Blacks have been the recipients of massive government sponsored racial discrimination in their favor and against white people in education, hiring, and housing for decades. Is it any surprise that when the government insists that schools and employers give first preference to blacks over whites that black earnings will rise faster that white earnings? What is truly surprising is idiots like Alec Klien who are bent of finding a way to deny this reality. What makes anyone think that anyone, including blacks, should ever be given better treatment than anyone else? And everyone's living standard in the US is under assault from high oil prices and foreign competition. Why should blacks be immune from the same forces that threaten us all? To try to minimize the grave injustice done to white people by claiming their plight is not all its cracked up to be is an insult to us all, especially to the millions upon millions of white people who have been held back in their lives, in favor of blacks.

I have many black friends. I can tell you from experience there are two kinds: those that will bother to speak proper English, and those who won't. The former have every opportunity that whites have. The latter are too proud of their purported "blackness" to conform and will never rise above a menial job, and they never hesitate to denigrate the other kind for "acting white" or not "keeping it real" or being "Uncle Toms."

The funny thing, to me, is that the latter DO hang out with some white guys -- who generally talk and act "black." (back in my high-school days, we called those white guys "wiggers"; today that's probably a hate crime)

Remember also the implicit con in comparing 'household income' or 'family income' -- it's rigged in favor of minorities (i.e., it's rigged to make it look like 'discrimination is keepin' 'em down') because, well, because a 'minority family' is statistically different from a 'no-minority family', as in, number of wage-earners (as in, number of adults legally present). With a significantly lower 'number of wage-earners' quotient, there's no need to look for any other explanation for 'family income' gaps. Adjusted for education levels, in most parts of the US, minority and non-minority wages have been pretty similar for years. Yawn.