The Moynihan Report turns 50 next month and a lot of people are proclaiming unequivocally that Moynihan Report was right that Black Culture is broken.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-weiner/daniel-patrick-moynihan_b_6651868.html

http://www.wsj.com/articles/jason-l-riley-still-right-on-the-black-family-after-all-these-years-1423613625

For a more nuanced reading of the actual report which points a fair amount of the finger at structural impediments look here:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/04/what-the-left-and-right-both-get-wrong-about-the-moynihan-report/360701/

I will also throw in a survey of books and studies that span the culturalist and structuralist debates.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/09/dont-like

I think the answer is that it's a mixture of both and those who insist it is wholly one or the other are ideologically bent or aren't thinking deeply about the issue.

I will also say that I am extremely annoyed by people who have spent absolutely no time in such environments thinking they are experts on the issue and think they have the solution. See Paul Ryan. I wish, just once, someone would ask Paul Ryan what is the basis for his belief that government is part of the problem and acts as a "hammock that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency and complacency, that drains them of their will and their incentive to make the most of their lives."


Anyway, I really wanted to talk about this subject of Culture vs. Institutional Racism because I was really surprised that Kendrick Lamar would catch heat from people for just bringing up Black on Black crime in that new track. I found that reaction...weird. Coon label being tossed around alot these days.


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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"One of the most important things in life is what Judge Learned Hand described as 'that ever-gnawing inner doubt as to whether you're r