Talk:Walter E. Williams

Photo/portrait request
As the two previous photos of WEW have been recently deleted, could someone please provide a "free" portrait -- perhaps by contacting his office? TIA, Pete Tillman (talk) 21:53, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

Austrian School?
I know Williams has been influenced by specific Austrians (notably Hayek), but should he be considered a member of the Austrian School per se? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.28.248.41 (talk) 23:28, 21 July 2012 (UTC)
 * He is Hayekean AFAIK, but not sure. Do you know something else? --MeUser42 (talk) 23:45, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

Awkward?
Is it me or is this sentence really awkward? "Williams was born into a Black family." Is the point of the sentence to mention that Williams is an African American? --Xerographica (talk) 03:36, 19 November 2012 (UTC)
 * The sentence would be helpful in describing Steve Martin's charcter Navin in "The Jerk". In the case of Walter Williams, it is such an obvious point that it is silly to mention it.  I am glad to see someone removed it.Gunbirddriver (talk) 22:14, 20 November 2012 (UTC)

Talented in inconsistent performance
It is said "Williams was a talented high school student who displayed a very inconsistent performance in his studies". I don't think this assertion has any place in an encyclopaedia. It relies on no evidences and is actually about a very subjective judgement. Talented in what? according to whom and whichn criteria? How does it come we know he was talented if his performances were - at least sometimes - poor? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.197.239.81 (talk) 11:15, 4 December 2016 (UTC)


 * I don't know exactly why someone wrote a sentence as "Williams was a talented high school student who displayed a very inconsistent performance in his studies" - but I do understand how the statement is not inconsistent. The phenomenon of intelligent and capable students receiving poor grades in some, or all, education subjects can be due to multiple factors. A common explanation (whether true to the individual or not) is "not being challenged enough." Another reason is sometimes to imply an early sign of someone's maverick-outlier personality (ie not doing as expected). Also can infer he had a preference for a few subjects at the expense of other ones. ... Without knowing what the editor was paraphrasing, the why/how cannot be determined with certainty. But that does not mean that the statement is false or nonsense.


 * Maybe it just needs a rewrite and a citation to his autobiography (or to essay or interview whereas he self-references his past).In Chapter 1 of his autobiography, Williams discusses a period in late high school, the influence his high school teacher (Rosenberg) had on him, and his academic history. He shares stories about what his mother did in response to what was regarded as under achievement. He shared the results of one report card (page 19) that angered his mother and resulted in a discussion with his teachers. "The grades were: English III (D-despite my general proficiency in English), American History (D), Geometry (B), Physics (D), French (B), Physical Education (B), Health Education (A)." Long story short: He was regarded as capable, in at least the subject of English, and perhaps could be said as 'talented' in substitution to 'smart', but wasn't taking his education seriously and his academic record reflected this without identifying the reason.(See his autobiography) Roxanne-snowden (talk) 02:48, 19 July 2020 (UTC)

Party affiliation
The article places Dr. Williams in two different Republican categories. Is he a Republican? I can't find anything that confirms his party affiliation. SunCrow (talk) 05:49, 12 October 2018 (UTC)


 * Dr. Williams has predominant associations with Republicans and Libertarians. Both of these parties can have a lot of overlap. After sincere efforts to find confirmation of his party affiliation, I wasn't able to locate a firm confirmation of a party membership. I suspected he was unaffiliated as a registered voter, probably in the long term. What his affiliation is does influence his public perception. I suspect he is aware of this and minimizes it. Through information he has shared publicly, I was able to look up his voter record. Williams is an active voter and is listed as "NON-PARTISAN". He votes for 6TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT, 19TH SENATORIAL DISTRICT, & 157TH LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT. There is no direct link to share. While I used info reasonably available and that the info is publicly available, I'm not comfortable listing all the personal data. In 15 minutes of searching, that info is obtainable and can be added and verified. I am not sure how to cite government records generated online.


 * On a page unavailable in the preview to his autobiography, on page 114, there was a small excerpt when searching using Google Books on party affiliations. The comment found, lacking any context, was "(It also attracted the name "the meeting of black Republicans, although neither Tom nor I are Republicans.) Quite a few of the attendees were Democrats and at least two were officials in the Democratic party...)" He uses "are" and not "were" or "was" - it suggests to me that he was not a Republican in the past but also not a Democrat. I didn't find anything about him being a Libertarian party member. Hope this helps. Roxanne-snowden (talk) 04:13, 19 July 2020 (UTC)

Essays
I ended up collecting numerous facts and sources associated with Walter Williams while locating the citations for a passage removed on Benedict College. This could be of use for editors of this page, so I wanted to make a mention, Refer to my 7/18/20 contribution to the main controversy section of the Benedict college talk page.

BTW, Google has his autobiography up "Up from the Projects: An Autobiography" — Preceding unsigned comment added by Roxanne-snowden (talk • contribs) 14:49, 18 July 2020 (UTC)

I inaccurately edited this page 11 years ago, mistake still here
In 2009 I edited this page to say that Walter's cousin is Julius Erving. I did this during class when Walter made a joke about being related to him. Walter loved making jokes. I had the audio recording as a source. Over the years I found a few web pages repeating this claim, but those linked back to the wikipedia page. wikipedia then used those pages as citations for the claim. Currently there is a National Review article making the claim as a source, but this may have been the journalist looking at wikipedia.

Maybe Walter wasn't joking this time, he was quite tall after all. But until there is more evidence, this claim needs to be removed until there is more evidence. Its not mentioned in his autobiography. I feel bad about mis-representing the man's life. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:23C6:9980:6901:3D6E:B506:84B9:3387 (talk) 21:10, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

Date of Death
The New York Times article cited here says Williams died on Tuesday, which was December 1. The Wall Street Journal article cited here says he died on Wednesday, which of course was December 2. Several other sources I have found say either Wednesday or December 2. For example,. I have seen the date go back in forth in the article a couple of times. Rather than get involved in an edit war, I thought I'd bring it here. Jwolfe (talk) 09:29, 5 December 2020 (UTC)

Libertarianism in the United States
When I hover my cursor over the picture of faces in this section it does not always display the right names. Jokem (talk) 20:40, 5 December 2020 (UTC)
 * That comes from Template:Imagemap American libertarians, which was created by . I've never worked with imagemaps, so I can't tell, but perhaps there is a mistake in the coding of the template. —DoRD (talk)​ 23:40, 5 December 2020 (UTC)