Are education, health, and profiling the 3 biggest issues for the Black community?

Great Debates
1

In a Fox News interview, Berkeley Professor John McWhorter said:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,48912,00.html

So, are these the 3 main issues facing the Black community? What about racism, job discrimination, economic differences, breakdown of the family, crime, drugs, voting rights, slavery reparations, affirmative action, etc.? Are McWhorter’s 3 issues really bigger than all others?

I personally think education is the #1 issue, but wouldn’t have thought profiling and health were in the top three.

2

Why is Fox asking a professor of linguistics to comment on the slave reparations lawsuit? Is it perhaps because he’s (1) black and (2) a real live College professor, and so has a sort of intelligentsia credibility?

http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/lingdept/Current/people/facpages/mcwhorter.html

The question, to me, then becomes, “Exactly how out of touch with reality is your typical real live Southern California College Professor?” :smiley:

3

It seems like the three issues mentioned are mentioned not because they are the roots of all problems facing African Americans, but because they are problems that have very immediate effects and very immediate solutions. If you woke up tommorow as a black person, it is very likely that one of these problems would be doing you serious direct harm- and it is likely that you could think of a way to change things positivly.

If you stood up and said “The three biggest problems facing African Americans are racism, economics and breakdown of the family”, it won’t do you too much good. These are problems that are just too big to address effectively. They have vague symptoms and no visible solutions. You can talk all you want about them but the chances of you coming up with something that actually helps the black community is pretty slim.