Racial Differences

If this doesn't get me voted off the island I don't know what will.

Lynne Varner’s article “Conquer your fear and face America’s complex palette” (Dec. 7) continually implored the reader not to tune out since she was talking about ‘race relations’. She focuses on the different impact, heavily correlated by race, of people living in White Center compared to where she lives. I can understand why Ms. Varner might want to find a racist reason for the disparities. If she could, then people like her could fix the disparities they view as so unsightly.



But those large disparities are not something racist strangers do to the people of White Center. It is a result of behavior they inflict on themselves. In 1999 the illegitimacy rate of Washington State black mothers was over 50% (and more than twice that of whites). There is no reason to look for further cause of the lower expectations and quality of life in White Center than this behavioral difference. Outsiders did not cause this, and outsiders can not fix it. The residents of White Center will do better when they behave better, and not before.



Statistics Vital Statistics of the United States 1999 Vol 1 Natality Tables 1-12 and 1-20.