Why are libertarians just a bunch of white guys

Mises, Rothbard, DiLorenzo, Murphy, Kinsella, Ayn Rand... Why are libertarians all white and all male?

At a superficial level, we may be weakened by lack of diversity. How do we account for this?

I have some answers. I just want to know what mises.org thinks.

ayn rand... male?

afederalrepublican1776:

ayn rand... male?

Well, it's easy to get men and women mixed up, you see. There are libertarians or at least laissez-faire economists of all ethnicities. An example would be Thomas Sowell, who as far as I can tell is more or less laissez-faire.

 

Zach_the_Lizard:

There are libertarians or at least laissez-faire economists of all ethnicities. An example would be Thomas Sowell, who as far as I can tell is more or less laissez-faire.

Of course there are *some* minority/women libertarians, but none of our heroes are...

Well, a lot of them are jewish, a "white minority".

Zach_the_Lizard:

afederalrepublican1776:

ayn rand... male?

Well, it's easy to get men and women mixed up, you see. There are libertarians or at least laissez-faire economists of all ethnicities. An example would be Thomas Sowell, who as far as I can tell is more or less laissez-faire.

 

Sowell is a member of the Milton Friedman society, so might be characterized as a Friedmanite.

However, Sowell is still vastly different from Milton Friedman, in the sense that Sowell doesn't think micro- and macro-economic spheres are different, and has a far deeper distrust in government doing anything at all than Friedman did, because Friedman still had very statist ideas about how government should regulate economy, while Sowell's books are some of the biggest condemnations of government even thinking to take in any step in economic matters.

Vitor:

Well, a lot of them are jewish, a "white minority".

Let me know the next time a white jewish guy gets affirmative action.

Snowflake:

Mises, Rothbard, DiLorenzo, Murphy, Kinsella, Ayn Rand... Why are libertarians all white and all male?

I suppose the same statement could be made of Western Philosophy and Economics.  Perhaps the "Western" part of that has a lot to do with it.  For the most part, women and minorities were barred from these fields or weren't taken seriously until only very recently.  Ayn Rand (I assume you were joking) was villified more than her male counterparts - and that probably has impacted the decision of other women to pursue this line of thought.

Liberty wasn't invented overnight by a few white men.  Some of the concepts go back as far as the Celts (in recorded history).  Many concepts credited to the Austrian School were actually developed in Salamanca, Spain.  I also think there is a great disservice to lump all "white" people into one category and dismiss a tremendous amount of diversity among the native european population.  Of course it was a group of europeans that created the classifications in the first place, but repeating the same error doesn't make it any better.

I also think you don't hear people pointing out their ethnicity or gender among the libertarian community because the movement is individualist rather than collectivist.  An individualist could care less about race and gender when it comes to discussions of Philosophy, Economics, Politics, etc.  Because they don't really care, they tend not to pander to people based on race or gender.  Like it or not, there are a great deal of people out there who don't really think for themselves and accept the "gifts" from the groups that pander to them or the direction of their leaders.

I think it's amazing and sad how the black population has backed the Democratic party as much as it has (typically around 90%) despite policies that have damaged black families and businesses.  Whatever is going on here, this behavior is also preventing blacks from joining the libertarian cause.  Now if race is what they are choosing over reason, then I don't think there's much hope for them.  Good ideas and concepts have no color.

Snowflake:

Vitor:

Well, a lot of them are jewish, a "white minority".

Let me know the next time a white jewish guy gets affirmative action.

Well, Israel can be considered the largest affirmative action ever.

K.C. Farmer:

I suppose the same statement could be made of Western Philosophy and Economics.  Perhaps the "Western" part of that has a lot to do with it.  For the most part, women and minorities were barred from these fields or weren't taken seriously until only very recently.

But young minorities and women still aren't choosing the libertarian way. I live in Austin, TX and when Ron Paul came to campus is was basically a bunch of white male students at his rally. Also they don't choose careers in engineering or math... could there be a will to ignorance from these groups?

K.C. Farmer:

Some of the concepts go back as far as the Celts (in recorded history).  Many concepts credited to the Austrian School were actually developed in Salamanca, Spain.

Thats white as far as the mainstream is concerned.

K.C. Farmer:

I also think you don't hear people pointing out their ethnicity or gender among the libertarian community because the movement is individualist rather than collectivist

Right. But outside the libertarian movement we get accused of being white supremacists by idiots who dont understand libertarian theory.

K.C. Farmer:

I think it's amazing and sad how the black population has backed the Democratic party as much as it has (typically around 90%) despite policies that have damaged black families and businesses. 

Yeah it is. Blacks voting democrat goes waayy back though. Republicans were the all-white party and democrats were "other".

Vitor:

Well, Israel can be considered the largest affirmative action ever.

Touche my good sir.

Lol were u trying to crack a joke with the Ayn Rand thing? My guess is (and I'm by no means an expert in ethnic ideology) that minorities see themselves so firmly alligned with liberalism and the democrates. The poor black child looks out at his neighborhood and sees poverty and in his education he sees theevil racist conservative white people who do not care for his plight where as he lives in a community dominated by liberal sentiment and a party of benevolent overlords who will save him. He sees the world in, (forgive my analogy) black and white, good and evil those with whom he is allied with and with whom his entire race is battling against. Where as the white child sees both sides as equally valid in terms of race and acts accordingly and is therefore more likley to drift twoards us. It doesn't help that there are more non minorities in the country

The Late Andrew Ryan:

. Where as the white child sees both sides as equally valid in terms of race and acts accordingly and is therefore more likley to drift twoards us.

Don't middle class whites also have an interest group that appeals to them (republicans)?. Vote-buying alone doesn't explain it, since virtually every social group gets lip service from the two political parties.

Snowflake:

Mises, Rothbard, DiLorenzo, Murphy, Kinsella, Ayn Rand... Why are libertarians all white and all male?

At a superficial level, we may be weakened by lack of diversity. How do we account for this?

I have some answers. I just want to know what mises.org thinks.

The only non-white libertarian I can think of are de Soto (depends if you count him as 'hispanic') and Walter Williams.  So I don't have an answer for your question.  But then again, I personally could care less about the demographics of the movement.

There's Wilt Alston as well and quite a few Asian libertarian writers these days like Sanford Ikeda. Libertarianism is now beginning to spread. I think it's too early to try and analyse its demographics.

Is there something wrong with being white and/or male?  Not the last time I checked.

Cork:

Is there something wrong with being white and/or male?  Not the last time I checked.

No but the point of this forum was to explore why practically all libertarians are white males.

 

But outside the libertarian movement we get accused of being white supremacists by idiots who dont understand libertarian theory.

Pretty ridiculous, considering most of the top libertarian intellectuals are/were Jewish (and we all know how much the Stormfronters love Jews!).

No but the point of this forum was to explore why practically all libertarians are white males.

Men are typically more left-brained than women, and libertarianism (especially Austro-libertarianism) is a pretty left-brained ideology.  That would seem to explain much of it.  That's not to say there's anything wrong with being right-brained, but I suspect right-brained people are less inclined to libertarianism.

Cork:

Pretty ridiculous, considering most of the top libertarian intellectuals are/were Jewish (and we all know how much the Stormfronters love Jews!).

Jews aren't exactly stereotyped as associating with blacks/hispanics.