criticism from a reader and a response from Just Facts >

Sunday, September 10, 2000
Comments from a reader:

I have one quick question? Why were your "FACTS" under the Racial Issues section targeted towards the negative aspects of the BLACK community? Do you not know that the African American race is taking a stand in a positive way, or have you not researched those FACTS? There is no need to reply because the obvious has been seen.

Monday, September 11, 2000
Response from Just Facts:

Although you state that there is 'no need to reply', I feel compelled to. Maybe you didn't read this section in full due to its length, but we spent no less than 100 hours researching facts to dispel negative myths that some people believe about the 'BLACK community'. Examples include:

* As of 1999, Public School # 161 in Brooklyn, N.Y has a student body comprised of 91% blacks and 8% Latinos. The average class size is 35 students. Over 80% of the kindergartners can read. The 6th graders have the 2nd highest reading scores in the state of New York. Nationally, the 6th through 8th graders placed in the 93rd percentile in reading and the 96th percentile in math. (15)(16)

* According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 1994, black women who are college graduates earn 7% more income than white women who are college graduates. (185)

With regards to your assertion that we targeted the 'negative aspects of the BLACK community', I suggest you look a little deeper. When we cite facts pertaining to problems, we also cite facts that relate to the causes of the problems, as well as some solutions. If it were our intention to demean black people, we would simply cite the problems and leave the causes and solutions alone. In case you missed it, this list of facts clearly shows that the root causes of all of these problems have nothing to do with anyone's race. Most of these problems can be traced to liberal ideologies and policies. This is the reason that Democrats and their allies in the press ignore these facts and put the blame on racism.

In response to your rhetorical question, "Do you not know that the African American race is taking a stand in a positive way, or have you not researched those FACTS?", my answer is:

I believe it is individuals, not races, who take a stand in a positive way, and there are many African-Americans who are doing just that including Alan Keyes, Ward Connerly, Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell, Clarence Thomas, J.C. Watts and millions of black men, women, and children whose name will never appear in a newspaper, but are a blessing to everyone who has the privilege of knowing them.

By the way, there is no such thing as "the African American race" unless you claim that people of African descent who live in America are part of a different race than people of African descent who live in Great Britain. Political correctness which forbids the use of words such as 'black' or 'white' is censorship, and the kind of thinking it breeds hurts people of the race that we are all a part of: the HUMAN race.

If you are aware of any facts that we can add that will meet the Standards of Credibility posted on our web site, we welcome your input and will be more than willing to publish them. We spent an enormous amount of time trying to accumulate and confirm positive facts about all races of people, but we discarded a lot of them because we couldn't verify them. An example of one of these facts is that 85% of the people who intervene to help a person who is being victimized by a criminal (Good Samaritans) are minorities.

Despite the fact that I disagree with your characterization of our research, I would like to thank you for taking the time to write to us. The road to better lives for all of us has been hampered by a lack of open dialogue and I welcome your thoughts.

Back to facts about Racial Issues