Race relations gains?
Published January 22, 2016
Editorial by Greensboro News-Record, January 20, 2016.
Sometimes the numbers tell us one thing but our guts say something else.
The scales tell us we’ve lost weight but our waistbands tell us no way.
The economy’s better but for many it doesn’t feel like it when we try to remember our last raises.
The thermometer may say it’s not that cold but our goose bumps and red noses beg to differ.
So it is with a survey by the website WalletHub that suggests encouraging progress in race relations in North Carolina.
The Tar Heel state ranked 16th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in an overall index of “States That Have Achieved the Most Racial Progress.” North Carolina also ranked seventh in the change in the poverty-rate gap between blacks and whites, ninth in “racial progress,” 11th in the home-ownership gap, and 18th in change in median income.
Some people aren’t buying it. “I think we’re seeing a lot of gaps increase,” the Rev. Julie Peeples, who is white and has been deeply involved in interfaith and interracial dialogues in Greensboro, told the News & Record’s Jonnelle Davis. “I don’t know the data, but I know what I’m seeing on the ground.”
To Peeples’ point, other key metrics in the study are not as high, among them the change in the unemployment rate (27th). Also remember, this study reflects improvement (as in the case of a struggling school that makes significant strides year to year but is still a struggling school).
As for how we feel, that’s harder to gauge. Both President Obama and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley last week lamented our sharply divided national politics. In a Gallup poll, the highest number of Americans since 1992 (13 percent) cited race relations as the country’s No. 1 problem.
Police-community ties are strained. Ethnic and religious tolerance is being tested by terrorist acts. Our schools are resegregated even as our society is more diverse than ever. The local poverty rate has ticked down slightly but is distressingly high.
The state did rank No. 1 in the country in closing the voter turnout gap between whites and blacks but there are valid fears that the Republican-controlled legislature is trying to dial back those gains with a voter ID law that is being challenged in the courts and racial gerrymandering. The state’s cold-hearted reaction to the unemployed is to cut their benefits.
The good news is that these issues are being actively discussed and that people of goodwill from different races and religions are coming together to challenge attempts to undo positive change. Peeples happens to be among them. It’s a hard conversation, but we’re having it.
So, we prefer to see a glass that’s half-full. Gains have been made but that ground needs to be defended and expanded against visible threats. The question isn’t where we are right now but where we’re headed.
And where we as a community and a state expect to be next year. And the year after that.
January 22, 2016 at 11:20 am
Norm Kelly says:
It's time to recognize that much of the problem with 'race relations' starts at the top and rolls down hill.
I'm obviously referring to the current White House occupier. He has done much more to destroy 'race relations' than just about anyone else in the past 20-30 years. Think about it. When was the last time ANY white person got away with anything racist? No racist comments allowed. Not able to refer to black voters as black voters. Must refer to black kids who are failing in school as 'disadvantaged'.
Yet, when the occupier refers to a white police officer, too often the word 'stupid' appears in the same sentence. When a hispanic man kills a black kid, suddenly that hispanic man isn't hispanic he's white! When did that change? When NBC knowingly modifies an audio tape to remove important, critical information, how do the media and liberal politicians respond? They virtually ignore it. When the current occupier's administration PAYS for black protesters in Florida, does this help or hurt 'race relations'?
When the rev buffet slayer comes out and says that blacks are incapable of identifying themselves in order to get a state-issued picture ID to vote, which black or demon pol comes out to refute his statements? When the same buffet slayer comes out and says that a picture ID requirement is the equivalent of a poll tax, which demon pol or black activist comes out to refute that obvious lie? I know, when referring to either a demon or a black person, I am not allowed to be truthful and use the word 'lie'; but honesty IS a good thing. What's the lie about it being a poll tax? That the state will pay the $4 per year (or is it $2?) for ANYONE who can't afford to pay for the picture ID! If the state will pay the fee, how does it become a poll tax? If the state will pay for it, meaning I've already paid for mine and now I'm paying for yours also, how is it detrimental to blacks? And WHY is it so detrimental to only blacks? What is it that the rev buffet slayer and almost every other demon pol are trying to tell everyone about blacks? Are these 'black activists' trying to tell us that black people are incapable somehow? Why do these 'black leaders' have such a low opinion of the people they claim to be working for? If my leaders had such a low opinion of me, I'd find new leaders. Leaders that would actually work FOR my benefit instead of constantly espousing my lack of ability, knowledge, capability, etc etc.
And if this report doesn't support the liberal agenda, of course it will be demonized. The only thing allowed by libs, pols & media allies, is data that supports their agenda. And when data doesn't support their agenda, there's only 2 options. Either libs ignore & refute the data. Or they make up their own data, based on nothing factual, that does support their agenda. Think 'man-made global climate change' as a starting point.
