MSNBC.com Accuses Walter Williams of Making Racist Statements on Fox's 'Stossel'
By Noel Sheppard | June 07, 2011 | 00:13
MSNBC.com on Monday accused economist Dr. Walter Williams of making racist statements during his interview with Fox News's John Stossel last week.
The charge was associated with an "Ed Show" segment in which the host disgracefully cherry-picked one of Williams' comments about welfare and slavery (video follows with transcript and commentary):
ED SCHULTZ, HOST: And in Psycho Talk tonight, Rush Limbaugh’s favorite fill-in host Walter Williams. We welcome him to the zone tonight. He’s the perfect substitute for Limbaugh because last year he went on the radio and said he believes in keeping wives under control. But sexism isn’t all that he’s good at. Here’s what happened when Fox’s John Stossel put Walter on the TV this weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN STOSSEL: Government is like a giant drug pusher?
WALTER WILLIAMS, ECONOMIST: That's absolutely right. The welfare state has done to black Americans what slavery could not have done, the harshest Jim Crow laws and racism could not have done, namely break up the black family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: Walter Williams should know better than to compare slavery and welfare. Slavery is perhaps the biggest stain on American history. It turned human beings into property. It doesn’t get much worse than that, does it? Meanwhile, welfare programs help American families survive when they’re destitute. Welfare helps folks meet their basic needs while they lift themselves up and get back on their feet. So for Walter Williams to say welfare has hurt black families more than slavery, pretty cruel psycho talk, don’t you think?
Actually, Williams didn't say "welfare has hurt black families more than slavery." He said, "The welfare state has done to black Americans what slavery could not have done."
Why don't we see what Williams meant by this by looking at his complete answer (video courtesy Daily Caller):
STOSSEL: Government is like a giant drug pusher?
WILLIAMS: That's absolutely right. The welfare state has done to black Americans what slavery could not have done, the harshest Jim Crow laws and racism could not have done, namely break up the black family. That is, today, just slightly over 30 percent of black kids live in two parent families.
Historically, from 1870s on up to about 1940s, and depending on the city, 75 to 90 percent of black kids lived in two parent families. Illegitimacy rate is 70 percent among blacks where that is unprecedented in our history.
Now, it's not just a matter of a racial thing, in Sweden is the mother of the welfare state and illegitimacy in Sweden is 54 percent.
STOSSEL: And why does a welfare state create illegitimacy?
WILLIAMS: Well, because, look, if you subsidize anything, you're going to get surpluses of it, and if you tax something you're going to get less of it. If you did not get welfare, then people would decide, I'm going to go out and get a job, I'm going to live more responsibly.
STOSSEL: I'm going to get married before I have children.
WILLIAMS: That's absolutely right.
STOSSEL: But the welfare state actually discouraged some men from marrying the woman, she would lose the check.
WILLIAMS: That's right, the government has said to many young women, I am the father. And so the father, black males, have become dispensable.
STOSSEL: Black illegitimacy was 19 percent in 1940, but it skyrocketed during the Great Society and now it's over 70 percent.
WILLIAMS: Yes, and that's a heck of a start in life, that is, to be born -- you don't know who or where your father is, that's not really great start in life.
Makes a little more sense with all of the actual data, doesn't it?
But the folks at MSNBC weren't done making fools of themselves, for at the website's video page for "The Ed Show," the following advertised the segment in question:
Not only did these geniuses wrongly accuse Williams of racism, they actually misspelled racist.
Sadly, this wasn't the only such baseless accusation at MSNBC Monday, for earlier in the day, Al Sharpton filling in for Cenk Uygur on "MSNBC Live" falsely pointed the finger of racism at just-named Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum.
It's really a fabulous news organization, isn't it?
Comcast, General Electric, and NBC must be so proud.
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Comments
Oh crikey....
Submitted by NeoKong on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 12:31am.
The guy just got back and already he is telling whoppers. "Welfare helps folks meet their their basic needs while they lift themselves up and get back on their feet." The vast majority of people who receive Welfare will stay on it forever.
