The High Priests of Hyperbole!

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By Anthony Barnes (about the author) Page 4 of 7 page(s)

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This thesis also contends that the nation's racial problem is directly rooted in the refusal by blacks to reject the "culture of victim hood and dependency," a refusal that blinds blacks to what reverse race-hustlers apparently see as an obvious American racial utopia. It maintains that America's "black trash," its "brood mares" -- both characterization Hamblin repeatedly applies to black inner-city residents -- are oblivious to the race-neutral nature of a modern American society in which ethnicity plays an insignificant, if at all any, factor in the social conditions found in her inner cities.

It's the America depicted by Elder in Stupid Black Men, a place where -- contrary to what Elder believes to be the view of mainstream black America -- "white racism is no longer a major barrier to progress within the black community."

Yet, in their zeal to portray to whites, the notion of African-Americans as whining, hopelessly clueless, "race-card" flashing malcontents who cling to a belief that white racism blocks every road to success, Elder and other reverse race-hustlers apparently overlooked the contradictory results of several studies which surveyed the attitudes of African-Americans.

For example, instead of pointlessly demanding Detroit's mayor to "take a look at my mailbag," Elder might have made a point of taking a hard look at the findings of a Pew Research Center poll released last November. It shows that while "...sixty-eight percent of blacks say they deal with racial discrimination today in at least two of the categories of experience cited in the poll: employment; home ownership; acquiring a college education; and social activities," fifty-three percent of black Americans now agree that "blacks who can't get ahead are mostly responsible for their own condition."

The same poll also casts doubt on the charge that identity politics sweeps the African-American community. It shows that seventy-two percent of whites and fifty-four percent of blacks agree that in the last 10 years, "values held by black people and the values held by white people (have) become more similar."

Indeed, another Pew poll, taken in October, reveals that “whites, blacks and Hispanics all have generally favorable opinions of one another and all tend to see inter-group relations in a more positive than negative light. There are some differences in these attitudes by race, ethnicity, age, social-economic status and geography -- but these tend to be small. The overall portrait of race relations is one of moderation, stability and modest progress.”

The poll’s raw numbers regarding inter-group relations further dispel many of notions promoted by reverse race-hustlers. They show for example, that “seventy-seven percent of whites say blacks and whites get along very or pretty well; and sixty-nine percent of blacks say the same thing.”

Other studies also remove the steam from assertions by reverse race-hustlers that African-Americans demand special privileges, not equal opportunities. A 2001 survey on racial attitudes by the Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard University for example, revealed that 86 percent of 323 black participants answered "no" to the following question: ''In order to give minorities more opportunity, do you believe race or ethnicity should be a factor when deciding who is hired, promoted, or admitted to college, or that hiring, promotions, and college admissions should be based strictly on merit and qualifications other than race or ethnicity?''

Other examples include:

A poll taken by Paul Sniderman and Thomas Piazza for their 2002 book, Black Pride and Black Prejudice, found that ninety percent of the 756 black participants opposed admitting a black applicant over a white applicant with SAT scores 25 points higher.

A January 2000 Zogby International poll of university students showed 52 percent of blacks rejecting the statement that ''schools should give minority students preference in the admissions process.''

A December 1997 Times/CBS News poll found 69 percent of all respondents, and 63 percent of blacks, choosing ''race should not be a factor'' when asked how ''equally qualified college applicants'' should be treated.

A 1991 Gallup Poll found 69 percent of blacks, rejecting the statement that ''to make up for past discrimination, women and members of minority groups should be given preferential treatment in getting jobs and places in college,'' and choosing instead the statement that ''ability, as determined by test scores, should be the main consideration.''

Assuming that racial polarization is any race-hustler's most valuable commodity, avoidance by Elder and other reverse race-hustlers of the findings of these and other polls with similar results is not surprising. After all, these results indicate a narrowing of the differences of opinion among whites and blacks on important racial matters and that is not the message one might presume reverse race-hustlers are inclined to promote.

"Here's what troubles me," writes Wilson Jeremiah Moses, a progressive and author of Creative Conflict in African-American Thought, "Our (African-American) experts ... seldom give credit to the greater numbers of blacks who try very, very hard to improve their lives intellectually and economically and to attend to their familial responsibilities. However hard they work to struggle against the odds and the social and economic walls, all of that is ignored to indicate that (African-Americans) have not caught up to artificial standards and norms because of some inadequacy, moral, intellectual, or otherwise. It's a centuries old tale-those who commerce in the pathologies of (African-Americans) always get the headlines."

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