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fiü I LI':T'S START with a

;ai ' ! quiz. Whcn researchers

sentyoung whites and blacks out

to interview for low-wage jobs inNew York City armed with equiv-

alent rdsum€s, the result was:

A) lVhites and blacks were hired

at similar rates.B) Blaeks had a modest edge be-

cause of affirmadve attion.C) Whites were {wice as likelY toget callbacks.'fhe answer is C, and a biack aP-

piicant with a clean criminal re-

cord did no befter than a whiteapplicanr who was said to havcjust beenreleased from r8 rnonths

in prison.? A mäjority of whites believethat job opporrunities are equal

for whites a*d blacks, accordiagto a PBS poll, but riSorous studie§

show that just isn't so. Public at-

tention Io raciai disparities seems

to be flagging even as the issues

are a§ grave as ever. ". .

3 Let me first address $ome re-

proaches I've received frorn in-

dignanr whites, inclading: You

wouid never write a column absutblacks nor getting it, and it's racistto pick on whites. It's rrue that Iwould Lre wary as a white Personof lecturing Io blacks about race,

but plenty of black leaders (in-

cluding Fresident Obama) have

bluntty spoken alloul shortcom-ings in the trlackcommunitY.{ ?oni Morrison in her novels

writes about a black world Purn-meled by discrimination but also

try violence, drunkenness and

broken families. In a CNN Poll,86 percent of Utact<s saia famitybreakdown was a reason for dif-

fi culties af African-Arnericans to-day, and yZ percent cited "lack ofmotivation and unwillingnex townrk hard."5 Frankly, the conversationwithin the black conrmunity§eems t0 me to be more mätureand honest than the one ämongwhites, and considering howmpch of the white conversationabout race i*vekes "personal re-sponsibility," rnaybe it's rime forwhites to show rnore.6 Obama's election reinforceda*ärrative that we're making pro-gress. We are in some ways, butthe median black household inAmerica still has only I percentof the wealth of the median whitehousehold. And even for black*who have'made it" -. whose in-eomes are in the *pper half ofAmerican incomes - 60 percent

oftheirchildren tunrbie back intothe lower half irr the next genera-tion, according ta a Federal Re-serve study.? Most of the public detrateabout race focuses on law en-forcentent. That's understand-atrle after the shcotiags of un-armed blacks anri after the U.S.Sentencing Comrnission foundthar black r:en received sentenc.es about :0 p€rcert longer thanwhite men for similar crimes. Butthat's jüsr the tip af the iceberg.Lead poisoning, for exarnple,is more than rwice as cornmsnamang biack children as amongwhite children, and in much ofthe country it's even wors€ thanin Flint, Mich.I American schools are still of-ten separate anri unequal. Onereascn is an unjust school fund-

in§ *yrt*rn that often directs themost resources to priuileged stu-dents. So if y/e're going to addresssiystemic disadvantage of blackchildren, wc have to broaden theconversation to u*equai educa-rion. There's a lot of loose talkamong whites about trlac& boys

making bad decisions, but we failthese kids before they fail us.g Reasons for inequalityinvolvenotjust institutions but also per-sonal behaviors. These don't alldirectly involve discrimination.Fsr instanee, black babies aremore likely to grow up with a sin-gle pare*t aad may be sp,okei! toor read to iess by their parents.But racial discrimination re-inains. ubiquitous even in crucialspheres litejobs and housiag.r{} In one study, researchers sentthousands of rdsurn€s to employ-ers with openings, randomly us-

ing sorne stereotypically blacknames (like Jamal) and othersthät were more likely to belongto white$ (like Brendan). A whitename increased the likelihood ofa callback by 5o percest, ...rr Discriminätion is also per-vasive in the white-collar world.Researchers found that white

--§-tate legislaiors, Democrats and- Republicans alike, were less like-

ly ro respond to a constiruent let-ter signed with d stereorypicallyblack name.r? !rylty do we discrlminate? Thebig factor isn'rovert racism. Rath-er, it seems to be unconsciousbias among whites whobelieve inequaliry but act in ways that per-pctuate inequaliry.

