Walter Williams on Obama and Racism

In "Is Obama Ready for America?" Walter Williams injects a bit of sanity into the current Obama/Wright brouhaha:

The fact that the civil rights struggle is over and won does not mean that there are not major problems confronting many members of the black community but they are not civil rights problems and have little or nothing to do with racial discrimination. While not every single vestige of racial discrimination has disappeared, Obama and the Rev. Wright are absolutely wrong in suggesting that racial discrimination is anywhere near the major problem confronting a large segment of the black community. The major problems are: family breakdown, illegitimacy, fraudulent education and a high rate of criminality. To confront these problems, that are not the fault of the larger society, requires political courage and that's an attribute that Obama and most other politicians lack.

It's unfortunate that Dr. Williams' views won't be incorporated into the "national dialogue on race" that Sen. Obama claims he wants. All Americans are the poorer for that.