In this AIER piece, Thomas Chatterton Williams discusses his recent discovery that Thomas Sowell has much to say that black (and all other) Americans ought to heed. He had known about Sowell for a long time, but until Jason Riley’s book on him, had done exactly what nearly all other leftists do: ignore him.
Williams writes, “The most important realization you are left with is not that he possesses the final word on every subject but that he wields profound insight and reams of data and comparative research into many of the very debates that still consume us. As a conscientious liberal it leaves you with a nagging question: Why haven’t you or anyone you know ever so much as acknowledged the existence of his output? If we are lucky, this documentary and Riley’s biography will be part of the necessary and overdue work of rectifying the oversight.”
To answer his question, it’s because Sowell’s analysis is deadly to the leftist mindset. It’s impossible to sustain the belief in statist nostrums once you have to deal with Sowell’s counter-arguments.