GUEST COLUMN: One nation, separate and unequal

opportunity doesn't exist in America, thanks to lack of education and family breakdown. For as long as I can remember, I have been intrigued by the plight of minority communities in America. I've often wondered why I care so much, and I've concluded that this country's most important ideal is equal opportunity. Throughout grade school, I read with amazement the history of the Jim Crow laws in the south. I always felt the most terrible thing a government could do is to deny a people the opportunity to work to the best of their ability and make the most out of every day of their lives. Contrary to contemporary liberal thought, however, I was never moved by simply reading about the poverty-stricken living conditions of most blacks in the post-Civil War era. "Poverty" is just a word describing a state of being, such as "hot," "cold," "wet" or "dry." What shocked me was how an entire class of people was actively prevented from escaping poverty. To continue the analogy would be to say that an entire group of cold, wet people were forcibly restrained from drying off and seeking warmth. The distinction between one's state and one's ability to leave that state is of vital importance. As a kid, I was a firm believer in the old saying, "It doesn't matter from where you come, all that matters is where you're going." Any chains forcibly placed on someone to restrict his personal advancement bothered me, and these restrictions were abundant in all the history books. As I was growing up, consciously aware of these restrictions, I paid special attention to people around me. Those of us who worked the hardest throughout our school days now look forward to more rewarding lives. Within my large, multiracial public high school of 2,200, for example, the harder workers made it to college and the hardest workers went to the best universities. Statistics will show that people with prestigious names on their degrees will likely be the most successful, at least in a financial sense. Throughout my life I've never seen many significant barriers blocking the connection between hard work and success for anyone, be they black, Hispanic or white. Sure, I've seen the ugly face of racism expose itself in the words and actions of more than a few people I've met, but I've never been convinced that these episodes are responsible for the fact that more black males are currently in prison than in college. I was not born until 1975, and I never saw the days when the Klu Klux Klan was much more than a bunch of old geezers hiding behind bedsheets. But I am confused by modern African American leaders such as Jesse Jackson and Cornel West, who repeatedly place all blame for our country's racial economic disparity on white society. Throughout my admittedly short life, I've seen both whites and blacks grow into adulthood with levels of success relative only to the amount of hard work, sweat and tears it took to get there. I've watched my black neighbors lazily mope through grade school and graduate to the world of drug-running, and I've also watched my black high school classmate Reginald Hubbard graduate as president of the Yale University Class of 1996. If it is true, then, that in today's America there isn't an enormous, racial burden holding back every black individual and preventing him or her from leading a fulfilling life, what is preventing the great majority of the African American community from escaping what West, an African American Studies professor at Harvard, describes as "such a sad state of affairs?" Searching for an answer to this question, I worked 40 hours a week for 10 weeks in Pioneer City, a 99 percent African American community of housing projects in Severn, Md. Taking an objective look at the problem, I conversed with parents, community association directors, police, landlords and several dozen children. Contemporary liberals would like us to believe that the people in these projects are stuck there because of white society's racism and discrimination. But what I saw throughout my experience is a community of people that is not likely to ever escape from poverty -- not because of the color of their skin, but because of two major handicaps unrelated to race: A profound ignorance of the critical importance of education, and a 100 percent breakdown in family values. On the other hand, the parents I met in the poverty-stricken community where I worked refused to take the time to sit down and read to their children. It is no wonder that a lot the fourth-grade students in those neighborhoods still can't read a word. How can we expect the young girls to have any desire to learn when their mothers show no interest in the education of their children? And how can we expect the young boys to grow up to be caring fathers when 90 percent of them are born out of wedlock, never observing proper behavior from their own fathers? Increasing the size of welfare checks, passing out more food stamps and whining about the white man's racism are not going to solve the persistent problem of poverty in the African American community. Teaching the importance of family and education is the only way to truly fix the situation.

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