Actually, you are wrong on that.

I am retired, and my white children have established careers, that no amount of affirmative action or discrimination is likely to impact. My mixed Asian children, who are not "the majority" have already felt the discrimination attributed to being a "talented minority" much as some of their Jewish friends have.

My grandchildren are mostly black and most of them are growing up in a privileged home that most white children could only dream about. So, it is easy to see skin color is not the barrier people think. Colleges are already throwing money offers at my granddaughter in high school because she has a 4.0 GPA and is black, but why should being black matter and how is giving the black daughter of a wealthy family money going to help poor black children?

I am committed to America becoming a melting pot. I want our family model of mixed race where people identify as American rather than checking three boxes on a race question like my granddaughter to become the standard. Ideally, someday, the whole question goes away.

With my family spread across four racial groups, the idea of dividing our nation up into groups based on skin color seems so inconsistent with my beliefs. I align with MLK, Jr. Perhaps the greatest civil rights leader of my youth.

What I see among other people today reminds me of Malcolm X, who believed that race should be used to allocate power, income and wealth. Such a system would do its best to prevent that power from eroding through integration.

That is why, no matter how it might appear, racial division will produce racial violence as racial groups compete and dehumanize the other groups. I was assaulted for being white during the race riots of 1967. I did nothing wrong except walk home from school past a black neighborhood.

We will never get away from that as long as "identity" is tied to skin color, and we will never escape "identity" being tied to skin color if we keep tying identity to skin color.

You are correct, I do see the sins of the past as past, we can't change that... but we can change the present and the future by ending "racial discrimination" and not letting it creep into our decision making.

Now let's deal with truth and perhaps one reason, you and I disagree, and I don't mean that harshly. I think you look to the past and believe that some form of reparations be it money, preference, or some other form of compensation is called for. I don't.

The truth is that if you are born poor regardless of race you have a high chance of being poor when you grow up. And skin color has not turned out to alter that outcome.

If we want to change that outcome rather than focusing on skin color, then we have to find a way to reach each individual who is starting out behind and try to help them catch up.

The American workforce is shrinking and shrinking rapidly. We need to focus on preparing all young people for the future opportunities by making sure they have access to a good education.

But it goes beyond access and what I remain stumped over is best thought of as... you can lead someone to the door of opportunity, but you can't force them to go through the door.

I am increasingly seeing evidence that poverty is cultural, not racial. While it is true in the past systemic racism held blacks back, now that those barriers have been taken down, there are people who have become bound to poverty and simply can't walk through the door or help themselves or their children.

Simple example, my brother founded a charter school in Jersey City. 100% of the senior class graduated. 94% got accepted into college. 75% of graduates came from families living below the poverty line. The majority of these children are black. If we could achieve this kind of success across the whole poor population, I believe the relationship between poverty and skin color would be gone. But we can't...

Why? Simply said, my brother's school benefits from black parents who want their children to get a good education... if they want it, the school can provide it. But how do we get every parent to want it?

How did the Jews and Asians achieve what the blacks have not... the Asians who were brought over to work on farms and the railroad and the Jews who were fleeing genocide and arrived with nothing long after the blacks were freed.

According to Thomas Sowell both the Jewish and Chinese cultures demand a parent sacrifice whatever it takes to insure their child a good education and so in just over one generation they have surpassed "European" whites in income and wealth. I am fine with that... they earned it. One generation...

I know many individual blacks who owe their success to a parent or grandparent that did the same thing. It is not unique to Jews and Asians, but unlike many other cultures, it is expected behavior and not exceptional behavior.

If we stay focused on skin color, generation after generation of Americans will be competing for power based on skin color. Individuals win from such games, but societies always lose.