Policy Review is published by the conservative Heritage Foundation and its story about black schools that succeed is by no means the first to appear in conservative purlications. Last year Diane Ravitch had an essay in Forbes magazine about a successful black school in a Brooklyn ghetto. Back in the 1970s, the neo-conservative Public Interest quarterly ran two long articles of mine on successful black schools. Marva Collins is perhaps the best-known of the people who have run successful black schools. It was not the liberals, but Ronald Reagan, who offered her the job of secretary of Education.
Liberals have a large vested interest in the failure, pathology and dependency of blacks.
From the standpoint of liberal politicians, of whatever race, so long as there are enough blacks on the welfare state plantation, this is a bloc of votes that can help offset the changing mood of the country as a whole toward conservatism. From the standpoint of the liberal intelligentsia, feeling sorry for blacks is an ego trip that makes them feel one-up on American society in general and conservatives in particular. Blacks who succeed, whether as individuals or as institutions, are not a source of either ego satisfaction or votes. Liberals are about envy, which was once disdained as one of the seven deadly sins. The very concept of achievement seldom appears in liberal writings, while it is a dominant theme in much conservative literature.