Minorities have made tremendous gains

Despite the absence of evidence of racial animus involved in the recent killings of two African-Americans by white policemen in Missouri and New York, we hear loud calls for America to engage in yet another "conversation about race." We've been having that "conversation" since the Constitution was debated in 1787. About 620,000 Americans died during that "conversation" in the Civil War 150 years ago.

After a long struggle, the promise of the great, liberating 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments was fulfilled 50 years ago by passage of bipartisan-supported, far-reaching civil rights legislation, strengthened and vigorously enforced by every successive administration.

Blacks and members of other minority populations have since been elected to the high federal offices of congressman, senator and president. They have been nominated and confirmed to head Cabinet-level posts, including the departments of state, justice, commerce, housing and urban development, labor and education. They have served with distinction on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Supreme Court and as ambassadors. They have been state governors, big-city mayors, and CEOs of major corporations.

It's not only the few who have succeeded. According to BlackDemographics.com, the percentage of black middle class households stands at 38.4 percent, well within hailing distance of the 43.7 percent of all U.S. households. It's true that a disproportionate number of African-Americans are poor, undereducated, criminally violent and in jail. Those facts, however, are probably due much less to any vestigial remains of racism (though there are some) than they are to the culture of victimization fostered by careerist race hustlers and to permanent dependency created by politicians lusting for their votes, then ignoring them.

Bob Foys

Inverness