The civil rights community and the liberal media live by the poetic truth that America is still a reflexively racist society, and that this remains the great barrier to black equality. But this "truth" has a lot of lie in it. America has greatly evolved since the 1960s. There are no longer any respectable advocates of racial segregation. And blacks today are nine times more likely to be killed by other blacks than by whites.


But not because they are black.

Mr. Steele engages in more than a little "poetry" himself. Here's some empirical information that Mr. Steele may wish to consider.

There's driving while black: http://academic.udayton.edu/race/03justice/dwb03.htm

The most rigorous statistical analysis of the racial distribution of traffic stops was performed in New Jersey by Dr. John Lamberth of Temple University. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, African-Americans often complained that police stopped them on the New Jersey Turnpike more frequently than their numbers on that road would have predicted. Similarly, public defenders in the area had observed that "a strikingly high proportion of cases arising from stops and searches on the New Jersey Turnpike involve black persons." In 1994, the problem was brought to the state court's attention in State v. Pedro Soto, in which the defendant alleged that he had been stopped because of his ethnicity. The defendant sought to have the evidence gathered as a result of the stop suppressed as the fruit of an illegal seizure. Lamberth served as a defense expert in the case. His report is a virtual tutorial on how to apply statistical analysis to this type of problem.


There's also Dying While Black:http://deathpenaltyinfo.o...ves-who-dies-who-decides

These new empirical studies underscore a persistent pattern of racial disparities which has appeared throughout the country over the past twenty years. Examinations of the relationship between race and the death penalty, with varying levels of thoroughness and sophistication, have now been conducted in every major death penalty state. In 96% of these reviews, there was a pattern of either race-of-victim or race-of-defendant discrimination, or both. The gravity of the close connection between race and the death penalty is shown when compared to studies in other fields. Race is more likely to affect death sentencing than smoking affects the likelihood of dying from heart disease. The latter evidence has produced enormous changes in law and societal practice, while racism in the death penalty has been largely ignored.


There's Ailing While Black: http://www.nytimes.com/20...-racism-in-medicine.html

It has long been known that blacks, Hispanics and other minorities receive lower-quality health care than whites do, a disparity generally attributed to lower incomes, inadequate insurance coverage and lack of doctors in minority areas. These socioeconomic causes are real, but a disturbing new study by the Institute of Medicine has concluded that even when members of minority groups have the same incomes, insurance coverage and medical conditions as whites, they receive notably poorer care. Biases, prejudices and negative racial stereotypes, the panel concludes, may be misleading doctors and other health professionals.


Here's a neat little piece on Hailing While Black, which while anecdotal and not empirical, is nonetheless insightful: http://www.washingtoncity...ess-hailing-while-black/

It's not just getting a cab, either, Peele says. Try getting a pizza.

"You just adjust," she says. "I think as a person of color, we have these situations—they come up, they're unfair, they're illogical, and most times they're illegal, but you just have to adjust. You have to get from Point A to Point B. We succeed in spite of those things."

A parting thought: “No matter how bad I think it is for women of color or people in River East in general, I know it's much worse for men of color."


The existence of "race hustlers" doesn't in the least mean there are not real racial problems in this country.

Mr. Steele famously authored the book, A Bound Man: Why We are Excited about Obama and Why He Can't Win, in which he insists that Obama must be liberal because he is black.


Edited 1 time by nessus2 04/07/12 10:15.