Racism or...?

The past couple of weeks we have talked a lot about racism in class. It is hard to say that racism is truly gone, but hardly anyone in class rbought up any other reasons as to why African Americans in this country seem to still be doing worse on average than European Americans.

What about the society, the household, one is brought up in? An anecdote is not really proof, but I'll tell you this story anyway. On the maternal side of my family, my mom was the first to get any education past high school. For as long as anyone of my relatives can trace back, that side of my family has never had much money or education, so where did my mom get the idea that an education is important? Her parents always highly valued it, holding great respect for those that were more educated than themselves.

Many African-American families are similar in that they lacked money and education as far back as the family can trace (and farther), but, to my knowledge, many of these families do not have the same feeling that an education is something the entire family should work to, should desire to have.

As I stated above, few people would say that racism is gone (and I am not one of those few), but I believe that the other factors should get their due. The nature vs. nuture debate is still raging, though no one will deny that nurture has some significant affect. I do not know what the relative weight of household upbringing is, but I do not doubt that it is large.

What other factors can you think of that may contribute to the current disparity between the different races?