The racist has entered the chat. pic.twitter.com/YXkDj3TXDO
— David French (@DavidAFrench) July 8, 2021
Name-calling seems to be the only response thinkers like David French can come up with.
Anyway, let me point out that if the Legacy of Slavery/Jim Crow was the overwhelming cause of racial gaps in 2021, we’d see them steadily diminishing as the Bad Old Days disappear further into the past.
But, for most measures, we don’t see steady progress. For example, property value differences don’t appear to be narrowing. The black share of known murder offenders was quite a bit lower in 1984 than in 2019, and 2020 will likely set a new record. NAEP test score gaps narrowed in the 1970s–80s, but stopped around the time crack and gangsta rap arrived.
In response to this lack of progress, the intellectual climate has become increasingly antiquarian: thus, the nonstop emphasis on redlining and Emmett Till.
