Cathy Young in Reason

White panelists talking to a mostly white audience about the need for the black community to fix its problems risk coming across as offensively patronizing. But the message of responsibility was most powerfully articulated by a black speaker, Vanderbilt University law professor Carol Swain.

Swain identified a number of cultural factors that may hold black students back, including 'dysfunctional abusive homes,' 'lack of parental involvement in the schools,' and 'negative peer pressure about learning and about high achievement as evidence of one's 'acting white.'' Better schools may provide some solutions, Swain said, but there must also be cultural change, and 'middle-class minorities must take a leadership role in this area.' On an even more controversial note, Swain identified affirmative action as currently practiced by universities--lower admissions standards for blacks and Hispanics--as part of the problem. These policies, she said, have 'created a negative incentive structure for African-Americans who have either internalized societal messages about inferiority or have chosen an easier path of not exerting themselves too vigorously' since they don't have to meet higher standards.

Ouch.