<p>"I think this is because the difference in experience between these races is vast and has persisted since 1619 until this very minute. Blacks are like an elephant, deliberately conditioned over several hundred years to think they are much less than they are". </p>
<p>I hope this isn't true. But not being of African descent, I cannot comment. And if it is true, then AA likely won't help because of the associated stigmatization that invariably comes with AA, which, of course, only feeds the perception of being less than one "is". But AA really doesn't matter anyway - keep it, get rid of it, it doesn't matter so long as the achievement gap is a great as it is. That, and not how much AA is practiced or implemented, is the big problem in a competitive, global, economy. </p>
<p>I actually favor concrete solutions. And the incredible preponderance of single mother homes in black and hispanic communities has to have (and does) and incredibly negative effect on academic performance. The fact that the Thernstroms go to great lengths to point makes them pariahs among liberal academics. But common sense makes it clear. And a public policy that disincents single motherhood sure makes sense to me.</p>