Volume 12
Number 2
March-April 2008
Lincoln
Review
                    Letter®

Editor’s Comment

The Realization Is Growing That Black
Americans Are No Longer Victims

While some black leaders continue to argue that black Americans are victims of continuing racism, and a survey last year by the Pew Research Center found that only 20% of blacks said things have gotten better for them in the past five years, the lowest percentage since l983 – and only 44% said they think life will get better in the future, down from 57% in a l986 survey – the facts tell a far different, and far more optimistic story.

Writing in USA TODAY, Sheryl McCarthy, a Distinguished Lecturer in Journalism at Queens College of the City of New York, declares that, “The amount of progress African-Americans have made in this country over time is phenomenal.  The indicators include the steady increase in the number of blacks with high school diplomas, who have college degrees or are attending college; the decline in African-Americans living in poverty; the increase in the number of black elected officials and the number who have held Cabinet positions; the presence of four African-Americans as CEOs of Fortune 500 companies; the dominance of black athletes in pro-sports; and, whether or not one likes their music, or the roles they play, the high visibility of black performers in the music, television and movie industries.”

With regard to the education gap between blacks and whites, Prof. McCarthy notes that, “It’s important to acknowledge that the education gap is at least as much the result of the reluctance of blacks to engage in positive ways with the system as it is the result of underfunding or school officials’ disdain for black children. And the vaunted ‘crisis’ among black men is as much a personal development and community values issues as it is a discrimination issue.”

Discussing the 40th anniversary of the murder of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Colbert King, writing in THE WASHINGTON POST, speculates that if Dr. King were to view today’s American society, he “would be saddened to the extent of instability in black families and by the self-destructiveness of young black men four decades after his death.
   
(Continued on Page Two)

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