The Phony Protest...and Leaders
Led by government and enlightened, focused civil-rights leaders, African-Americans have made extraordinary progress. Forty years ago many couldn't vote, eat at public lunch counters, or earn a decent wage.</br></br>Problems do persist, however. Blacks only make 70% as much as whites; almost seven in ten African-American babies are born to a single mother; and minorities are twice as likely to be without health insurance. The black unemployment rate last month was over 10%, double that of whites, and one third of African-American teenagers looking for work are jobless.</br></br>So how are two of the most visible national black politicians, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, spending their time? Protesting against supposed slights to Harvard's Afro-American studies professors.</br></br>This shrill and silly conduct reinforces the political bankruptcy of these national black politicos. Jesse Jackson has made important contributions to politics and civil rights; now he looks like a headline-hunting ambulance chaser. Al Sharpton may be shrewd, but this performance, coupled with his past demagoguery, makes it impossible to treat his threatened 2004 presidential run seriously.</br></br>The Harvard furor emerged a few weeks ago when it was leaked that a member of the university's prized Afro-American Studies Department, Cornel West, was offended by a session with Harvard's new president, Larry Summers. Mr. Summers reportedly urged Professor West, one of only fourteen "University Professors" at Harvard, to engage in more scholarly research and join in the battle against grade inflation. Mr. West's recent major work had been a rap CD, while more than 90% of Harvard undergraduates receive honors and almost half the grades given out are As.