I have five words of caution to pass on to the black and white teenagers who, according to a startling new poll, have not found racism to be much of a problem: Just wait a few years.
Although half of the black adults (53 percent) polled by CNN and Time magazine said they had been victims of discrimination, only a fourth (23 percent) of black teenagers said they have.
That helps explain why fewer black teens than white teens in the survey of 1,282 adults and 601 youths (aged 12 to 17) felt racism remains a dominant issue in America.
Some 74 percent of black youths felt the problems faced by most blacks today are not primarily caused by whites. A smaller but still substantial majority of black adults (61 percent) agreed.
And almost twice as many black youths (58 percent) as white (31 percent) believe “failure to take advantage of available opportunities” is a bigger problem than “discrimination by whites.” About half of white and black adults agreed with the majority of black youths on that point.
Black Harvard sociology professor William Julius Wilson brought a fierce backlash upon himself from some of his black peers 19 years ago when, as a University of Chicago professor, he entitled his now-classic study, “The Declining Significance of Race.”
But the generation of black youths born since then appears to have embraced that message more eagerly than others.
To their credit, more white youths than ever appear to be learning about the persistent seriousness of racism as a problem. Meanwhile, black youths see a more complicated world, one in which racism is just one of many problems they face and not always the most severe one.
I suspect most of today’s black youths see racism as a lesser problem in their lives precisely because they have not grown old enough to enter the world of major-league work and consumerism, where most of today’s complaints appear.
Unless the persistent problems of discrimination in jobs, housing, lending and insuring–and such annoyances as getting good service at certain restaurants, taxi stops and rental car agencies–fade quickly away, I suspect more of today’s youths will find some racial complaints to grumble about in years ahead.
For now, I suspect, black youths are more likely to face bigger problems that cannot clearly or obviously be blamed on racial prejudice.
On that question, it is instructive to note how black teens line up closer to adults, white and black, than to white teens. Asked whether problems faced by blacks today are caused primarily by whites, 32 percent of white teens agreed, compared to only 18 percent of black teens, which was almost as low as white adults (14 percent) and much lower than black adults (29 percent).
Those findings tend to agree with similar surveys, including one by Gannett Newspapers a few years ago that found black Americans of all ages ranked jobs, schools, housing, crime and economic development ahead of civil rights as the most urgent issues facing black America.
Black Americans appear to realize that a new economic divide has appeared. While two-thirds of black Americans lifted themselves out of poverty after the 1960s, a third were left behind, including a disproportionate percentage of black children and teens. The new class divide has not buried the old racial divide, but it has made the old racial divide more complicated.
Today’s black youths are, in many cases, less likely than in my generation to have much contact with white people and therefore will have a more difficult time blaming white people for their problems. When a black child is stuck in a bad school today, she is more likely than before to see black people in charge of the schools, the unions and the school system.
As a black parent who has grown weary of waiting for the next great awakening to ignite black America, I am more convinced than ever that the next great “civil right” has to be the right to quality education.
The promise of American democracy is meaningless as long as all of America’s children are not assured equal access to quality education. Too many of today’s new-fangled remedies, including vouchers, charter and “magnet” schools, tend to avoid the core problem by saving some kids but leaving others behind in poorly performing, even dangerous, schools.
I hope the optimism of today’s black youths is rooted in the belief that, despite the persistence of racial discrimination, they have a better chance than ever before to be whatever they want to be.
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But we oldsters have to live up to our part of the bargain, too. Our kids appear to have gotten the message: Freedom isn’t free. Freedom has only freed us to assume greater burdens and responsibilities, none of which is more important than the education of our young. Our kids appear to be getting the message. I wonder when the rest of us will.