CAN ISSUE BE DIMINISHED TO 'COINCIDENCE'?

White high school dropouts get jobs more easily than do black high
school grads, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics. But, no, that disparity is not racism; it's just a
coincidence.

An African-American apartment seeker faces a 17% chance of being told
an advertised unit is no longer for rent even though it remains
available to white applicants with similar income, background and
other traits as the black applicant, according to a nationwide study
sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development.

But don't shout racism. That would be reveling in victim hood. Just
chalk that disparity up to another coincidence.

When not flatly turned away, black apartment seekers risk being shown
fewer units than comparable whites are shown and quoted larger
security deposits and higher rent for the same units, according to the
HUD study. But racism? No way. Just more coincidences.

A bank is likelier to grant you a home loan if you're white than if
you're black even if your credit-worthiness is equal, according to
studies by the Federal Reserve Bank and Fannie Mae. A related finding:
Milwaukee's wealthiest African-Americans are 2 1/2 times more likely
to be turned down for home loans than are poor white home buyers here.
But why blame these "anecdotal" differences on racism? Obviously we
have on our hands more coincidences.

A sheriff's drug squad is 6 1/2 times more likely to stop and search a
black motorist than a white driver on a stretch of turnpike in central
Florida, according to a recent study by the Orlando Sentinel. But
don't dare utter the word racism. To those of us who value clarity,
logic and common sense, this difference is plainly a
coincidence.

Whites applying for entry-level jobs in Washington and Chicago fare
better overall than equally qualified and equally groomed blacks, the
Urban Institute, a respected think tank, has reported. But racism is
just too sloppy a word to describe this difference in treatment. A
more precise word? Try "coincidence."

In Missouri, residents in low-income minority neighborhoods pay more
for homeowners' insurance than residents in low-income white
neighborhoods, even though companies dish out less for claims in the
minority areas than in the white areas, according to a study by that
state's Department of Insurance. But, please, don't leap to the wild
conclusion that racism in any way plays a role. A more plausible
explanation? Try coincidence.

The more blacks catch up with whites in education and in test scores,
the more they fall behind whites in employment and earnings, according

to separate studies by the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute
and the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Institute for Research on
Poverty.

But that coincidence notwithstanding, blacks just need to stay in
school and apply themselves to catch up with whites financially.
Heaven knows, measures to fight racism, such as affirmative action,
won't close the racial gap. After all, racism is increasingly a
figment of the imagination, and affirmative action is an assault on
black talents.

Sure, racial disparities abound in criminal justice. For instance,
African-Americans make up about an eighth of all drug users, but a
third of all drug-possession arrestees, a half of all people convicted
for the crime and three-quarters of all those sent to prison, notes
the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based advocate of alternatives to
prisons.

And even though their chance of using drugs is equal, a Milwaukee
County resident of color is 10 times more likely than a white resident
to be charged with drug possession, observes Wisconsin Correctional
Service, which works with prison inmates.

But no, no, no. Don't even think racism is at work. These are just
some more coincidences.

That white iron ring hemming in an increasingly black Milwaukee? No,
that's not racism. That's just another coincidence.

And the present proliferation of empty-headed opinion pieces blithely
proclaiming the end (or near-end) of racism without tackling the
well-documented chain of weird coincidences hobbling black America?
No, that's not racism, either. It's just one more coincidence.

Gregory Stanford is a Journal Sentinel editorial writer and columnist.