John McWhorter:

Back in the day, African-American kids didn’t think it was a crime to be young, gifted and black.

One of the biggest disappointments with the integration of the 60 and 70s has been the re-segregation being driven by African Americans wanting to stick to their own subculture and excluding anybody who "acts white." I think the answer is to reach out to black kids at earlier ages and help them meet the same standards as everybody else by the time they complete High School. Done right, it would be possible for them to outshine the products of our current schools. Blacks suffer from the image projected by the New Black Panthers, black street gangs and high prison population. I don't know how to solve that, but there needs to be a safe zone between the races where we can discuss legitimate problems and offer constructive suggestions without resorting to the race card. One thing President Obama pointed out during his appearance on "The View" was that we all have an instinctual way of closing off when meeting strangers, particularly those who don't look like us. That's true.