A relatively minor piece with an interesting point. The quoted study does not distinguish between the wrench raising racist instincts when it could be raising anxiety. Also, reporting the averages of racist responses ignores the extremes wherein lie both the biggest problems and the greatest hopes. A statistician is known to have drowned in a river with an average depth of 2 inches.

racism is unacknowledged and persistent. thomas sowell is acknowledged not as an expert on racism but as a relatively doctrinaire hoover center thinker, concerned about liberal media bias activist judges, etc. who is also black. all that said, the story is what it professes to be, an account of a talk by a researcher.

This opinion piece has modest journalistic merit. The author reports accurately on the opinions and information gathered by one author in one lecture. The author should have read more widely on the subject in order to know what a wider range of social scientists have said on the subject. He should start by reading the recent books by Thomas Sowell, the acknowledged expert on the subject.