Coming from someone who use to work in public
Submitted by gmaniac1 on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 4:22am.
housing this statement is so true. The lengths the housing recipients go through to stay on the welfare dole is incredible. Not just that, we have so much abuse that people are on housing that shouldn't be whatsoever. People have no shame and blacks believed it is owed to them. They believe they are sticking it to the "man." Um just because I'm one of you so to speak doesn't mean that I buy into that crap. Don't get me wrong other races are just as guilty but blacks are by far the biggest culprits.
LiberLs feel that minorities need these nanny state programs to survive. What a bunch of mularkey, maybe the lazy dregs of society but not the rest of us!
Life Style
Submitted by Jerry Mack on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 10:57am.
Welfare,food stamps,section 8 housing,ect was originally designed as a bridge to self sustainment. Now thanks to the Libs it has become an acceptable life style.
Calling a black man speaking
Submitted by ant on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 12:27am.
Calling a black man speaking 'truth to power' a racist. Another reason I'm glad I grew up and shed the libtard indoctrination.
Don't liberals always say
Submitted by motherbelt on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 5:45am.
Don't liberals always say blacks can't be racist?
I guess they can if they are conservatives!
Who is color blind?
Submitted by wingnut55 on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 12:45am.
It seems to me that the liberals see only the color of a person's skin and not their ability to think or what they can do. It is always the liberals that cry "racist". What political party was in power when the slaves were liberated? What party had it's member become the Dixie-crats? What party filibustered the civil rights acts? What party was in power when they sent in the military to integrate the schools of Alabama and Arkansas? What party were the governors of those states that "stood in the school house door"? It is always the liberals and their Democrat party members that are the true racists.
I've listened to Walter
Submitted by killa37 on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 12:55am.
I've listened to Walter Williams a lot,and he can say anything he want's about 'racism' and 'black people' and the rest of that crap that the libs love to shove into their own little compartments. Williams has forgotten more about this subject than the Fargo Fatass will EVER know!!! And I can't say that Williams is wrong, either.........because I think that the facts bear him out.
I also saw some of Charles Wrangle on Stossel.........and that was pretty damn sick!!! I think that Williams should have been talking to Wrangle instead.........just for the 'race' credibility issue.
God save
Submitted by Bob K on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 1:24am.
African Americans from paternalistic white liberals like fat Eddie.
Minitru
Submitted by Kuso Jiji on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 1:35am.
Obama's Ministry of Truth fails again.
Sorry to change the subject,
Submitted by Van Halen on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 1:51am.
Sorry to change the subject, but Real Clear Politics has video of Ed Schultz telling the Weiner to resign. Love it!
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/06/06/msnbcs_ed_schultz_to_a...
Welfare is ownership, as it
Submitted by Ashrak on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 2:18am.
Welfare is ownership, as it creates total dependence.
Walter Williams is white.
Years ago I wrote that Walter could say things that would see me called a racist if I wrote them. I see the progressives have stooped to calling black people racists too now.
How is that trite race card working for you, Ed?
Let us remember, that another MSNBC host's statements got more and more ridiculous just prior to his exit after a suspension.
Might there be a pattern developing?
I hope you meant to say Walter Williams is "right". Either...
Submitted by jawebster1 on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 2:36am.
that or you need to get your eyes checked. Don't worry, we all make mistrakes...sometimes.
I don't watch MSNBC, so when did Schultz return? Last...
Submitted by jawebster1 on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 2:25am.
I heard, he went on an unpaid vacation for calling Laura Ingraham a nasty name. The guy is clearly a 'nut' job and that is the best thing I can say about him and, oh by the way, I agree with what Dr. Williams had to say. Welfare has clearly torn the family apart, black, white or whatever.
Who cares when he returned!
Submitted by Van Halen on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 2:27am.
Who cares when he returned! :) Let's keep the fires going! Weiner should step down! Weiner should stay! Fight amongst yourselves, Libs! What fun!
