Of course it's not "just" about slavery. It's about Jim Crow and legal segregation as well. The Civil Rights Act was signed in what? 1964? There are a great many Black people alive who have either experienced segregation directly or have immediate relatives who experienced it. To suggest that everything should be perfectly hunky dory for Blacks 40 years after being brutally oppressed for generations is dubious. Besides, the CRA didn't end racism. The great story is that Blacks have survived and, all things considered, thrived, in spite of it all.

The crime issue is odd because, while there have been recent blips, the overall crime rate has dropped dramatically over the past 10-15 years. Nationally, we are at 1970s levels. Here in NYC, the rate has been steadily dropping for the past 15-16 years. We are safer now than we have been in 30 years. Also, this strange notion that Blacks don't "protest" or fight crime or drug dealing as strongly as they fight racial injustice is simply not true. It's just a different battle. Where do you think inner-city cops get their leads from? Inner-city residents. Who do you think routinely sends inner-city criminals to jail? Inner-city jurors. Let's not even get started on the various neighborhood watches, block associations, community boards, "million man marches", church groups an so on. While, as the wonderful article illustrates, the tragic effect of crime is real and heartbreaking, I suspect that a lot of LW reaction to it is based on perception.

Which brings me to this: What I think is going on in the Black community is a class war between the people who "summer" in Martha's Vineyard and Sag Harbor and the people who "summer" in the projects. The 'hood has usurped the "Strivers" as the face of Black America and the latter are not liking it at all. Think of it as Allen Iverson replacing Arthur Ashe. The demarcation line in this war is hiphop/rap. As an aside, it is amusing that despite how utterly mainstream rap has become, some people still refer to it as if it's an insider cult. Anyway, all of the moral "culture" arguments are framed through this prism. The Strivers seem to have this pre hiphop rose-colored idea of a "Golden Age of Blackness", when we all came together in the 60s and whatnot, that we need to get back to, while the post hiphop 'hood folks focus on the concerns that are right in front of them.

"Doesn't this year's tournament continue to prove that the NBA is a total joke?"

No, not at all. The real magic of March Madness is that for a time we can pretend that the NCAA, and college athletics in general, is pure and not a corrupt cesspool. You know, team spirit, playing for the love of the game, rah, rah, and all those other cliches that get thrown around this time of year. It's kinda like Santa Claus.

While the NBA regular season can be boring, like the college regular season, they both are great during their playoffs. In fact, the NBA is a much sterner test. After 82 games, you have to beat a good team (no 16th seeds there) 4 out of 7 and then do it again and again and again before you're crowned champs!