New York Times: Rosy Data on Racial Progress

New York Times Op/Ed article July 6, 2008 Affirmative Distraction by Stephen L. Carter at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/opinion/06carter.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

■ “Those who suffer most from the legacy of racial oppression are not competing for spaces in the entering classes of the nation’s most selective colleges. Millions of them are not finishing high school.”

■ “America fought over slavery. America fretted about Jim Crow and finally put a stop to it.”

■ “Some of the data on racial progress are rosy, and deserving of celebration. In the past decade alone, according to the Census Bureau, the number of black adults with advanced degrees has nearly doubled. More than half a million more black students are in college today than in the early 1990s. Since 1989, the median income of black families has increased more than 16 percent in constant dollars. In the years since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, the black-white gap in test scores has narrowed, and is now smaller than it has ever been. The black middle class has never been larger.”