More on Black Discontents

By Jeffrey Hart | Wednesday, May 22, 1996

There comes to hand a Yankelovich poll, conducted at the behest of New Yorker magazine, that indicates widespread discontent and discouragement among American blacks throughout society.

I do think I detect in the nation a certain weariness about the whole discussion of the black situation, a feeling perhaps that we have done a lot and spent a lot and put through all sorts of programs — a unique effort for this minority — and that, so, the whole business is getting tiresome.

Yet the Yankelovich figures are worth pausing over.

The poll says that three out of five black Americans think their conditions are worsening and that a similar proportion thinks that the American Dream has become impossible to achieve.

(I suppose that, at a minimum, the term 'American Dream' means the opportunity to better your condition through effort.)

The poll breaks down the responses by social class. Among members of the lower class, 66 percent feel their situation is getting worse. For the working class that figure is 57 percent, for the middle class 58 percent, and for the upper-middle and above, 50 percent.

Now, brace yourself. Seventy-eight percent believe that government programs do not go far enough to relieve the problems of blacks.

Two observations come immediately to mind. One, that these registered discontents seem to a considerable degree to be contradicted by measurable facts. And, second, that there has been such a convulsive government effort with regard to blacks that it is difficult to imagine what more could possibly be done.

We have had study after study, such as the work of Gunnar Myrdal, Patrick Moynihan, and James Coleman, the last of which, known as the 'Coleman Report,' was cited by the Supreme Court in its desegregation decision. Beyond these famous studies, we have had a mountain of academic research, much of which has tended to drive public policy.

The Supreme Court's understanding of the 'Coleman Report' led to massive efforts to integrate urban schools through 'busing,' redistricting and other measures.

Neither Professor Coleman nor the courts foresaw that this great effort would produce the phenomenon known as 'white flight,' a massive white shift to the suburbs, with dire effects for that new entity, the 'inner city.'

Nor did the courts pay attention to some of the subtleties of Professor Coleman's work.

His research showed that integration improved black scores only when black students made up a small minority of the class; and further, that even these favorable results were marginal when compared to the important factor of family stability. The court's use of Coleman was something of an intellectual fraud.

In an effort to ameliorate the black situation America passed major civil rights legislation during the 1960s, the scope of which was vastly expanded by the courts and by the federal bureaucracy.

Affirmative action was mandated in many areas of American life, and became a dominant factor in university affairs. Vast welfare schemes emerged or expanded, such as AFDC, food stamps, rent allowances; and there were remedial attempts like Head Start. One can concede that all of this was well intentioned, though the social service bureaucrats made a bundle. But the results were often negligible or worse, as in the institutionalization of welfare dependency and the clear and divisive injustices of affirmative action.

The amount of public money poured into these programs since the 1960s has been staggering. A low estimate is $5 trillion.

Safe to say, no nation in human history has ever made such an effort on behalf of a troubled minority.

I did raise a second point, about the objectives indices of improvement.

Contrary to the black opinion reflected in the Yankelovich poll, the actual circumstances of the black middle and upper classes has improved dramatically over the course of forty years.

Not only are there large numbers of blacks prospering in business and in the professions, but we now have a large cadre of black intellectuals, journalists and academics. True enough, there does remain a large black underclass, and it is afflicted with too well-known social pathologies.

If I had a solution to this problem, I would write it up and win a Nobel Prize. As Professor Coleman showed decades ago, the key to educational and other success is a stable of family. It is difficult to know what yet another government program could do to produce that.

There may well be a number of factors producing the Yankelovich poll results. The black middle class, and especially the intellectuals and academics, are no doubt appalled by the behavior of the black underclass, acutely embarrassed by boom-boxes, gangsta rap, and anarchy. The poll figures probably reflect their appalled embarrassment, and desire to place the blame on 'America,' the government, or whatever.

And perhaps the poll figures reflect a desire to hang on to victim status, a sure road to power and preference in America as currently constituted.

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