Nicholas Kristof APRIL 2, 2016

LET’S start with a quiz. When researchers sent young whites and blacks out to interview for low-wage jobs in New York City armed with equivalent résumés, the result was:

A) Whites and blacks were hired at similar rates.

B) Blacks had a modest edge because of affirmative action.

C) Whites were twice as likely to get callbacks.

The answer is C, and a black applicant with a clean criminal record did no better than a white applicant who was said to have just been released from 18 months in prison.

A majority of whites believe that job opportunities are equal for whites and blacks, according to a PBS poll, but rigorous studies show that just isn’t so.

Back in 2014, I did a series of columns called “When Whites Just Don’t Get It” to draw attention to inequities, and I’m revisiting it because public attention to racial disparities seems to be flagging even as the issues are as grave as ever.

But let me first address some reproaches I’ve received from indignant whites, including the very common: You would never write a column about blacks not getting it, and it’s racist to pick on whites. It’s true that I would be wary as a white person of lecturing to blacks about race, but plenty of black leaders (including President Obama) have bluntly spoken about shortcomings in the black community.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/03/opinion/sunday/when-whites-just-dont-get-it-part-6.html

When Melissa Boarts’ parents called 911 seeking help from the police in locating their daughter after she had fled from the house threatening to slit her wrists, they couldn’t have imagined that their call would become Melissa’s death knell.
And yet, according to them, that is exactly how it turned out.

Melissa’s mother, Terry Boarts, had gone to pick up her 2-year-old granddaughter at her daughter’s house on Sunday, a usual routine with the family, when Terry noticed that her daughter, who was diagnosed as a bipolar manic depressive, was not completely herself. She was edgy.

“I heard Melissa go into to the living room, and I went in there to talk to her,” Terry Boarts said. “She was gone. She had left. We were able to find out she was headed on the interstate going to Auburn. She was threatening to slit her wrists with a knife.”
Putting their granddaughter in the car, Melissa’s parents went looking for her. Fortunately for them, their daughter’s car had a GPS system installed in it, and with the help of their other daughter Melinda, they managed to track the location of Melissa. She had pulled over at a rest stop on I-85, reports the Montgomery Advertiser.
“We were afraid she was going to hurt herself,” Terry said.

But the traffic was too backed up, leaving Melissa’s parents with no option but to call 911 for assistance.

Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/2966907/melissa-boarts-parents-call-911-to-thwart-troubled-daughters-suicide-attempt-but-cops-end-up-putting-a-bullet-in-her/#K2daRHfxYHcrTJHt.99

Merle Haggard has a lot to say about President Obama and about those who would mercilessly work to tear him down.

A Merle Haggard quote has been circulating social media over the first part of March 2015, almost as if it appeared in response to the incredible disrespect shown to President Obama by Republicans in Congress and foreign leader, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The quote is from a 2010 Rolling Stone interview. Patrick Doyle spoke with music legend Merle Haggard, who was attending the 33rd Kennedy Center Honors. Haggard was invited to the White House to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Doyle asked Merle Haggard about President Obama, and the traditional ‘stone-country’ singer-songwriter said he enjoyed meeting Obama and found the President to be quite different from what he had seen in the media. That’s when Haggard interestingly added:



Doyle asked, ‘What’s the biggest lie out there about Obama?’



http://samuel-warde.com/2015/03/merle-haggard-on-obama/