Asian Americans And The Myth Of Political Power
The end of the civil rights movement brought along with it great promise for the futures of African Americans. After forty years of government programs, and voter registration drives the results are depressing. The high school dropout rate among blacks is 50% in some cities. 25% of black men are either incarcerated or on parole. Inner cities of Detroit, Philadelphia, Chicago,New Orleans and others lead the nation in murder, crime and or urban decay. Quite often issues of urban decay and crime are explained away through an economic prism. The issue is far more basic as I will show. The decades after the civil rights movement produced great achievements for blacks in all aspects of society. Prior to 1965, fewer than five blacks held elected office in the south. By the 2000 the number had grown to over 8,000 nationwide. There was an 84% increase in the number of black elected officials between 1980 and 2000. The irony is that these gains in the political arena has coincided with a ste