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person1971–

Jason Riley

Disciplines:
economics
documentary/commentary
wall street journal
sociology/race

Summary

American journalist and commentator — Wall Street Journal editorial board member — Manhattan Institute fellow — author of Please Stop Helping Us and False Black Power — the most prominent Black conservative critic of liberal social policy.

Core Contribution

Creates the most direct Black conservative critique of welfare state effects on Black communities — Please Stop Helping Us argues that liberal programs designed to help Black Americans have systematically harmed them by subsidizing dependency and undermining the work ethic and family structure that drive advancement.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • Wrote a biography of Thomas Sowell to restore attention to Sowell's economic analysis of race — a conscious act of intellectual stewardship for a mentor figure whose work he believed was being ignored; the biography is partly an argument that Sowell's analysis is correct

Notable Works & Achievements

Please Stop Helping Us

False Black Power?

Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell

Historical Influences

Thomas Sowell Walter Williams

Intellectual Lineage

Buffalo, New York State University of New York at BuffaloWall Street Journal Manhattan Institute

Contemporaries & Peers

Thomas Sowell Walter Williams Glenn Loury

Minds Influenced

Black conservative commentary

Intellectual Posterity

Please Stop Helping Us False Black Power

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