Mickey Kaus On a Roll

Two great pieces today.

He starts off with the quick rise of the black middle and upper class:

1. There are "more African Americans in the upper income bracket than ever before. The portion of black households making $75,000 to $99,999, for example, increased nearly fourfold between 1967 and 2003, rising to 7 percent of the black population." (For whites the figure is 11 percent.)

2 "Since 1967, the earliest year for which statistics are available, median household income for blacks has increased by nearly 47 percent, to $29,645 in 2003. That's much faster than the 31 percent growth rate for white households during that time."

3. "African Americans have made substantial advances in the service sector and have been opening small businesses at a pace quicker than whites."

But all that's right from the Washington Post. Kaus' contribution? Pointing out that the Washington Post spins this great, equalization-of-the-races news as "bleak." After all, blacks are finding that reaching the middle class to be a "hollow promise." Hey, guys-- welcome to the not-so-well-kept-secret of white America!

And then he speculates on why the WaPo would cover this story this way. Seems to be a combination of 1) reflexive liberal "we must do more" pessimissism and 2) the WaPo's need to pander to blacks in light of its recent racial semi-scandal.

He then notes that Michael Kinsley's piece of Social Security -- one that I confess I haven't read, as I stopped reading the much-diminished and increasingly shrill Kinsley about ten years ago, after once considering him the finest political writer in America -- only got all the attention it did because of blogs.

Which is probably undeniable.

posted by Ace at 12:53 PM

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