John McWhorter Op-Ed: Achievement Is The Answer

Stuyvesant High School is a selective public school in New York City

The moderate-liberal commentator disagrees with the NAACP's charge that racism is behind why so few black and Hispanic students are admitted to New York City's most selective public schools: "Settling instead for crying racism here is applying yesterday’s protest model to a different modern reality. After all, why isn’t the most immediate response to the disparity to get the word out in black and Latino communities that being admitted to the top schools means working hard — really, really hard — on the [admissions] test? It won’t do to say, 'Oh, yeah, that too,' either. This should be the principal response: preparation, not condemnation."