Is racism on the rise in America? Are we about to be engulfed by a new wave of violence and hatred based on differences of color and race? Recent ugly events, like the death of a young black in Howard Beach, New York, and the stoning of civil rights marchers in Forsyth Country, Georgia, have triggered sharp reactions in the news media and among national leaders black and white.
Nearly 20 years ago, the Kerner Commission, formed to investigate the riots in major American cities during 1967, concluded that "our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white - separate and unequal." The commission called for a massive national commitment to action requiring "unprecedented levels of funding and performance" to attack the basic problems of the ghettos.
Today, two decades later, we ask ourselves: Is our nation still moving toward two separate but unequal societies, or tragically, have we already arrived there? In its annual report on "The State of Black America," the Urban League asserted that black Americans are "besieged" by economic depression and the "continued erosion of past gains." Benjamin Hooks, executive director of the NAACP, concurred and further placed much of the blame for violence directed at blacks on the Reagan administration, declaring that "there is a steady drumbeat...that somehow white males are being badly mistreated."
Other authorities reject these charges, pointing to the 6,500 black elected officials around the country, compared to only a few hundred in the 1950s. The earnings power of young black professional couples equals that of young white couples. Two black businessmen have been added to Forbes' magazine list of the 400 wealthiest people in America.
Economist Thomas Sowell argues that what underprivileged Americans, black and white, need more than welfare programs and affirmative action is an increased absorption of middle-class values, emphasizing such things as work and frugality. Charles Murray, in his Losing Ground, shows that many Great Society programs have failed in their promise and performance. The number of people below the poverty line was 24 million, or 12 percent of the population in 1969. In 1980, after all of the Great Society programs had gone into effect, the poverty rate went up, to 13 percent. The picture was equally bleak for black Americans, 30 percent of whom lived in poverty in 1980, only 1 percent less than a decade before.
Are Howard Beach and Forsyth Country aberrations or precursors of a new racism in America? Are black Americans still on the bottom rung of the economic ladder in America, blocked by poor education, racial discrimination, and a welfare mentality, or is there a vibrant growing black middle class in every major U.S. city and suburb?
These are not easy questions and there are no simple answers. But in this month's Special Report, THE WORLD & I examines the changing face of racism in America. Our conclusion, necessarily conditional about so difficult and deep-rooted an issue, is that great strides have been taken in this country over the last 30 years to eliminate the most obvious forms of racism. Strong laws have been passed, enforcing the constitutional rights of all Americans. In one sense, as one black analyst has commented, the civil rights revolution is over.
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