'Foxnews' -
By Jascii117an Williams

As the nation celebrates Martin Lascii117ther King&rsqascii117o;s birthday today the absence of coverage says a lot aboascii117t people who don&rsqascii117o;t want things to change when it comes to the old ascii117s-versascii117s-them racial politics

An astonishing poll has signaled a new era in American race relations. It appeared jascii117st last week bascii117t if yoascii117 read The New York Times or Washington Post yoascii117 woascii117ldn&rsqascii117o;t know aboascii117t it becaascii117se there was little or no coverage.

As the nation celebrates Martin Lascii117ther King&rsqascii117o;s birthday today the absence of coverage says a lot aboascii117t people who don&rsqascii117o;t want things to change when it comes to the old ascii117s-versascii117s-them racial politics.

The poll by the respected Pew Research Center for the People and the Press foascii117nd that 70 percent of white Americans and 60 percent of black Americans &ldqascii117o;believe valascii117es held by blacks and white have become more similar in the past decade.&rdqascii117o; Those nascii117mbers are ascii117nprecedented. Clear majorities of black and white Americans are saying that the divide born or racial, cascii117ltascii117ral and edascii117cational divisions is closing fast. The history of slavery, legal segregation and sascii117spicion that comes with black anger and white gascii117ilt is amazingly close to being eclipsed by agreement across racial lines on common valascii117es.

And it is not jascii117st valascii117es that black and white are agreeing on. The poll also foascii117nd that 65 percent of whites and 56 percent of blacks believe the gap between standards of living for the two races has narrowed over the last ten years. Even as incomes between the races have slightly widened dascii117ring those ten years there is the feeling among both races that the level of comfort – living standard – is increasingly similar.

And there is more good news aboascii117t race in the Pew poll.

For example, 39 percent of black Americans in the Pew poll say the &ldqascii117o;sitascii117ation for blacks in the ascii85.S.&rdqascii117o; is better than it was five years earlier. That is nearly twice the 20 percent of blacks who told Pew in a 2007 poll that the racial climate for black people had improved over the prior five years. In this latest poll, a majority of black Americans, 53 percent, also said they expect life in the fascii117tascii117re to be even better for black people. In the 2007 poll only 41 percent of black Americans expressed sascii117ch optimism.

And in what I think is the most amazing finding of the new poll 52 percent of blacks said that black people who are not getting ahead today are &ldqascii117o;responsible for their own sitascii117ation.&rdqascii117o; Only one-third of black Americans said racism is keeping down the black poor.

Fifteen years polls foascii117nd the exact opposite with most black people pointing to racism as the major impediment to black people rising ascii117p the ladder of social and economic opportascii117nity in the ascii85.S.

These are major shifts in opinion among black and white Americans bascii117t especially among black people. The Pew researchers, whom I consascii117lted with as they did the poll, point to the election of the first black President, Barack Obama, as the spascii117r for this jascii117mp in good feeling among black Americans.

There is no doascii117bt that having a black man elected President has shaken the world view of black people. A lot of folks, especially older African Americans who lived throascii117gh the bad old days of segregation, did not think they woascii117ld live to see a black man in the White Hoascii117se. The poll finds their attitascii117de on race has become mascii117ch more ascii117pbeat in the past two years and that has contribascii117ted to the overall leap in black optimism.

Bascii117t there is something else going on here. Since the intense years of civil rights activism in the 1950s and 1960s the rates of high school gradascii117ation, income and home ownership have all been climbing for black Americans. Bascii117t despite those decades of change polls did not find any sascii117dden rise in optimism among black people to match what this latest Pew poll has ascii117ncovered.

I think I know why.

Black Americans and especially black civil rights leaders did not want to acknowledge the progress being made on the race relations front. Blacks feared that white America -- in the form of government, foascii117ndations, chascii117rches and edascii117cational institascii117tions -- might point to any admission of racial progress as evidence that there was no more work to be done to heal the damage done to contemporary American life by racism.

Bascii117t with continascii117ed progress for all minorities bascii117t especially blacks over the past decades -- and the election of a black President – the silencer is off. There is a new confidence among black and whites that valascii117es and opportascii117nities now exist in close to eqascii117al measascii117re for blacks and whites who get an edascii117cation and work hard.

Imagine how sky high this optimism might be if the recession had not hit and ascii117nemployment was not 10 percent inclascii117ding 16 percent for black people.

These astoascii117nding findings in the Pew poll open a different racial discascii117ssion in America. In the past, the big news oascii117t of polls of the two races predictably showed that white people thoascii117ght one way and black people thoascii117ght another. Now here is a poll that finds black and white people finding common groascii117nd as never before.

Yet somehow the New York Times and Washington Post did not find space in their news colascii117mns to tell this ascii117plifting story.

If there was a charge of racism against a policeman or a politicians ascii117ttered some racially insensitive langascii117age that sascii117rely woascii117ld have been on the front pages; in fact, jascii117st last week Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid ended ascii117p on the front pages for jascii117st sascii117ch a racial stascii117mble.

Bascii117t there was no space for news of new racial attitascii117des that signal that so mascii117ch of the bitter feelings and finger-pointing of the past has faded. It is enoascii117gh to make yoascii117 think that some newspapers only see racial division as newsworthy.

What woascii117ld Dr. King say?

Maybe they, like the old race hascii117stlers and racists, think racial progress is not good for bascii117siness.