Wisdom concerning racial disparity in America still escapes Liberal writers and scholars. For the latest example of ignorance and illogic, we look in one of the usual source, a fast fading main stream media propaganda mill, the San Francisco Chronicle.
Race Disparities Persist in U.S. By Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press Writer, in the November 14, 2006 San Francisco Chronicle.
“Decades after the civil rights movement, racial disparities in income, education and home ownership persist and, by some measurements, are growing. White households had incomes that were two-thirds higher than blacks and 40 percent higher than Hispanics last year, according to data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau.
“Home ownership grew among white middle-class families after World War II when access to credit and government programs made buying houses affordable. Black families were largely left out because of discrimination, and the effects are still being felt today, said Lance Freeman, assistant professor of urban planning at Columbia University and author of "There Goes the 'Hood."
“Home ownership creates wealth, which enables families to live in good neighborhoods with good schools. It also helps families finance college, which leads to better-paying jobs, perpetuating the cycle, Freeman said.
"’If your parents own their own home they can leave it to you when they pass on or they can use the equity to help you with a down payment on yours,’ Freeman said.”
Noteworthy in this article is how Mr. Freeman and others ignore Asians in their analyses of the effect of race on income, education, and home ownership. It is understandable that a writer trying to prove a point about racial disparity in America would want to leave Asians out of the discussion, because they disprove every point the writer is laboring to make.
As I noted in an earlier post, which I should have made available to the author to help him avoid appearing a fool, Asians who recently “got off the boat” penniless and uneducated are now the highest paid, highest educated, and close to the top in home ownership as a racial group in America.
Those high-achieving Asians, and whites like my wife Alice and I, did not benefit from home ownership wealth to finance college. They, and we, worked hard to put ourselves through college. The Asians, like most Blacks and many Hispanics, can be identified as a member of a racial minority by their appearance. Many Asian Americans, unlike most Blacks and many Hispanics, arrived with no education, no English language abilities, to work in unfamiliar occupations in a strange culture, and with little or no capital to begin a business or buy a home.
Thirty percent of white adults had at least a bachelor's degree in 2005, while 17 percent of black adults and 12 percent of Hispanic adults had degrees. However, 49 percent of Asian Americans had at least a bachelor's degree.
The median income for white households was $50,622 last year. It was $30,939 for black households, $36,278 for Hispanic households and $60,367 for Asian households.
The poverty rate for white residents was 8.3 percent in 2005. It was 24.9 percent for black residents, 21.8 percent for Hispanic residents, and 11.1 percent for Asian residents.
The home ownership rate for whites in 2005 was 76 percent, blacks 44 percent, Hispanics 48 percent, and Asians 59 percent.
What do these statistics show or prove? Obviously, whites have done well, as would be expected, placing first in lowest poverty rate and in highest home ownership, and second in education and income. And even more obviously, Asians have done really well, placing second to whites in home ownership and low poverty rate, and first in college education and household income. If I was a betting man, I would bet that with their education and income numbers, their poverty rate will be going down while their home ownership goes up significantly.
The author of the race disparity article would have you believe that race, and vestiges of racial discrimination, explain why blacks and Hispanics lag far behind. However, the author doesn’t explain why these same factors don’t cause Asians to lag behind, let alone why they actually excel in the supposedly racist American environment while Hispanics, and especially blacks, falter.
"The wealth gap is not just a story of merit and achievement, it's also a story of the historical legacy of race in the United Sates," said Thomas Shapiro, author of "The Hidden Cost of Being African American."
But the wealth gap between African Americans and Asian Americans is a story of merit and achievement. I’m sure Mr. Shapiro is enough of a student of history to have heard of coolie labor, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Japanese American internment camps during World War II, and the desperate, penniless refugees after the fall of Saigon, the “boat people,” and survivors of Cambodian killing fields.
It’s not like Asian refugees weren’t exposed to racism in America. Blacks in particular have attacked Korean shopkeepers in black neighborhoods, and then complained they have to travel far from their neighborhoods to shop.
Liberal cities like San Francisco have tried to impose quotas on the number of Asian students admitted to the most prestigious San Francisco high schools. Liberals in the University of California system are seeking ways to discriminate against Chinese students by establishing criteria beyond grades and test scores for admittance.
Apparently, liberals don’t like it when some minority groups don’t need their special help to thrive in America, because it might call into question why any need such help.
In fact, some might even be so bold as to remark that minorities who work hard, who study hard, achieve more in America by far than anywhere else in the world. That would destroy entire liberal cultures that focus on identifying victims on the basis of race and “lack of opportunity.”
Anytime you read about any group in America not doing well because they are suffering from the “indirect effects of lingering racism,” ask yourself why others are not.
The answer may be painful, but as Sakini (Marlon Brando) said in Teahouse of the August Moon: "Pain makes man think. Thought makes man wise. Wisdom makes life endurable."
"Socks up, boss!"
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