13 One indiearion of how deeplyrooted biases are: A rigorousstudy by economiste found tliatevcn N.B.A" referees wete rnoreIikt:ly to call fouls on players ofalrother race. The N.B.A. studycrrused a furor, and a fcw yearslltt'r there was a fallaw.up by thes;rrne economists, and the biashlci disappeared, As the study'ssulhürs put it, "Awareness reduc-es racial bias."14 'fhat's why it's §3 irnportantfcrr whites to engage in these un-comfortable discussio*s of race,bt cause we are {unintentionally)sr: much a part of the problem. It'snot that we're evil, but that we'rehuman. The challenge is to recog-nize ihafunconscious bias affiictsus all - Llut that we just may treable tcovercome it if we face it.

, () -- Tire Ätew yor& T'inre.s

o* r ?0 §ET verstehen - feseärchar {rtr3rfa} Wissen_schaftler * low-wage Niedriglohn- * atmed h.: ar:s_gestattet; s,w-u. unarmed unlrewalfnet _" equivaientrdrum6s ilkwrvalant:'r§"ju:merz) gleichwertige Lebens-läufe - at similar retes ix ähnlichem Verhältnis * mod-est edge {'nrndtrt) leichrer Vorteil _ alfirmative actior(st3:$letiv) Quorerre6elung zugunsten yiln Minderheiten'- callback Rückruf -* applicant ( rphkanl) Bewerber

-.tlean criminal record ohne lbrsträfen._ to releäse{r: li:s) entlassen3 ma§rity (m:)'dsar§{i) Mehrheit * pB§ = püblicBroadcasting §ervice *poll 1px,:) Umftage _-. rigorßrtsst*dy 1'rgaras) wissenschaftl. rigorose studie * racialdisparities (rjfspar.rriz) Ungieichheiren zw. Rassen * toflag naehlassen - issue (.1{u;} pmblem

-- gravesrnst; ge-wichtig

to address s,th, etw. ansprether; erw. in Angriffnehmen * reproaeh (n,prsurJ) Vorwurf -- indigriant(mtllgnänt) empört * to pick on s.o. auf jdm. herumha_eken .* to be ltlary of doing s.th. {,weari}i. dayor hüten,etw. zu run ,- to lecture to §.o. {'lektlr) jdn. belehren *bhtntly ('bl^nrli) unvertrlürnt * shortcomirrg 1_,-y Manko

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{'n&rfilv} }arstellung * in some r*ays in mancherlei (,ra'korfal; 'barar} untrewusste v*reinBe*rmmenheit *Hinsicht * mädian {'mi:di*1ni durchschnittlich - wealth equality {rkwolati} Gieichberechrigr}ng -* to p€rp€tuäte{we1ü)vgsmi}g6n-toa:*&eitesschaffe*-incameEin'(F,-.?etjuert}aufrechterhaltenkommen*-tottrnblebäckiumb::llztrückfalten-.Fed- r: indication Anzeirhen * rooted verwurzelt.-eral Reserve üS-Notenbank economist V*lkssirt - N:B.A. = National Baskethallj_*.111"": " r. k*r:"tl-.!r rr Asscciatior (a.sarJicrJan) - referee {,reiär,i:) Schieds-

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sion U§-Behörde, die die €rundsätze zur die Srrafbemes- Bewussisein

sung an Bundesgcichten festlegt * senten€e Srrafe --- tip r{ to engage in s.th, {Inoelril} s. än efw. lrcteiligen -Spitze*Ieadpcisoning(lealsleivergiftung

- uncomfortabl€(An'tÄmfläbal)unbequem-uninte$tion-$ on.qu"i (rn,i;tw'af t ,ngleicti s.wlu. inequal- ally {3nrr'tenJanali) unabsichtlich - enil ('i:val) bnsairig

Ity {,lnikw*ati) Ungleichheit * unjust (-,-) unge.".hr -* * challenge itjckndl) Herausforderung * to recognize

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