<There are many reasons for the black's problem. The stigma of slavery is still an issue in their mind and I have no idea how they can overcome it except by success.

Two hundred years ago my ancestors were the property of landlords as well. So what? The stigma is preserved by the leadership because angry, disenfranchised blacks make useful cannon fodder for the leftist agenda. Well-adjusted, educated, successful blacks are not only not useful, they may even wind up on the other side. If all the blacks in America wind up in the middle class or wealthy, Jesse Jackson and his ilk are out of a job, and the Democratic Party is out of a captive voting constituency.

The similarity with the Palestinians, another group kept deliberately crippled as a people in order to make good political serfs for their masters, is interesting.

Their success is limited by the fact that they are forced to operate in a system that is designed and driven by the white race. They have some basic difficulty excelling in certain traditional disciplines that are key to getting ahead in our culture. This difficulty may or may not be genetic but it is not lack of intelligence. Blacks have excelled in some areas that are considered intellectual domains such as chess and computer science yet they fail in life due to apparent inability or unwillingness to excel in verbal skills. This typical shortcoming can result in stereotyping in the same way that a strong southern accent can stereotype a white person in the North. In the case of blacks, most rejection is blamed on racism.

Sorry, I don't buy any of this. Many other minorities, including Asian immigrants with far fewer cultural tools than native-born blacks, do just fine in our "white culture."

It is also an interesting fact that black immigrants from other nations are often far more successful in America than native-born blacks, again despite the lack of American cultural skills. To a reasonable person, this may suggest that perhaps racism isn't the real problem.

Thomas Sowell and many others would be interested in knowing that they are supposed to have trouble with "verbal skills."

If blacks have poor verbal skills it is because they have been taught them deliberately, and made to believe that improving them is somehow a betrayal of their culture. "Ebonics," for God's sake. Just another part of the plan to keep them separated, alienated, out of the American mainstream, and firmly in the pocket of the Left.

Up to now, political correctness has prevented any discussion of the problem to find solutions. Until we forget about multi-culturalism and start addressing the real problems we will always have perceived racism.

Agreed. What needs to be done is for everyone to take a look around and see who is benefiting from blacks remaining outsiders in their own country. What has happened to them has happened for political reasons, and now, with the concept of reparations, we can see that some people will be able to make a buck on it as well.