Universal Principles of Liberalism and the Politics of Race
07/25/2026
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Mises Wire
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Wanjiru Njoya
Thomas Sowell, the great economist, is not generally well regarded in some parts of the self-described “black community.” They call him an “Uncle Tom,” meaning a traitor to the black race. An anonymous commentator who shares daily quotes from Sowell on social media wrote on Facebook that he sees this “every single day. Multiple times a day.”
They never quote him back. They never cite a book. They never explain what he got wrong. They just say the words [Uncle Tom] and wait for applause.
. . .
Harvard. Columbia. PhD in economics from the University of Chicago. Taught at Cornell and UCLA. Published literally dozens of books. Exposed how the very policies his critics defend have gutted the communities they claim to care about.
And his reward for all of that is two words designed to do one thing: punish a black man for thinking for himself.
One of the reasons Sowell infuriates them is that he draws international comparisons, which they consider to be irrelevant in understanding the problems black people face. They believe their problems are special, and that it is offensive to compare their unique suffering to the suffering of regular human beings.
https://mises.org/mises-wire/universal-principles-liberalism-and-politics-race
