Notes on: Reilly, W. (2021). News They Won't Tell You About Race in America. Commentary 16--19 https://www.commentary.org/articles/wilfred-reilly/race-in-america-good-news/ Racial prejudice is still a feature of American life. But segregation was legally banned in 1954, all discrimination was formally illegal in 1964, and 'pro-minority affirmative action' has been practice since 1967. As a result, 'in 2021 America, it is not, objectively speaking, extraordinarily hard for a person of any skin tone to "make it"' (15). 'Seven of the wealthiest eight ethnic groups in the US today are populations of colour'. Affirmative action has counterbalanced much of the residual bigotry although it still causes other kinds of social conflicts. Methodologically, if we adjust the performance gaps identified for racial and gender performance by 'mundane characteristics such as median age and study time', we can close most of them, and not attribute them to 'bigotry or genetics' (16)'. If there is a remaining effective prejudice 'it is very often smaller than the impact of class, sex, region, or a half- dozen other characteristics. A bigger threat than bigotry or conflict to 'racial comity' may be 'the false promotion of narratives about racial conflict that verge on conspiracy theory'. Of course racism still exists. Multiple skilled researchers have documented this, especially in qualitative sociology [almost an obsession, he hints]. For example Pager found interviewing and hiring bias in the Midwestern US job market, especially in Wisconsin , where employers would 'offer qualified white applicants without a criminal record a final call back for a job roughly 30% of the time, but only 14% of the time for similar black applicants', with similar differences for white applicants with criminal counts. Another study of Memphis showed that black rental applicants were not offered an apartment in 8 to 9% of situations more compared with essentially identical white counterparts. A Gallup Poll found 8% of Americans would not vote for a qualified black candidate for president and so on. Reilly has experienced racism himself working for a street canvassing organisation , and has noticed reluctance to give money to urban black canvassers, or was told by nightclub promotions operations that they did not welcome males who did not match their primary demographic — upper-middle-class whites. He was mildly offended and decided not to work with these operations. There are 'significant caveats' however. Many studies are 'limited in scope'. Pager looked only at certain jobs — 'non-affirmative-action entry level jobs in the private sector primarily with white owned employers… Near the turn of the past century'. Reilly thinks this is 'probably the only sector of the modern job market in which a qualified upper-middle-class minority job applicant might find himself at a hiring disadvantage'. If we were to replicate this study in the context of public sector jobs or 'desirable experience-based union jobs, or diversity-forward positions' we might find a different position. At the moment, 36% of US businesses are minority- or woman-owned and we don't know what racial hiring bias looks like in that sector. On more controversial grounds, discrimination does not always reflect 'blind irrational bias' there might even be 'reasons other than "hatred"' to refuse entry of 'hundred male Hispanic soldiers into an entirely black or white nightclub packed full of drunks' (17). [yes -- but these are one-offs]. Several scholars have suggested that reaction to stereotypically black names on CVs could reflect 'perceived affirmation action effects or class bias as much as racism, and 'one significant study finds no negative effect for middle-class black names' [unfortunately no reference]. Bias against other groups seems to be as prevalent. In the same survey quoted above,7% of Americans would never vote for a catholic, 8% for a woman, 9% for a Hispanic or Jew, and 19% for a practising Mormon. The USA has spent an incredible amount of money and time trying to counteract racism, even with the flawed civil rights legislation, especially since 1967 [but of course there is the CRT critique – although that tends to be of the really early work. Reilly is more supportive of the Brown versus Board decision] The disadvantage faced by blacks and other minority groups may amount to '5 to 10%', but 'an ambitious young man or woman of colour applying to virtually any selective college or university — to say nothing of Government or Fortune 500 jobs — enjoys a substantial advantage over an equally qualified white peer'. In one  2012 critique of institutional diversity programs [only casual references again], this was identified as an 'affirmative–action edge' and was scored as being 'equivalent to 200 to 300 SAT points in the academic context'. People of colour therefore enjoy success 'to an almost surprising degree which is rarely discussed' either by the social justice