Is the US small business administration a racist institution?

Stephen and Abigail Thernstrom inform us that few whites are racist in present-day America: such people have become a tiny remnant with no influence in any important sphere of American life. Racism, instead, is more often manifested in government affirmative action efforts targeting minorities for preferential treatment. This study examines, in depth, one such affirmative action effort that operated as a federal government program from 1969 to 1995. The findings indicate that this program, in practice, consistently worked to set back minorities relative to white Americans. Do the Thernstroms live on the same planet that I do? Possible reasons for such profoundly differing perceptions of social reality are explored. U.S. society is presently engaged in a highly politicized struggle to define and redefine the meaning of racism. Minorities often emerge as the racists; whites are victims of racism. The struggle to define racism, however, is ongoing.