No doubt a true statement, as far as it goes. However, the real problem is that a great many black youths specifically reject exactly those qualities that would allow them to take advantage of these opportunities as "acting white." Without the qualities of a good work ethic, honesty, determination, perseverance, etc. all the "opportunities"in the world won't get you ahead.
And, frankly, in today's America, if you have these qualities, you don't really need anybody giving you "unprecedented educational opportunities."
Reference: all those Asians who brought the level of work ethic necessary for survival in SE Asia. Applying it here made them rich.
I don't know exactly what is meant by that. What opportunities do they not have that everybody else has? I was born a poor, white child (to quote Steve Martin) and my folks couldn't afford to send me to college. So I joined the Marines and earned tuition money that way. Last time I checked, they were allowing black kids to join the military too. In fact, I served with a lot of fine black men who I am sure have moved on to successful careers by now.
I'm not going to argue that there weren't Christian buyers, and there might even have been Jewish slave-traders (I have no recollection of hearing that there were, however).
But conspicuously absent from this list is the ORIGINATORS of the African slave trade: The Muslim Arabs.
In fact, the slave trade in Britain and (by extension) the United States went on for about two hundred years, but it lasted about a THOUSAND years in the Arab world, from what I can remember.
Hm. Wonder why that fact is never mentioned among the Reparations pimp-set?
OK. Let's start with school vouchers.
I'm all for reparations too. Let's fix an amount that would be equitable. Then, we subtract all of the money allocated to blacks over the last generation for AFDC, housing, food stamps, Medicaid, and the like. Provided there's any money left over (if they don't owe the rest of us a refund), we pay out the remaining reparations in one-way tickets to Africa, where Mr. Farrakhan's dream of land already exists -- in Liberia. For those blacks who hate America so much, and who have failed to take advantage of the opportunities that are here, we'd be doing them a favor to get them out of the country to resettle in Liberia.
Education creates opportunity. Opportunity leads to employment. Jobs keep men's lives stable by giving them income and expenses - and making sure the income exceeds the expenses is what affords them less time to get into trouble.
Sounds pretty on the surface. Now how do you turn this into a practical solution?
First and foremost, please, please, please, please ignore the race warlords - as the writer said, they are more into preserving the status quo; simply put, the status quo keeps money in their pockets so they can enjoy their tailored suits (but Revrum Al, you've got to get rid of that damned jogging suit!), their SUV's and their limitless audiences with the mass media.
Next, school vouchers. I don't care what kind of lies the NEA, the NAACP, and every single urban school board member will try to tell you, school vouchers will force schools to compete. And they will not only compete for the dollars that the vouchers represent, but they will compete for the best teachers, but the best programs they can possibly get. This is why colleges compete for students academically, this is why collegiate sports programs compete for student athletes nationwide. If the model can work in a post-secondary world, there is no logical reason that it cannot work in the public schools.
Next, you have to look at programs like Georgia's HOPE Scholarship program. In that program, if you complete high school with a "B" or better, and you want to go to college, then you can go, period. What that means is that monies are available for you to go to a state school. This is funded by the Georgia Lottery. I've over-simplified the description, but there is no reason that similar programs cannot be enacted across the remainder of the country.
Next thing to look at is vocational education for those who cannot go to college. Those that don't go to college out of high school get some other options. They can attend a trade school, which for fiscal purposes, is treated like a college or university. They can go to the Peace Corps or AmeriCorps or some other service entity that will provide them with on-the-job training. Or they can go into the military. There's no reason that we can't move toward some form of service for those who can't or won't go to some form of post-secondary education. This will ready those persons for life in varying degrees, and provide them with the means to get ahead in life.
I realize this is not a perfect plan; it's far from it. I'll admit it's a mostly seat-of-the-pants, off-the-cuff plan that is coming to me as I type. But with appropriate research and development, this, or a plan like it, can provide a means to an end.
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I can agree with that. A school in every prison.
Oh, we already have that?