Race and Culture

Race and Culture: A World View by Thomas Sowell, Basic Books, 1995. 

Clear Thinker

Thomas Sowell again champions clarity of thought. He says that the term racism has been misapplied to situations whether the distinction between groups is primarily cultural, rather than genetic. Of course, it is impossible to completely disentangle genetic and cultural influences. Since this book was written, the meaning of the word racist has expanded so much that criticism of Islam has been called racist, even though Arabs and Europeans are the same race, namely white. 

Middleman Minorities

Sowell talks about middleman ethnic minorities. Examples include the Lebanese, Igbo, Koreans, Jews, Gujarati, Parsees, Armenians and the overseas Chinese. They are called middleman, because they are traders, rather than producers. Sowell attributes their financial success to their moral character. They work long hours, spend frugally, save for the future, and do not live dissolute lives. They often dominate lending, because the indigenous people live in the present too much to be able to save enough money to lend to others. The middleman minorities are accused of being clannish and being reluctant to hire the locals. But there are objective reasons to avoid hiring the locals, since the locals tend to be lazy, unreliable and thieves. 

Asian Immigration

One interesting tidbit gleaned from this book is that there was no Japanese exclusion act analogous to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, because Japan was more powerful militarily.