Critical Thinking Matters

Thoughtful Discussions of Contemporary Issues

Additional Readings

Booker T. Washington was born a slave in Virginia in the late 1850s. As a boy he was determined to get an education. Despite enormous odds he not only succeeded in getting an education but also founded the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. He was a champion of black education and improvement throughout his life. Washington was a Christian who lived out the gospel.

In 1901 Washington wrote an autobiography titled Up from Slavery. Ten years later he wrote what is essentially an addendum to his autobiography titled My Larger Education. Following this man’s journey provides an amazing window into the post-slavery United States and an inspiring example of the power of a Christian attitude.

Please note that there is a DVD series named Up From Slavery that is not based on Washington's book. The book is the real deal.

Thomas Sowell:

Black Rednecks and White Liberals is an amazing account of the history of blacks and other ethnic groups, their movements around the world, and their economic achievement. The first chapter focuses on the cultural differences between northern blacks and southern blacks in the early 1900s as the great northern migration began. It delves into where the destructive ghetto culture comes from, with particular emphasis on its roots with southern white rednecks who held many of the same dysfunctional attitudes. This book is an eye-opener.

Discrimination and Disparities shows that disparities between groups in a society are not necessarily due to discrimination, and that attempts to alleviate disparties often have unintended consequences.

Intellectuals and Race traces the history of how intellectuals have viewed race from the progressive era of the early 1900s through the liberalism of the 1960s and most recently multiculturalism. Here is a video interview on the book.

Jason Riley:

Jason Riley is a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He wrote a great book called Please Stop Helping Us. Riley's account of his family's story is quite insightful. He combines this with broader evidence to argue that a number of well-intentioned programs designed to advance blacks actually harm them.

Voddie Baucham:

Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism's Looming Catastrophe.
Voddie Baucham is a pastor. He puts Tisby's narrative and worldview into political context and shows how a number of the tenets of the social justice movement are incompatible with a Biblical worldview.

Ben Carson:

Created Equal: the painful past, confusing present, and hopeful future of race in America.
Ben Carson is a retired pediatric neurosurgeon and was Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Trump.

Jon Harris Books:

Social Justice Goes To Church: The New Left In Modern Evangelicalism

Christianity And Social Justice: Religions In Conflict