David Brooks apparently thinks "society" means "white people"

By Jonathan Bradley in Sydney, Australia

15 February 2012

Here's a stunning piece of nonsense from David Brooks today:

The half-century between 1912 and 1962 was a period of great wars and economic tumult but also of impressive social cohesion. Marriage rates were high. Community groups connected people across class.

In the half-century between 1962 and the present, America has become more prosperous, peaceful and fair, but the social fabric has deteriorated. Social trust has plummeted. Society has segmented. The share of Americans born out of wedlock is now at 40 percent and rising.

Kevin Drum deals with with the unsupported assertion that the American social fabric has deteriorated over the past fifty years, but I'm concerned that Brooks is apparently unaware that America between 1912 and 1962 wasn't a particularly socially cohesive place at all.

A black woman drinking from a

I'm sure this is not news to most of my readers, but for David Brooks: In the first half of the twentieth century, Americans in many states were legally segregated from one another on the basis of the colour of their skin. In these places, laws were put in place to prevent African Americans from voting. Black people were kept separate from whites in restaurants, in accomodation, and on public transport. Black men were extrajudicially executed for associating with white women. Throughout the country — in the North as well as the South — housing covenants kept black people from moving into neighbourhoods where white folks lived.

That is not "impressive social cohesion."

This isn't the first time David Brooks has assumed that he can speak for all America by pretending people who aren't white don't exist. He might do a bit better with his cod-sociological analysis if he worked out that America doesn't look like the cast of a 1950s television program.

Tags: David Brooks, History, Jim Crow, Race, The South

Bookmark and Share

Print This Post

Comments

Elizabeth

7:48 PM on Wed 15 February 2012

I think you're maybe misreading ... while you are right about racial segregation I think you'll find that within the racially segregated communities there was strong social cohesion ie strong black communities, with strong local organisations and considerable family integrity. and strong white communities, with strong local organisations and considerable family integrity. I think that's what he's saying and I think there's some truth to that.

Blondy

1:47 AM on Thu 16 February 2012

Elizabeth, like Brooks you are ignoring the economic factor that helped play a role in the African-American community at the time. Brooks does not mention the more predominate role of unions at the time and the availability of better-paying factory jobs, and does not mention segregation.

Jonathan Bradley

11:05 AM on Thu 16 February 2012

Elizabeth, Brooks doesn't mention race at any point in his piece, so I don't think it's reasonable to suppose he was really referring to social cohesion within racial groups. (I don't see that it's relevant either; ignoring Jim Crow is a pretty big oversight.) As for intra-racial social cohesion, I know that African Americans, like whites, are known to remember the past nostalgically, and I have read arguments that segregation forced cross-class unity in the black community. I've also, however, read plenty of contemporary accounts of inter-class division in segregated black communities, expressed in much the same language as the arguments that continue today. Even giving Brooks a pass on his racial ignorance, his argument is pretty sketchy.

Have your say

Name
Comment

Read our Comments Policy

Next: Is "Get Lucky" the American Daft Punk song?

Previous: Are red states addicted to government spending?

Recent Posts

Archive