Ghetto Blues

John McWhorter is interviewed in U.S. News & World Report about the ghetto blues. Good stuff. Best excerpt:

The people who think that black poverty and its manifestations are all about racism would be very surprised if they could go back in a time machine to a black slum in 1920. They would find a place where the two-parent family was still the norm, where alcoholism and drug addiction existed on the margins of the neighborhood. Where almost every able-bodied person was employed. Now, these places weren't paradises by any means. But when black people were hanging regularly from trees and segregation was the law of the land, black slums held together. That has changed. Over the past 40 years, black slums have become war zones. We have to ask why--without falling into the trap of supposing that "why" must always be about racism and discrimination.

McWhorter, by the way, is also the speaker in The Teaching Company's Story of Human Language, an 18-hour series of lecture about, yes, language. I just received in the mail: $50 for the entire set. It was on sale. I'm pretty excited. I've had no education in the area of linguistics, so this oughtta be a good way to learn a lot quickly, and with my new walkman--a $5 tape player with headphones from Wal-Mart--I can do it while I walk to work and clean the house.

Life ain't too bad, at least if you're a nerd.