ABSTRACT
Laws restricting the social equality of African Americans were indeed abolished—the Voting Rights Act of 1965 extended the electoral franchise to millions of Southern blacks. Despite passage of desegregationist legislation and the accelerated growth of a black middle class, a growing pessimism pervades American public discourse and perspectives along the color line. The figures indicate that many young white Americans feel threatened by diversity and believe that white racism no longer exists—for them, the chief victims of discrimination are white, not black. One myth circulating holds that hundreds of thousands of Latino, Native American and African-American students are taking college opportunities away from whites. The majority of Americans who are on welfare and Aid to Families with Dependent Children aren’t black, they’re white. In 1992, African-American farmers in Mississippi and Alabama filed a petition charging that the Farmers’ Home Administration had “refused to respond to reports of blatant race discrimination” by their officials.