Now that Weiner-girl number two has been revealed by The Blaze - and it looks like she's an expensive prostitute claiming to be a blackjack dealer, there will be a heck of a lot more questions. I predict several delicious days worth of material while all the girls rush to be the first to cash in on lucrative deals like Spitzer's prostitute did. This story is nuclear hot and getting hotter. Weiner steps down by Friday. I originally thought Thursday, but the Dems will make him go on the slowest news day.
Looks like you are on the wrong page. What does "Weiner"...
Submitted by jawebster1 on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 2:32am.
have to do with Ed Schultz's idiotic comment about Walter Williams? Maybe you just have "Weiner" on the brain? If so, you have almost as big a problem as he has.
progressiveism is a mental disorder
Submitted by scarletandgold on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 3:32am.
walter willams is absolutely correct,,the black population has been manipulated and stiffled because of white democrats and black democrats using them as a scape goat to all of our societys ills...and when your told your a dog long enough you act like one..the good thing is this..black americans know jesus christ...and white americans are praying he opens thier eyes...because its like this...if white people and black people ever REALLY got together for the good....we would never have these absolute loser politicians screwing up what god gave us all ...freedom
Special Ed isn't fit to shine
Submitted by HockeyKid on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 5:48am.
Special Ed isn't fit to shine Walter Williams' shoes.
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
need I say again
Submitted by ohio granny on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 8:26am.
Need I say again? DemocRATs/liberals/progressives = liars, cheats, thugs. Say anything, do anything to stay in power.
My mother told me
Submitted by rickbren on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 8:36am.
this same thing 15 years ago. She recalled how in the 40's and 50's black families were the strongest in the community. They were a close knit community and would help out anyone regardless of the color of their skin.
But the Great Society came along and the Democratics became the new "massahs" and indentured servitude, got a new meaning - "vote for me, and I will continue to let you live and have children with not cost to you." It's really sad. . .
Williams is spot on
Submitted by Galvanic on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 8:50am.
Welfare encouraged (even rewarded) one-parent households by penalizing those with two-parents, so fathers split.
It also encouraged women to have more children to increase household income.
The black American family was strong enough to survive the savagery, desperation, and dehumanization of slavery, only to be undermined by the altruistic welfare state. Even liberal Daniel Patrick Moynihan recognized and wrote about this back in the '70s, and he was vilified by the Race Industry and the Left.
The welfare state delayed the progress of black Americans into the middle class. Welfare reform, which Bill Clinton takes credit for but which the Republican Congress forced against his will, has been helpful in trying to correct the errors of the Great Society, but the damage is deeply rooted. Who knows if a recovery is possible at this point, when even the white American family has been diminished.
I swear I read that Pres.
Submitted by amyshulk on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 10:19am.
I swear I read that Pres. Obama repealed the federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act about 30 days in? I can't find anything on it now though.
I read Daniel Patrick Moynihan long after observing a friend, who lived with but was not married to the father of her 2 kids with 1 on the way, get food stamps, WIC, etc. He worked {until he would lose his job for his "wake and bake" lifestyle} so she worked 2-3 part-time jobs to keep them afloat.
I had just been medically discharged and was unable to work, hubby had a low paying job {where he made just above the poverty line} and we managed without any subsidies. When tax time rolled around, she got the Earned Income Credit while we paid lots of taxes and got a pittance back.
After being in the USN where 1 dependent vs.10 dependents made NO difference $$$ wise, seeing that you got more $ per child irked me, and I saw the welfare system as an oppressor, not as a "hand up" and except for trying for food stamps I wanted no part of it.
Walter Williams wrote: http://www.creators.com/opinion/walter-williams/do-we-deserve-our-fate.html
Ronald Reagan
In all fairness to the black family,
Submitted by Lgbpop on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 6:40pm.
the Great Society and welfare didn't delay blacks' move to the middle class - it reversed the trend that started in the 1940s and 1950s. Whether they moved to more upscale city neighborhoods, the suburbs or stayed in the old family neighborhoods their buying power increased during the postwar years too. Johnson's programs wound up being a cruel hoax on black families, though. I remember a few girls (white and black, it didn't matter) getting pregnant in high school and their reputations were ruined. The young fathers invariably were forced to cancel plans for college or the service, and drop out to find work to support their new families. Their families suffered embarassment, too. Now, it's accommodated and sometimes celebrated.