left for the contemporary hard right. In 2019 seven at the top American ethnic groups in income terms were people of colour: 'Indian, Taiwanese, Filipino, Indonesian, Persian, Arab Lebanese Americans'[I only make that six unless Arab is separated from Lebanese]. Indian-American seem to be in first place, with 'almost double the median white household income [$127,000, $65,902 for legacy whites, Japanese and Chinese 'not far behind', Nigerians on $ 68658 and also ranked as the most educated group]. Ghanaian and Guyanese are well above the white median income. All West Indians combined are just a few dollars behind. These figures might tell us something about antiblack prejudices. Overall, they tell us more about the effect of racism in a '39% minority society where 92% of white people appear not to be serious bigots' (18). Racism exists but its effect 'appears to be: "not huge"'. The data also challenge the idea of systemic racism, at least as proposed by Kendi, who has argued that what appear to be neutral systems, including academic testing must really be infected with hard to find prejudice, implicit bias micro-aggressions and white privilege, because there is no other way to explain the gaps in performance between groups. However, the argument collapses if we look at 'important variables other than race'. Turning to American blacks and whites, there is an income gap [the average — maybe not median? African-American income is $43,862]. This vanishes if you adjust for variables such as 'aptitude, test scores, median age (the most common age for an African American is 27, versus 58 for whites) region of residence, and use of education'. Gaps in rates of police shooting and even police encounters by race 'close almost completely' after a single adjustment 'for the black rate of victim-reported violent crime which is unfortunately 2.4 higher than the white rate'. Variables such as prior record, and maybe quality of counsel in the court room, play a far greater role on criminal sentencing 'than does race alone'. There is still some gap in performance or treatment even after adjusting for everything else but claims that black people and women earn less simply when compared with whites doing the same work 'almost inevitably collapse' [this is of course subject to the usual argument that all these other variables are themselves the effects of racism?]. He has himself administered 'a popular scale purporting to measure "privilege"' to several hundred students and volunteers. He found race did have an effect of about two points but it paled compared to the effects of 'sex, sexual orientation, religious minority status and family income'. 70% of [attributed?] privilege appears to be pure social class. [a note says he has not written this up yet] He thinks that even the advantages of being born rich are less significant than the effects of making good logical choices in life, like simply waiting until marriage to have children which seem to be associated with subsequent successes including income — one study, by an admitted Conservative, shows that the poverty rate was nearly 25% for white kids born into single mother families, but only 7% for black kids born into two-parent families. Other behaviours such as 'studying hard and remaining physically fit and attractive' similarly predict success. The old adage seems to have some truth that one needs to avoid poverty by graduating through high school, taking any job and working, avoid being convicted of a felony, and not having kids until married (19). Actual interracial crime involving blacks and whites 'is only about 5% of serious crime — and more than 80% black on white at that'. A bigger threat might be 'a false narrative of constant conflict' promoted by movements like BLM — with its announcements that 'an innocent black man is "murdered" every day or so' or announcing a legalised genocide, reported in the media in a 'deadpan, narrative confirming fashion'. The majority of police shooting cases, 70+ percent, involve whites and Hispanics, but these receive less than 20% of the mass media coverage. Many Americans 'believe very unusual and dangerous things about the current state of race relations' for example, '31% of individuals [identifying as very liberal] believes that "about a thousand" unarmed black men were killed by police just during 2019 and another 14% believes that "about 10,000" such men were killed'. The total number of specifically unarmed specifically black people killed by American police during the year in question was 13 [which may not be the same]. Similar confusion concerns percentage of police shooting victims who happen to be black — estimated at 60% by leftists and extreme liberals, but even as 38% by conservatives. According to data assembled by the Washington Post, the figure seems to be about 25%. Overall, the real picture of race relations is quite favourable, but we need to get a good look at it and get past the 'fiction and fantasy'.