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OCR Page 1 of 29Kerner Prophecy on Race Relations Came True, Report Says
Despite Progress, Foundation Finds 'Separate and Unequal Societies More Deeply Rooted
By Michael A. Fletcher
three young African American men are in
and poverty and whites are in the suburbs. But
Washington Post StaffWriter
prison, on parole or probation.
here, there is no mention of the fact that you
"The private market has failed the inner city.
have had a massive movement of blacks from
Thirty years after a presidential commission
The prison system is a symbol of discrimina-
inner cities to suburbs" since 1968, said Ste
declared "our nation is moving toward two
tion. A class and racial breach is widening again
phen Thernstrom, a Harvard University profes-
societies, one black, one white-separate and
as we begin the new millennium," the report
sor who is co-author of "America in Black and
unequal," that dire warning has become reality,
said.
White," which charts the nation's racial prog-
according to a report to be released today.
The report's conclusions parallel those of two
ress over the past half century.
"The Kerner Commission's prophecy has
other reports issued by the Eisenhower Foun-
"If you look at social contact, it has increased
come to pass," states the report from the Milton
dation that update the Kerner Commission's
markedly. Interracial dating is up. Interracial
S. Eisenhower Foundation, a group founded to
work. It calls for the expansion of initiatives it
marriage, the same," Thernstrom continued.
continue the work of the commission, which
says have the proven ability to close the nation's
"Whatever the fault lines are in our society, the
TheWashington}Jost
was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson
economic and racial gaps, including Head Start,
idea that it is the old-fashioned black and white
to probe the causes of rioting in urban America
well-structured after-school programs, targeted
seems to me fairly simplistic."
in the 1960s.
job training and community-sensitive police
Jim Sleeper, whose book "Liberal Racism'
The new report notes that substantial racial
strategies.
argues that many advocates overstate the con-
progress has occurred in the three decades
tinued significance of race, called the report's
since the Kerner Commission released its
SUNDAY, MARCH 1, 1998
findings self-serving. While acknowledging that
groundbreaking report. The black middle class
"The private market has
wide economic gaps continue to exist in society,
has grown to unprecedented levels, black busi-
he said, the reasons have less and less to do
ness has expanded and the number of black
failed the inner city. The
with race.
elected officials continues to increase. But even
"We have a race industry in this country.
with those gains, inequalities with troubling
prison system is a symbol of
They downplay the good news because they
racial dimensions are becoming more deeply
feed on the bad. They draw their funding and
rooted in American society, the report con-
discrimination. A class and
moral cache from the bad," Sleeper said. "It .:
cludes.
almost as if people want it to be 1963 over again.
"The rich are getting richer, the poor are
racial breach is widening
It is almost like people take their moral bearing
getting poorer and minorities are suffering
by fixing the old coordinates of racism firmly in
disproportionately," said the report, co-written
again as we begin the new
place."
by Eisenhower President Lynn A. Curtis and
But Harris, who served on the original Ker.
former senator Fred R. Harris (D). The report
millennium."
ner panel, said the report merely reflects some
lists an array of racial and economic statistics to
sad realities of American society.
back its bleak conclusions. While the American
- Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation Report
"Race and poverty are intertwined, and each
economy booms, most adults in many inner
makes the other worse," he said, pointing out
cities do not work in a typical week. The top, 1
"The main phrase that we use is replication
that poverty levels have worsened in the past 30
percent of Americans have more wealth than
[of programs] on a scale that is equal to the
years and that the nation's poor are dispropor-
the bottom 90 percent, the report says, placing
scale of the problem," Curtis said in an inter-
tionately black and Hispanic. "You can't argue
the United States first in the world among
view. "There is a lot of stuff that works. All we
with the facts."
industrialized nations when it comes to wealth
have to do is fully fund it. It is not like there is a
Harris credited affirmative action, civil rights
inequality.
lot of magic involved in this."
laws and anti-poverty programs with fueling the
In addition, 40 percent of minority children
Critics, however, called the report pessimis-
attend urban schools, where more than half of
expansion of the black middle class and profes-
tic and dismissed its central findings as out-of-
sional ranks in the three decades since the
the students are poor and fail to reach even
sync with the nation's increasingly complex
original Kerner report was written. "But the
"basic" achievement levels. With 1.5 million
social and racial realities.
progress we've made on race and poverty reaFy
prisoners, the United States incarcerates more
"At the core of the Kerner report is this
stopped toward the end of the 1970s," he said.
people than any nation in the world, and one in
notion that blacks are trapped in the inner city
"Then, we began in many ways to go backward
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