"When we start suggesting that somehow there's this enormous polarization (on race) and we're back to the situation in the '60s — that's just not true," said U.S. President Barack Obama on July 9.
Whatever happens — and urban riots cannot be excluded — Obama is correct on one thing: This is not the 1960s. Since then, we have become a far more open and tolerant society. African-Americans have made significant economic and social advances, even if almost every gain is qualified by some glaring inequity or shortcoming.
Poverty: Black poverty, as measured by the government official poverty line (a pretax income now of $24,230 for a family of four), has dropped sharply. In 1967, the black poverty rate was 39.3 percent. By 2000, it was 22.5 percent; the Great Recession pushed it up to 26.2 percent in 2014, which was double the white rate of 12.7 percent.