Welfare allowed young moms to move into their own residences, no longer dependent on family help. The more kids they had, the more money they got - but it was never enough to be self-sufficient; there was always the government there to remind one they were dependent. As time went on, subsequent politicians trying to prove their compassion added more and more components to the support structure. Now, a young mom does better on the dole than working for $24,000 a year.
Funny thing, though, there's always another government program on deck when the last one backfires.
I have many friends
Submitted by Boudin on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 9:08am.
Who are black, my community in central SE Louisiana is about 50% black. I talk politics and race with them daily. And I tell them, that most of them blindly vote for the very leftist, even though they are far more conservative then the libs. Even on social issues.
Black Friends?
Submitted by Agnostic on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 12:23pm.
I was born a poor black child. I remember the days, sittin' on the porch with my family, singin' and dancin' down in Mississippi. - The jerk
Ker-pling. Ker-pling
Submitted by MaximusBraveheart on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 1:57pm.
Someone must really hate these cans!
-- Maximusbraveheart -- Is TRUTH knowable? Moral Relativism is the abandonment of Truth. Truth is knowable. Truth conforms to Reality. Reality is observable by evidence & witness in this day & from history. Relativism is Sesame Street play land.
Ed Schultz would lie directly
Submitted by Beukeboom on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 9:30am.
Ed Schultz would lie directly to God.
Ed knows he is lying
Submitted by Hoosier Conservative on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 10:13am.
Here's an idea for MSDNC, the next time you want to run one of your cute little investigative pieces. Go take a camera inside a social service office and ask the staff how many of their clients are using welfare to get back on their feet. They will tell you the opposite. They will speak of generational welfare, Section 8 as a lifestyle, and food stamps as an assumed civil right.
Then you can go to a university in a low-income neighborhood. Ask the admissions office how many welfare recipients enroll to get a degree. Again they will tell you the opposite. They will show you how many people sign up for pell grants, attend class for two or three weeks, and then spend all the money as fast as they can.
Then go talk to the landlords in some of these apartments. Ask them how many single mothers have a live-in boyfriend that doesn't get reported to the Section 8 office.
Mr. Williams is absolutely right. Welfare recipients are trained to stay in that lifestyle. They are trained to avoid getting married to someone with a job. And then they train their children to make the visits to the welfare office as a routine part of life.
Mr. Shultz has two answers for this. Number one, he is too stupid to see this and thus too stupid to be on television. Number two, he knows better and likes it this way just fine.
Williams statements to me are
Submitted by jkwtrading on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 10:39am.
Williams statements to me are viable. blacks were indentured to a single owner in 1860. Now they are indentured to an entire political party which controlled the federal government.
The slave owner of 1860 was also in a state of indenturing, to his own debt to others, much like feds are now also in debt themselves.
what we had in 1860 was a slave owner in debt or indentured with slaves indentured to him. now we have the blacks indentured to feds whom are indentured to us. the democrats have stuck themselves in same position as a 150 years ago..
MSNBC
Submitted by jessieH on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 10:48am.
Wellfare is almost impossible to get off of, once you're on it. It's the worst thing the government ever came up with. I see MSNBC is all for it, along with the rest of the media.
MSNBC and the LAME STREAM
Submitted by billb on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 12:16pm.
They are all SLAVES to RACISM
Ed Schultz is a flaming a$$**** with anger issues
Submitted by daveinboca on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 7:16pm.
who can't do anything except talk about racists, while he misspells --- actually the mistake of a low-IQ moron at MessNBC --- the word "racist." Schultz would be the biggest D-bag on PMSNBC if there wasn't so much competition. Let's just call him the dumbest POS on television and leave it at that.
Hey I guess it could have been worse
Submitted by Redrowan2000 on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 9:34pm.
He could have called Williams a slut, but now that Ed has had some time off he's a changed man, he simply called this man with an opinion different than his a racist.
Glad to see the change Eddy.
"Don't let the bastards grind you down."