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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 17, 1993                   TAG: 9301180351
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

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STUDENT POLL

AT BEST, race relations in America have improved little in recent years. They may well be worse. Either way, the subject is too important for drawing sloppy conclusions from a poll of 2,000 high-achieving high-school students.

Example: Three in five black students in the poll - released last week by Who's Who Among American High School Students - said they had experienced racial discrimination. Only 12 percent of white students acknowledged having made a member of another ethnic group uncomfortable. To Paul Krouse, Who's Who publisher, this is an "enormous discrepancy" showing "a need to sensitize people about what constitutes a discriminatory act."

Possibly. But not necessarily. To assume a discrepancy exists, let alone identify the reason for it, you must first assume that each student in the 12 percent of whites was acknowledging only one discriminatory act against only one member of a different ethnic group. Repeat offenses seem more likely.

This isn't to say misperceptions don't exist; they certainly do. Nor is this to say they shouldn't be corrected. But more worrisome than fine-tuning a definition of exactly what constitutes "a discriminatory act," and making sure everyone is "sensitized" to it, were the reported differences in economic background between the white and black students.

More than 25 percent of high-achieving black students reported annual family income under $20,000; only 8 percent of high-achieving white students did so. Some 41 percent of high-achieving white students reported annual family incomes of more than $45,000; only 17 percent of high-achieving black students did so.

Race relations in America might improve with sensitivity training; a surer way would be to reduce the gap between rich and poor, and provide a boost to poor and near-poor families.

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