Andres Flores, contributor
How does one overcome circumstance, racism, and poverty without compromising one’s understanding of self-worth? For many black people living in poorly maintained government housing and impoverished neighbourhoods, coupled with racist attitudes and social discrimination, education has been the answer for many of them. Thomas Sowell in particular, a Harvard-educated economist, demonstrates the necessity of education as a weapon against injustice.
Sowell’s father died before he was born and his single mother was not able to support him so she placed him with her sister in the hopes that she would be able to provide Sowell with a better life. Sowell’s family understood the importance of education, opting to teach him how to read and write before he entered a classroom. Though Sowell grew up in a house with no electricity or hot water, at no point in his youth did he allow these circumstances to dictate his character. In his autobiography, A Personal Odyssey, he writes that his years living in poverty were “some of the happiest times of [his] life.”
At the age of nine, his family made the move from Charlotte, North Carolina to New York City, hoping Sowell would have access to better schooling. Living in Charlotte, Sowell dealt primarily with racism from white people. Upon moving to New York, he still dealt with that, but also had to deal with class discrimination. In Charlotte, there was a communal recognition of struggle among black people. In New York, people across ethnicities highlighted his difference, feeding off the stereotype of the dumb black southern boy. Sowell refused to be defined by what others thought of him, just as he refused to be defined by his surroundings.
Sowell left home at 17 because of differences with his adopted mother. The government placed him in a home for homeless boys in the Bronx. After a day he left, working during the day and attending school in the night for his high school equivalency. Sowell eventually attended Howard University—one of the most prestigious black universities in the United States—and later transferred to Harvard to study economics.
During university life, Sowell notes that “students and faculty alike seemed content to be at a university, rather than being preoccupied with what they were supposed to accomplish there.” He used his time at Harvard to break open economics, a topic previously discussed mainly by white scholars. Sowell used economics as a means to challenge dominant ways of approaching and teaching theory. By adding new racial and economic perspectives to the discussion of economics, Sowell challenged privileged, white understandings of being in the world.
In a day and age where people think that being aware of social problems is commendable in and of itself, Sowell’s life forces us not to settle with knowledge. Sowell was aware of racism, segregation, and poverty and made an active choice to rise above that. He decided to pursue artistry, writing, baseball, and economics to overcome the bleak, black road that long-dead and still-living white hands paved for him.
A lot of us know that police violence against black people and discrimination based on race exist, but we allow this knowledge to bar us from action. Yes, you know that there are injustices in the world and that’s worth something, but don’t expect a pat on the back when you tell someone not to waste their food because there are starving children in Africa. Just as Sowell realized that he must do something with his university education instead of marvelling at the simple fact that he was at Harvard, so must we take it upon ourselves to be the change we cannot see.
