>>>>Okay. So, how long does it take to get over the pain, and hardship, suffered by your ancestors?
>>>
>>>How long does society keep repressing a group? It wasn't just the slavery. It was the Jim Crow that followed, including a number of states that allowed blacks to be virtually enslaved (http://www.slaverybyanothername.com/). It was government policy that made it much harder for black families to accumulate wealth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining).
>>
>>Ok. so how much longer will it take for them to get over the suffering of their ancestors?
>
>Redlining didn't even begin to end until the 1960s. How long will it take for people to catch up from generations of being held down. White families were helped by the government to accumulate wealth; black families were not. Pretty much every measure we have of well-being correlates with family wealth.
>
>>
>>>>How do you explain people like Ben Carson, Thomas Sewell and Condi Rice?
>>>
>>>There are always exceptions. The problem is that those exceptions allow people to fool themselves into thinking there's no problem.
>>
>>You don't think it's because they worked hard, stayed out of trouble and didn't let the politicians, and others, convince them they couldn't do it?
>
>I don't know their individual stories (though I know that much of what Ben Carson has claimed his is is made up). But everything I read indicates that one of the key factors in overcoming poverty is having one adult who believes in a kid and guides the kid.
>
>So I looked. Condi Rice is the daughter of a teacher and a school counselor/minister. So she didn't start from deep poverty or come from an uneducated family. (Her Wikipedia page includes "Rice began to learn French, music, figure skating and ballet at the age of three.")
>
>Thomas Sowell's story is more an "up from poverty" story. I note that a key factor seems to have been moving to NYC and getting into Stuyvesant HS (a public academic magnet). Military service seems to also have been important in helping him succeed. So we, the people, invested him.
>
>Tamar

That's fine. But you have to realize that people like Thomas Sowell, Ben Carson and Condi Rice took what was available and took advantage of the opportunities and applied it to their life. They didn't waste their chance, and opportunities, that was there for them.

You know that old saying "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink....".
Well, some people "drink". But unfortunately, many more don't.

If more took advantage to their opportunities, I really wouldn't mind paying more in taxes.