“My beef with the black left is that they want to keep the focus on what government or Washington or politicians or whites in general can do for blacks, instead of what blacks can do for themselves,” says Jason Riley, author of Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make it Harder for Blacks to Succeed and editorial board member of the Wall Street Journal.
In a wide-ranging conversation with Reason TV’s Nick Gillespie, Riley praises the Civil Rights acts of the 1960s even as he takes aim at affirmative action in higher education, which he says keeps black graduation rates low even as it increases diversity among freshman classes at various univesities. He also argues that the drug war doesn’t explain black-on-black violence and ending it won’t transform urban America in the way libertarians insist. His book lays out the case against the minimum wage in a chapter called “Mandating Unemployment” and he argues that especially among African Americans, an intact family unit is the best anti-poverty program available.
About 20 minutes.
Produced by Anthony L. Fisher.
Music: “Applicant” by The Matt Kurz One (
Go to for downloadable versions and a full transcript of the interview.
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In 2008, Reason TV talked with Riley about his book about immigrants, Let Them In, and his case for open borders. Watch that here:
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