Is racism on upswing?

Dennis Prager challenges an op-ed in The New York Times by African-American columnist Charles Blow that claims an upswing in "examples of overt racism on a scale to which we are unaccustomed." Nothing like the facts.

According to the FBI Hate Crime statistics, in 2007, 3,434 blacks were victims of a hate crime, and in 2008, the number increased to 3,596 -- an increase of 162. Given that there are about 40 million blacks in America and about 260 million non-blacks, to charge America with increasing racism based on an increase of 162 incidents of racism is absurd and morally indefensible. To put it statistically, the increase, as a proportion of the black population, was .0004 percent.

Moreover, the number itself, 3,434, is incredibly small for such a large population. And bear in mind two additional factors: One has no way of knowing how many of those 3,434 incidents were committed by non-whites, such as Hispanics; and of those 3,434 hate crimes, a total of one was murder, not one was a rape, a tiny 386 were aggravated assaults, and 1,257 were "acts of intimidation," not acts of violence.

Only to black and white liberals, including most New York Times readers, who e-mailed Mr. Blow's column more than almost any article in the Times, do these statistics describe a racist, or increasingly racist, society.

The column is a fine example of liberal attitudes toward blacks and whites -- the latter are largely racist, the former are largely victims. It is a picture that exists only in the liberal mind, but as long as so many blacks believe it, there is little hope for large-scale black progress at this time. There is no chance that black America's economic or social problems will be solved until black America rejects the liberal narrative of endemic white racism and black victimization. That is why, though Mr. Blow's column is a calumny against America, it mainly damages his fellow African-Americans.