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Description
THE PROPONENTS OF "RACE NEUTRAL" policymaking got a boost from a Pew Research Center poll in November 2007. Among the most widely cited findings was this provocative nugget: 53 percent of Black respondents agreed that Blacks "who can't get ahead in this country are mostly responsible for their own condition." Only 30 percent pointed to discrimination.
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The poll likely heartened white people and others weary of thinking about racism. Finally, it seemed to signal that a majority of Blacks have accepted the conservative explanation for economic distress: moral iniquity and lack of individual initiative. On NPR, Black commentator Juan Williams eagerly delivered the news of this long-awaited victory: "Even with a hard-edged view of how often they have to deal with discrimination, a majority of [B]lack people say that regardless of the race of an individual, a [B]lack person can make it in America."
"The values issue is at the heart of the argument over the future of the race," Williams wrote the next day in the Washington Post. "This comes down to [B]lack Americans who believe in family, education and personal responsibility vs. those who point at 'the man' or the 'system' for the added weight on [B]lack Americans."
But just because conservatives have convinced people of color they are to blame for their own problems doesn't mean America has achieved racial equality, and a month after the Pew/NPR poll, the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations (NWFCO), released a... |
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