<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">So here we are: America has hurt blacks grievously; their progress remains dismally slow.<b> But despite the history of white supremacy, working-class whites are in free fall. </b>These realities make race-based policies a political—and moral—nonstarter.</span></p><div style="margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b>Commentary Manhattan Institute</b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b></b></span><br></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16.1px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b>Class Is Now a Stronger Predictor of Well-Being Than Race</b></span></p><div style="margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">By Kay S. Hymowitz <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/01/28/racial-reparations-and-the-limits-of-economic-policy/class-is-now-a-stronger-predictor-of-well-being-than-race"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(2, 30, 170);"><i>New York Times Room for Debate</i></span></a> January 29, 2016</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">Here’s a true statement: America’s historical mistreatment of blacks was uniquely evil and continues to depress the fortunes of African-Americans. Here’s another true statement: Class has become a stronger predictor of wellbeing than race.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">Since so many official numbers and so much public discourse groups all whites into a single category, it’s easy to miss the second truth. Nevertheless, when researchers go into the demographic weeds they uncover some surprising facts. Taken together, they make race-based policies seem like providing painkillers on the cancer ward while denying them to the cardiac unit.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">Consider the following:</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">Social class “is the single factor with the most influence on how ready" a child is to learn when they start kindergarten, <a href="http://www.epi.org/publication/early-education-gaps-by-social-class-and-race-start-u-s-children-out-on-unequal-footing-a-summary-of-the-major-findings-in-inequalities-at-the-starting-gate/"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(2, 30, 170);">according to the liberal Economic Policy Institute</span></a>. Low-income white kids score considerably lower in reading and math skills than middle-class white kids. Add race to the mix, and class still remains the Great Divide when it comes to school readiness.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b>The </b><a href="https://cepa.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/reardon%20whither%20opportunity%20-%20chapter%205.pdf"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(2, 30, 170);"><b>educational achievement gap</b></span></a><b> is now almost two times higher between lower and higher income students than it is between black and white students. </b>That’s a big change from the past: In 1970, the race gap in achievement was more than one and a half times higher than the class gap. Since then, says<a href="https://cepa.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/reardon%20whither%20opportunity%20-%20chapter%205.pdf"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(2, 30, 170);">Stanford University’s Sean Reardon</span></a>, the class gap has grown by 30 to 40 percent, and become the most potent predictor of school success.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">While single parent families are far more common among African-Americans than whites, less educated whites—who also tend to be lower income—<a href="http://stateofourunions.org/2010/when-marriage-disappears.php"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(2, 30, 170);">are seeing an unprecedented dissolution of their families</span></a>. Seventy percent of whites without a high school degree were part of an intact nuclear family in 1972; that number plummeted to 36 percent by 2008. (The comparable numbers for blacks were 54 percent and 21 percent.) This bodes ill for both populations, as father absence and family breakdown are strongly associated with <a href="http://educationnext.org/was-moynihan-right/"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(2, 30, 170);">poor outcomes for children, especially for boys</span></a>.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">Single parent families are far more common among African-Americans than whites, less educated whites—who also tend to be lower income—are seeing an unprecedented dissolution of their families.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">Additionally, starting in the late 1990s death rates <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/10/29/1518393112.full.pdf"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(2, 30, 170);">have been increasing</span></a> among lower-income whites largely because of drug and alcohol use and suicide. This increase has not appeared in black or Hispanic populations, nor among working-class whites in other advanced economies.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px">So here we are: America has hurt blacks grievously; their progress remains dismally slow. But despite the history of white supremacy, working-class whites are in free fall. These realities make race-based policies a political—and moral—nonstarter.</span></p><div><br></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; color: rgb(2, 30, 170);"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; color: #000000"><i>This piece originally appeared in </i><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/01/28/racial-reparations-and-the-limits-of-economic-policy/class-is-now-a-stronger-predictor-of-well-being-than-race">The New York Times' Room for Debate</a></i></span></span></p></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; color: #000000"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br></span></span></div></body></html>