The Black hole (Race in America. Are affirmative action laws working?)

The Economist ^ | 8/4/05 | The Economist

[voletti]

But is the civil-rights revolution still working? For most black politicians, nearly all of whom (unlike Ms Rice) are connected with the left wing of the Democratic Party, this is still a heretically “racist” question, asked by people who want to turn back the clock to Jim Crow. That is a disgraceful canard. No respectable critic—least of all this newspaper—wants to reintroduce programmes that discriminate against blacks. What is at issue is the programmes that discriminate in their favour—and there are both principled and practical reasons for Americans of all colours to doubt that these still help.

Many black leaders would insist that, thanks to the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow, they are still owed special treatment. But it is here that the practical set of doubts appears. Put bluntly, although most American blacks are doing better, too many are doing badly. One black American man in three ends up in jail. The proportion of black children born outside wedlock has risen from a quarter in the 1960s (then considered an outrage) to two-thirds. Indeed, blacks score disproportionately badly in virtually everything to do with crime, education and family structure.

It is hard to blame all this on white racism. For instance, although blacks are still paid less on average than whites, some studies have found that blacks are paid as much as or even more than whites with the same educational qualifications. There is also growing evidence that the very policies that helped blacks 40 years ago now contribute to their problems.

Government activism has helped expand the black middle class, but it has also created dependence on government and dissuaded blacks from pursuing the same business road to success as Latinos and, especially, Asians.

[voletti]

Interesting read.

The GOP is the genuinely color-blind party in US politics. Contrast that with all the professional race-baiters who're drawn to the Dem party like flies to dung.

[hispanarepublicana]

Affirmative action laws have succeeded in doing but one thing and one thing only: I have to work twice as hard to prove that I was hired for my qualifications and not my ethnicity or gender. If I screw up just once, I know there will be those saying "Well, that's what happens when you don't hire the best but you hire for affirmative action".
Thanks for nothing, liberals.

[jackbenimble]

The GOP is the genuinely color-blind party in US politics.

It used to be true. Current GOP leadership has turned us into the party of Hispandering.

[RicocheT]

"dependence on government and dissuaded blacks from pursuing the same business road to success as Latinos and, especially, Asians."

One problem I've seen when African-Americans do open a business is that their own folk sometimes don't come in and buy from them. Here in Milwaukee, several restaurants featuring food like Southern cooking, BBQ & ribs have opened and then closed due to lack of repeat patronage.

I went to a couple and noticed some startup glitches due to business inexperience, but the food seemed OK. Why can the Denneys, the IHops and Applebees pull in Black dollars long term when local startups don't? Maybe the assimilation process has worked so well the taste for ethnic food has lessened.