Talk:Walter E. Williams/Archive 1

Bill Clinton didn't call himself that
It was, I believe, Toni Morrison, writing in the New Yorker, October 1998: http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/clinton/morrison.html I think some criticism of Dr. Williams might be justified in this article in compliance with Wikipedia's N.P.O.V. policy. This entry seems slightly skewed to presenting him in a positive light, but not overwhelmingly so. Perhaps more links to articles by/for/against Dr. Williams would expand the reach of this entry. It might be interesting to find the Mallard Fillmore strip that attempted to draft him and place it on this page; however, I'm not aware of the guidelines/legality of such a posting. Also, Williams has hosted Limbaugh's program before and seems to rank above being an occasional guest.

-- user:jasonrhode

White Leader Clarification
Walter E. Williams does not call himself the "White Leader" parodying black leaders, he calls himself that to make fun of former President Bill Clinton who called himself the first black president.

The Walter Williams that created Mr. Bill should really be mentioned on a separate page. At first my jaw dropped because I thought the stodgy economist had actually been the one who created Mr. Bill.

Prof. Williams is no longer GMU's econ chair.

He refers to himself as "Walter E. Williams" to avoid confusion with the other Walter Williams, perhaps moving this entery from Walter_Williams to Walter_E_Williams would be appropriate to avoid confusion?

Potential New Category
Does anyone else think it would be worthwhile to make a category of (or list of notable) black conservatives? I had the idea not to make the Republican Party look better (I'm pretty liberal myself), just because they are relatively few of them. It might be nice to have a page with links to Williams, Thomas Sowell, Deroy Murdock, etc. However, I realize this may not be favorable in some aspects. Anyone care to discuss their ideas? --BDD 01:52, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Well, there isn't a catagory for notable white conservatives, so why should there be one for notable black conservatives? -Anon


 * That's understandable if most conservatives are white. I think that would be a good category.--Nectar 19:46, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

There is now an "African American conservatism" category.--Gloriamarie (talk) 15:56, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

Walter E. Williams by his own word and writings is not a Republican. He is a Libertarian who endorsed Ron Paul in the last election. He also has several views that differentiate him from conservatives. He supports legalizing prostitution and selling of organs like kidneys. This is in direct opposition to social conservatism. You can argue for listing him as a conservative, he is fiscal conservative. However it would be a complete misunderstanding to list the man as a Republican or Conservative Republican. 67.77.177.211 (talk)kcphaid —Preceding undated comment added 00:16, 9 June 2010 (UTC).

suggested improvements
The article could really use a picture, such as the one at http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/images/williams2.jpg or http://www.townhall.com/columnists/BIOS/cpwalter.gif

Williams is an occasional substitute host for Rush Limbaugh's radio show, where he often brings Thomas Sowell on as a guest. Williams sometimes refers to himself as a "white leader", parodying black liberals who claim to speak for all black Americans. I think he may have also done a column about it...Rast 16:43, Jun 15, 2005 (UTC)

I took out the misleading note on his recent town hall article, in which he states " I'm not suggesting that we rush to use our nuclear capacity to crush states that support terrorism. ". The note starts out that williams advocates nuclear weapons against the middle east, which would lead me to believe the previous editor didn't finish reading the article.

August 27th Article
I removed the last portion of the article seeing how it has no significant relevance to Dr. Williams other than to portray him advocating the use of nuclear arms. It was clearly a partisan attack on Williams and served no useful purpose.

Outspoken?
Are there standards for calling one's ideas outspoken? I read it as a subtle way to skew the reader into believing Williams doesn't know what he's talking about (and this may just be *my* bias here, not the article's). I did look up some other famous people and organizations who agree with Willams and might be considered outspoken (Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, the Cato Institute) and none of them used this terminology. I think to be on the safe side we should keep to the norm and let people who may be in the minority have their views :)

Tone tag
Hi, I noticed you tagged the article, expressing concern that it may lack the appropriate encyclopedic tone. However, I saw no comments of this concern on the talk page. Can you please elaborate and cite specific examples of what you view as improper use of tone, and possibly offer suggestions for improvement, so that other editors may address the issue? Thanks.--JayJasper 18:25, 4 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Some of it:


 * In this article, three paragraghs begin with "Dr. Williams".
 * Most of the content is all set as the lead in. The lead in should be a short paragraph, and the rest should be categorized.


 * Maybe I'll change some of this.

--Kalmia 23:51, 5 June 2007 (UTC)


 * I've made changes to the article based on your comments, and removed the tone tag. Feel free, of course, to re-tag (w/comments) or make furhter corrections if you feel my edits haven't sufficiently addressed the problem. Thanks for your input. --JayJasper 12:58, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

PDF Help
I added (or I tried adding) an entry to the External Links section, but I am having trouble with PDFs. Brackets don't seem to work, nor does traditional html… Can someone help?
 * His Introduction (pdf) to Choosing the Right College —Preceding unsigned comment added by Asteriks (talk • contribs) 18:37, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

Conservative?
Does he call himself that? He doesn't sound like a Conservative, rather he is a classical liberal. He perhaps agrees with Conservatives on economics, but not on social issues. He has spoken out for gay rights. He has never sided with the Conservatives on social issues. Conservatives tend to support government intervention in social issues. Williams does not support that at all. He is a libertarian, not a conservative. Show me where he supports the drug war, control over who you marry or have intercourse with, or interventionist wars, then I will believe he is a Conservative. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.82.182.4 (talk) 03:25, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

You are correct, he uses the term "Jeffersonian Liberal" to describe his political leanings. Citing Liberty above all other concerns. He has stated openly on the radio that he is neither a Conservative nor a Republican. 67.77.177.211 (talk)kcphaid

He's a Libertarian. The term "Classic Liberal" is used to define someone like Ludwig Von Mises, one of Ron Paul's(mainstream libertarian politician) major influences. The link below references to him holding Libertarian views.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704881304576094221050061598.html

"Libertarianism is currently in vogue, thanks to the election of a statist president and the subsequent rise of the tea party movement. But Walter Williams was a libertarian before it was cool. "

Education and academic career
The last paragraph of this section either needs to be rewritten, or cited with quotation marks added. Beginning with, "As I got a little older I had it mostly polished when I was in college in terms of the ideas of liberty. And also I must have read Thomas Paine’s Common Sense I don’t know how many times" the reader has no idea of these are statements made by Walter Williams or the person who edited the section. grifterlake (talk) 06:52, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

Though an African American
I removed the part of the sentence re: his views on freedom of association. It said "Though an African American, he", I changed it to "Williams...". The first edit is blatant racism.

Kgromann (talk) 06:23, 31 May 2010 (UTC)