Media reports and the rhetoric of many black “leaders” seldom recognise the tremendous social, economic and educational achievements of American blacks over the past several decades. “Sociologists have somehow managed to blind themselves to the fact that there were changes for the better, and in terms of historical trends there were big changes,” says Harvard University demographer Edward Glaeser.
Census data makes those changes evident:
And in less than 20 years, the number of black college graduates has doubled.
While blacks still have some way to go to catch up with whites in these categories, their progress has been amazingly swift by historical standards. Their progress also shows that education has become a far better indicator of socio-economic status than race.
Which is why critics say efforts to downplay or even dismiss black achievement are so disturbing. Blinkered civil rights leaders see only shortcomings, while liberal public servants play divisive politics and too many conservatives ignore the issue altogether.
Source: Editorial, The Good News on Race, Wall Street Journal, April 8, 2002.
For text (WSJ subscribers) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB10182154455069080,00.htm
For more on Race, Ethnicity and Culture http://www.ncpa.org/iss/soc
FMF Policy Bulletin\17 April 2002
