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I was recently stimulated by Hank Aaron’s comment that “nothing has changed” to think a new thought (not easy for an old guy).

What whites thought would happen as a result of the “freedom struggle” and what blacks thought would happen were, and are, completely different. In fact, they are virtually opposite.

Whites were, and are, ashamed of the structures that were put in place to respond to the end of slavery. Principally, these were legal segregation, social stigmatization, and special schools for black children. After several generations had passed, whites in general came to accept the premise that these structures were the cause of, and not the result of, the various differences between whites and blacks.

So whites generally anticipated that the end of legal segregation, “discrimination”, and black schools would make all those differences vanish, if not right away, certainly within a generation or two. And, as an extra added bonus, whites would be “free” also - free from the psychological, political, and financial burdens of maintaining a complex, multi-level control structure over blacks. This is why children in high school now know as much about Harriet Tubman and MLK as they do about George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

What whites took as an anticipated benefit, however, blacks took as a promise. Blacks believed, not without some justification, that the structures imposed upon their communities by whites were the cause of certain social pathologies among their people. Just as we all do, they took a shred of truth and expanded it into the whole truth - so that, when the “freedom struggle” was won, that they, and their communities, would be as the whites were, and are.

The fact is that the end of the 1865-1964 era has produced radically different outcomes for blacks and for whites. And, given the fact that their perceptions going in were so different, it is not really surprising that their reactions to the outcomes are also different.

When Hank Aaron says “nothing has changed”, he is, from a certain point of view, telling the truth.

If I apprehend your insight correctly, you distinguish between the expectations of whites and blacks upon the end of slavery and then upon the end of segregation. In sum, whites believe that when blacks had obtained standard American liberties, they would behave like standard white Americans and would thereby reap the rewards of the American system. Paragraph system

Blacks believed that white citizens had received the rewards of the American system because it was the nature of the system to entitle its members to the fruits of the Americans system and, when liberty (read equality) had been obtained, blacks would acquire what they were entitled to along with whites. This expectation was the logical extension of the assumption that blacks had been denied the fruits of the American dream by the system and to the degree that they did not receive the fruits of the American dream, it was proof positive that the system was still biased against them otherwise they would prosper to the same degree as whites.

Put another way, we are looking at the difference between opportunity and entitlement or equality of opportunity and equality of outcome.

I think the matrix requires a new layer: white liberals-those who are not utter cynics out to exploit the black vote-share the idea that the government does more than create liberty for people to participate in the American dream, government is the dream, government makes the dream possible. So if African-Americans are not fully participating in the American dream, the fault is with the government-or if you are really radical like Barack Obama-the fault is with the dream itself.

But no matter which group one counts himself in, the definition of the dream varies. For a white conservative, the expectation is that there is a fair system with liberty for all to freely compete, achieve, and acquire and to do all this within the confines of a civil society made possible by the rule of law under a constitutional framework.

This describes an objective structure but the promise of the American dream to African-Americans is to live in a world without subjective unpleasantness. In other words, the American promise extends to providing a social atmosphere without slight or discrimination of any kind and, by full extension of the idea, a context in which merit is replaced by identity. If you are prospering socially and culturally and economically, the system is functioning properly. If not, system is still broken because you are not a full citizen.

The white conservative is confounded by this mindset and really does not know how to react to it except in anger. The cynical white leftist exploits this mindset to point out real and imagined subjective unpleasantness in order to acquire votes etc. The radical leftist exploits this dichotomy to bring down the system so he can radically transform it from the rubble.

There is real pathology in the black "community" described by Moynahan and others ad infinitum but that pathology cannot be intelligently treated so long as basic assumptions remain so far apart and the atmosphere remains toxic to be exploited by white liberals of one stripe of radicalism or another.