Glenn Loury

A hundred years from now, I think Americans will regard blackness no differently from the way they regard "Irishness" or "Italianness" today. It will be part of a person's identity, maybe even an important part. But it won't define the individual. It'll be one facet of a person's https://t.co/30Yhm6veYU

You don't have to be an economist to understand why lowering admissions standards for black college applicants guarantees that post-admission performance will differ according to racial identity. Here's how: https://t.co/Ef3UR9e0sj

Racial preferences in college admissions didn't eliminate racial disparities in college performance. It simply helped us ignore them. https://t.co/0HtcQGdYft

When we're thinking about big-picture life outcomes—incarceration rates, academic performance, social mobility, and so on—culture matters. How individuals are raised and nurtured matters. How values are inculcated matters. Everyone knows it. Let's stop pretending. https://t.co/cqnQ9cWMr2

Race is not given in nature. It's embedded in our patterns of social reproduction—not only who marries and has children with whom, but the practices, values, and behaviors we reproduce in the world. If you want to understand racial inequality, you have to understand that process. https://t.co/xRJTlUal9c

Nobody will give us equality. We have to take it. We have to make ourselves equal—nobody can do that for us. https://t.co/IkLfjHeHuD

If we want to solve the problems bequeathed to us by the twentieth century, we're going to need capitalism. Capitalism has already led to incredible growth in East and Southeast Asia, and it's the surest bet to provide a sustainable path forward. https://t.co/tz572fhG4l

Back in the '80s, I inadvertently made Coretta Scott King cry. I was presenting my critiques of the Civil Rights Movement, and man, I was ARROGANT about it. I still think I was right on the merits, but King's tears should have taught me something about humility. https://t.co/tzz6QV2Q69

The first time I encountered "bourgeois Negroes" was on the Northwestern campus in the early '70s. I had to work 8 hours a day to support my family while carrying a full course load, and these upper-upper-middle-class black people struck me as total snobs. I think I still have a https://t.co/svINJRVEch

Not every group has the same distribution of abilities. Even on an even playing field, there's no guarantee every group is going to cross the finish line at the same time. But we have to work what we have instead of complaining that disparate outcomes are ipso facto evidence of https://t.co/0l5dv3GtRQ

The twenty-first-century is not going to wait for anyone. If African Americans stay mired in the injustices of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, we're going to be left in the dust. Life ain't fair, but we've got to make the best of it. https://t.co/qNefVDJbmX