhorter, “They do not play the accordion, John,” you displayed humor, friendship, and humanity.  

Listening to the way you talk in your speeches and on The Glenn Show has taught me, I think, to be a better friend, by being a little more patient and a bit more empathetic (though still I need improvement in both). 

Indeed, my best “political” conversation with Alex wasn’t about politics at all. It was mid-2020, and we were talking about the pandemic and the states that were hit the hardest. New York City had seen the most cases and the most deaths. West Virginia, on the other hand, was the last state to diagnose its first case. 

My family is from West Virginia, so I was able to explain that they are a landlocked state with no international airports and limited river traffic. The largest cities each have less than 50,000 people. The mountainous geography of West Virginia limits its access to the outside world and even to different parts of the state. These factors slow the spread of viruses, yes, but they also slow the transmission of innovations. Historically, Highlanders in Scotland and elsewhere tended to lag behind their Lowland cousins in their access to technology and cultural innovation. 

Soon, we were talking about Africa’s coastline, its lack of bays and inlets, and its paucity of navigable rivers. I dug through my memories of Sowell’s discussion of geography’s impact on commerce and culture, with a little Jared Diamond sprinkled in. I added some speculation about the role of geography in the development of distinct types of political economies. 

While this conversation obviously relied on the work of Sowell, Diamond, Hayek, and others, it was also inspired by your idea of a “development narrative” that extends beyond current affairs or Jim Crow or even American slavery. Your focus on the development of human potential—something that is not automatic and cannot be taken for granted—framed and enriched my thinking. 

That framework has been very helpful, for my heart as well as for my mind. Thank you. 

One last thought…  

I’m thinking of writing an article about “Listening to Black Conservatives,” discussing the way that reading listening to you, Sowell, Shelby Steele, and Jason Riley has shaped my own thinking about race, crime, economics, culture, and family in ways that might not have happened listening to white academics and writers. I want to explore your similarities with each other, but also your differences. I don’t have any questions for you right now, but I suspect that may change: You have been warned. 

Happy Thanksgiving, 

Brad