Seriously, folks. We've got a Dickensonian development--best of times, worst of times--in black America that has created a false reality. Because there is an Obama, Oprah and Tiger, white Americans believe that the playing field is level and that all's fair and square.
It is not.
These monumental achievements by individuals--who happen to be black--aside, depressing disparities between blacks and whites persist.
Consider:
*For the last 25 years, murder has been the leading cause of death among African-American men between the ages of 15 and 34.
*In Chicago, President Barack Obama's hometown, only six out of 100 of the students in Chicago Public Schools, will graduate from college.
*For every dollar of wealth held by a white household, the typical black household has 10 cents.
*While the national unemployment rate was 8.1%, for blacks that figure was 13.4% … and for black males, 16.3%.
*Black males are incarcerated at a per capita rate six times that of white males. Nearly 11 percent of all black men ages 30 to 34 were behind bars as of June 30, 2007.
I could go on and on with the alarming stats but I won't. Reading them makes it easy to understand why Michael Jackson has paid big money to turn himself into something he's not and why the individual accomplishments of the Williams sisters, Steelers' coach Mike Tomlin, Neurosurgeon Ben Carson, and Astrophysicist Neil Tyson are so impressive.
(This post was also published on AgoraVox.com.)