A HAND UP:

Show Blacks How to Fill Their Glasses (William Raspberry, April 11, 2005, Washington Post)

The National Urban League issued its annual State of Black America report last week, and you won't be surprised to learn that, once again, the league is worried about the gap in well-being between blacks and whites.

There is a small refinement this time -- an "equality index" designed to measure everything from health and employment to civic engagement and volunteerism puts blacks at 73 percent of parity. But both the general finding and the recommended solutions are the same as they have been for as long as I've been following these reports: The black/white gap shows no signs of closing, and in some ways may be worsening, and the general society -- the government -- needs to do more.

I wouldn't disagree with either the analysis or the need for more help for America's poor -- black and white -- who are essentially disconnected from the economy.

But I would propose that, whatever the value of pointing out the black/white gap, it might be a good deal more useful to take a hard look at the black/black gap.

What am I talking about? Listen to the Urban League's chief executive, Marc Morial, in an NPR interview with newsman Ed Gordon:

"The gains of the last 40 years," he said, "have created a new, larger, stronger black middle class. But many have been left behind. Still, one out of every four black Americans lives in poverty, and almost half of those who live in poverty live in extreme poverty. So you've got, if you will, a paradox."

You've got, if you will, something a good deal more interesting than a paradox. If racism (and racial neglect) is the major source of the gaps the Urban League would so like to narrow, then how can it be that three-fourths of black Americans have escaped poverty and that there is a "larger, stronger black middle class"?

Instead of spending the bulk of our attention on what white people have done (or failed to do), wouldn't it be interesting to examine what the members of that growing black middle class have done and are doing?

At some point you have to stop blaming racism.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 13, 2005 12:00 AM