I could be wrong but I feel that our military is pretty color blind. If you are ex-military or work in a profession that employs many former military, you might find more successful people of color. Which applies to @busdriver11 and says good things about our military.
But, this study is so sad for me. That even with affirmative action, we still have issues that run so deep in this country. Not that I didn’t know that already, unfortunately.
The disparity begins at a very young age:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/18/us/politics/school-discipline-disparities-white-black-students.html
"…Bernadeia Johnson, a former Minneapolis schools superintendent, launched her own review of discipline referrals for kindergarten boys after the federal government began investigating her district. The review was revealing, she said. The descriptions of white children by teachers included “gifted but can’t use his words” and “high strung,” with their actions excused because they “had a hard day.”
Black children, she said, were “destructive” and “violent,” and “cannot be managed.”…
“…Federal investigators found that a black second-grade student was suspended for one day for poking another student with a pencil, but a white second grader who threw a rock that hit another student and broke a teacher’s sunglasses was not. The white student was allowed to work off the cost of the sunglasses by helping the teacher at lunch for several days…”
Black troops as much as twice as likely to be punished by commanders, courts
Sigh @partyof5, that is so sad. We have so far to go and it really stinks.
I guess it’s a matter of opinion as to whether someone is “successful” or “unsuccessful”. One might be surprised that others consider them as being unsuccessful. In my world, you need to be making your living as a pilot to be considered as obviously successful. Otherwise, one really has to think about it… 
As to deb22’s point, yes, most of the black gentlemen I know have been prior military officers.
@roethlisburger -This is only a very very recent occurrence so I wouldn’t invalidate the argument quite yet…
This will probably change in future generations as young black men will have more successful role models to look up to. And by successful I mean other than rap stars and NBA players, as more of their parents/siblings strive to achieve upwardly mobile careers.
Personally I think that a parent’s responsibility to hold their kids accountable for their actions as it relates to school/studies is what drives future success, not the color of your skin or where you live.
I think a lot of this also has to do with the hoarding of opportunities. Most people who have education, connections, security, etc. plan carefully for how they will provide the same to their children. That excludes those who don’t already have any of that. So at a personal level, none of this will change unless individual people consider taking actions to include others - even sometimes at the expense of their own children. Not sure I believe that will happen.
I read a very interesting article yesterday about the fact that when school choice is present, high-poverty neighborhoods of color with poor quality schools are much more likely to gentrify and become whiter, whereas without school choice, it is the poor white neighborhoods that will gentrify. Apparently, affluent white people will move into minority neighborhoods (where housing prices are lower) with bad schools than they are able to keep the kids out of the local schools.
I would like to add a note of positivity into this discussion. I’m GLAD there are studies like this being conducted and GLAD there are newspapers willing to publish them.
There will always be Americans who deny our racial realities. But the rest of us – the ones who are listening to the black community and paying attention to studies such as these – we can start changing them.
Yes, it’s disheartening that racism is still so systemic. But the effects of two hundred years of Jim Crow laws aren’t going to be erased overnight. Not even erased by an eight year presidency of a (respected, if not beloved) black President.
A lot needs to be done. So let’s start doing it.
Obviously, if you sample airline pilots at a major mainline airline, you will see a higher success rate than in the general population (for any race/ethnicity/gender). Similarly, if you only sample practicing physicians, tenured college professors, flag officers in the military, or others is well paid and respected professions, you will see a higher success rate in your sample than in the general population.
I think it exists for many reasons. I do also tend to think that a good percentage of family businesses that will afford a second or third generation income are in manufacturing, construction and other typically male dominated businesses. As I watch my friends begin to turn their (manufacturing etc.) businesses over to their kids the women are not too interested on a whole. A few have stepped up but most aren’t really interesting in learning about manufacturing and running the business. If young women truly want to be on equal footing I’m all about encouraging and supporting, but it doesn’t preclude them from learning the business before they ascend. Friends turning over real estate businesses and insurance businesses, retail and restaurant are having an easier time getting their daughters to bite.
It would be far more interesting to me to examine why young men raised in middle and upper classes of black families are not achieving the middle class. I think starting with this generation it will be more difficult to presume that “our children” will rise above us but I also don’t presume that the will slip into the lower class…black or white, male or female.
No parent should take any action “at the expense of their on children”. The problem is that too many see this as a zero sum game. As long as it remains so progress will be slow. Instead, we need more ways to lift all boats.
I agree with Rivet2000. Our own children (meaning white, since I’m white) will BENEFIT if they live in a fairer, more just society that offers opportunities for all. And I’m being very selfish about this – selfish because I love America and I want it to be a strong, stable nation. Racism weakens and imperils us all.
I disagree.
If Mr. Smith has an internship, why couldn’t he offer it to a child other than his own who might not have opportunities?
I don’t think systemic racism will end until personal investment happens.
Society is made up of people - it’s not a thing unto itself. Where do you think opportunities come from?
Societies also don’t offer opportunities. People do. If people who have them don’t affirmatively choose to benefit those who don’t have them, then status quo remains.
Individuals actually have to take action and do things in order to create change.
And sometimes actual change requires personal sacrifice.
Or, perhaps more pertinent to these forums, if Mr. Smith graduated from the state university, why can’t he be in favor of removing the state university’s legacy preference, which adds privilege to existing advantage and enhances “opportunity hoarding” by the upper and upper-middle classes?
^^ Mr Smith’s child is unlikely to end up without an internship.
So when Mr. Smith offers it to another, his own kiddo will still be very much OK.
As Rivet pointed out, it’s not a zero sum game.
we’re white and my kids attended a high school that’s 60% AA and my son’s first (only) serious girlfriend is black. My son (now a college freshman) is very conscious of what’s what. Two years ago, the high school’s valedictorian (a white guy) was caught with a decent amount of pot. I said to my son, “oh no, what’s going to happen now? He’s being suspended, right? What’s that going to do to all of his college acceptances? He’s so smart…this is terrible.” And my kid said, “Mom, he’s white. Of course, they gave him a 2nd chance.”
That kid is now at a great school in Boston.
And that’s how things go along…
If only it were so simple. There are so many variables other than parents expectations that go into success.
@partyof5 It’s a start though! If parents aren’t good examples to their kids, the kids seem to have a harder time rising up.
@RightCoaster it is, but the color of your skin also drives your future success especially as a Black male, which was the main point of the article.