An interesting piece. One of the more interesting things to come out of last year's UK Commission on Race and Equality was the comparison between the UK's racial attainment gap in education and the US's. The US's is 8 times wider than the UK's (-0.89 v -0.1). https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-report-of-the-commission-on-race-and-ethnic-disparities/education-and-training In the UK, the report confirmed that the groups with the lowest attainment are both white --Irish Travellers and white boys from a disadvantaged background. One part Sowell in his essay on Black Rednecks got wrong was his assertion that the English/Scottish borders culture had somehow vanished in the border region of England/Scotland (or indeed Northern Ireland), it hasn't and the low education attainment etc is indeed cause for concern for the UK government. The Department of Education in England (this is a devolved matter) has had some recent success in improving overall literacy and numeracy levels through the use of phonetics and math hubs. The over all basic literacy rate of the UK is 99% but functional illiteracy continues to limit life chances. The UK does have severe problems with social deprivation. To contrast the basic literacy rate of California is 77% (on par with Rwanda 73 and significantly below Barbados at 88% -- As an aside Rwanda's basic literacy rate is on the increase and California's is sliding). New Hampshire which is the top state for basic literacy stands 94%. Basic literacy and numeracy enables people (and societies) to progress. Rather than being on par with other Western countries such as Norway (100%) or Canada 99%, the US basic literacy rate appears to be decreasing. One does not need to know the precise cause to know that there is a systematic incompetence of state funded education in the US. And the big question is why is the US so profligate with democracy's most precious resource namely its home grown human capital? As Ellen Wilkinson, the UK politician who overhauled the UK's education system in the 1940's, a sound education affects several generations and the converse is also true. The US Supreme Court decision of Hirabayashi v United States namely "Distinctions between citizens solely because of their ancestry are by their very nature odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality. " should hold true for basic literacy and numeracy. There should be no reason why the various state education departments should not be able to get the basic literacy rate of 15 year olds to 99% regardless of their skin tone. Other countries do.