IS RACIAL EQUALITY OF ACHIEVEMENT A DESIRABLE GOAL FOR THE UNITED STATES?
YES! “REACHING THE TOP:” A Report of the National Task Force on Minority High Achievement,” published by the College Board, 1999. The most important educational challenge for the United States is to eliminate, once and for all, the large educational achievement gaps among the nation’s racial and ethnic groups. This is a moral and pragmatic imperative. Unless this is done, it will be virtually impossible to integrate our society’s institutions completely, especially at leadership levels. NO! “RACIAL PROMOTION THROUGH RACIAL EXCLUSION,” below, a critique by Curtis Crawford in the journal, Society, 37:5, July/August 2000, pp 37-43. Neither the arguments of the Report, pertinent religious principles, the “scriptures” of our own political tradition, or the implications of the racial nondiscrimination principle, sustain the Report’s new commandment of equal racial results in academic achievement. Moreover, when it comes to the gap between White and Asian achievement, the new commandment does
