From what I can see from the link, black believe they can't get ahead but they also believe America is ready to elect a black President. Classic bipolarism or not?

Besides that, I truly believe that blacks have had their perception of America twisted by the Louis Farrakans/Al Sharptons/Jeremiah Wrights for so long that they are really incapable of seeing the world in an unbiased way at this point. No more so than a person under the teaching of the Taliban can see the world as it truly is. Much of what ails the black community COMES from the black community. That's reality, but you won't hear it on MSNBC anytime soon...

"Classic bipolarism or not? . . .Much of what ails the black community COMES from the black community. That's reality, but you won't hear it on MSNBC anytime soon..."

As you probably guessed, Bill, I strongly disagree. There's a real and enormous difference between thinking America is willing to put *a* black person into office as president and thinking America is willing to do the much more difficult work of removing institutional obstacles to broader advancement. Case in point: the public education system. The schools receiving the lowest investment are almost invariably the poorest and most populated with minority students. It's a shit deal, we all know it, nothing changes.

*That* is the reality we won't see on MSNBC.

"The schools receiving the lowest investment are almost invariably the poorest and most populated with minority students. It's a shit deal, we all know it, nothing changes."

Well sure, nothing changes... but the greatest portion of the blame goes to the black community itself for creating scores of fatherless children and child-borne offspring. When you have such a dysfunctional culture to begin with how can you then provide a child with the stability at home which is necessary for them to achieve scholastically? Sure, we can sit back and blame it all on the schools, but that would be a lie. The problem begins AT HOME... There's only so much a teacher/school can do to unravel the dysfunctionality of the culture itself. They have no control over the extra-scholastic atmostphere that children experience everday.

I understand your concern, but I can't see how you would come to the conclusion that society is imposing this situation on the black community when for the most part they are imposing it on themselves. When we sit back and see "preachers" like Jeremiah Wright spew our consistent hatred and racial blame while young children sit in the audience and soak it all in, we begin to understand the fundamentals of the problem itself. It's time for the Afro-American community to take ownership of this problem and make positive steps to solve it rather than blaming it on the outside world. After all, isn't that what the terrorists do? Isn't that what they teach their children? How can ANYONE come out a situation like that and see the world for what it is? And how will it ever change if there is no self-evaluation?

I reject entirely the argument that the targets of institutional racism (the key concept here, which clearly I believe in and you do not) are responsible for its effects.

The disinvestment in public education (particularly in urban areas) has nothing to do with family patterns, and has far more wide-reaching and radical effects than you acknowledge; decades of housing discrimination are not the fault of a handful of preachers; racism is not the fault of minorities. You say it starts "at home", but you fail to acknowledge that home is a lot more likely to be safe, near a good public school, and nearer to where parents work if you're white and privileged. There is significant demographic and sociological research demonstrating that controlling for every variable of age, education, experience, etc., blacks are less likely than whites to get the same job at the same pay, to get the loan for a house, to get any of the opportunities that promote stability. The denial of access to opportunity is real and its effects are pernicious. And it is not the fault of those being shut out.

Bottom line: privilege is real, racism is real, and a handful of preachers who say inflammatory things don't amount to a culture.

I'm shutting these comments down before somebody says "bootstraps" and I have an aneurysm. And for the record, this is not censorship. You are still free to speak your views on this topic; I simply decline to continue to provide space for it on my blog.