"Systemic racism" implies that racist policies are embedded in laws and institutions. That claim is patently false as evidenced by Americans having elected a biracial president for two terms and, more recently, a biracial vice president--not to mention blacks serving in the cabinet, in the highest ranks of the armed services, and in…

Sandra Day O'Connor seems to have given us the next 25 years to reach a resolution to the racial gap in education--a problem on which we've made little headway in the last 25. Nathan Glazer is not sanguine that we'll fnd that answer, but he's prepared to live with the messy but, to him, satisfactory scheme of affirmative action that Justice…

Behind this discussion of minority achievement is a story of one who transcended poverty and rose to the top of American education. Carol Swain advises that a student from a poor family should not be penalized because her parents are not able to involve themselves in school. This and other recommendations on policy reflect a profoundly personal…