The 'racism' racket.

The "Racism' Racket

WHY WAS THE wretched Howard Beach incidentpressed into service to support the premise of a pervasive American "pattern' of "racism,' even "invisible racism'? Why did Mayor Koch enthusiastically embrace the supposed "racism' crisis, as did much of the media and many "spokesmen'? The fact of the matter is that all legal and institutional barriers to black advancement in the U.S. have disappeared with astonishing rapidity. At the time of the Brown decision in 1954, few would have predicted any such rapid disappearance. By no reasonable measure is the U.S. a "racist' society, as witness the rapid advance of recent Oriental immigrants and the near-universal popularity of such figures as Bill Cosby, Bryant Gumble, and Reggie Jackson.

But the "racism' charge has a core of psychologicaland political utility that should be brought to the surface.

As everyone who cares to know does know--youcan scarcely open a serious journal without reading analyses of it--black Americans, as a group have a constellation of serious problems. They suffer from single-parent households and absent role-model males; illegitimacy is reaching catastrophic proportions; the work ethic is weaker than in many other ethnic groups; the black subculture tends to value athletes and entertainers more highly than doctors or lawyers; a macho ethic counterproductive in the modern world prevails among young blacks; and neighborhood institutions are much weaker than among many other ethnic groups.

The result, predictably, has been widespread, andspreading, educational and economic failure, endemic street crime, and an observable nihilism.

Under these circumstances, it is certainly comfortableto place the blame elsewhere, that is, on "racism.' There is a genuine incentive to engage in this moral racketeerism. It would be much less comfortable for black Americans to look in the mirror and locate the blame where it belongs. As for us, we have heard more than enough about "patterns' of American "racism.' Tell it to the gullible.