Four decades have passed since the March on Washington and we still have not overcome.

A Feb. 25 article in the Northwestern Chronicle, “Black people drive me nuts,” claimed that black people are solely to blame for their problems and should stop blaming “the white man.”

True, no one can blame others for all their problems. People need drive and ambition to succeed. But that’s no excuse to neglect glaring social problems. America has made great strides, but the job is not done. Indeed, because we have progressed, society has grown complacent and loath to reform.

But facts are facts. According to the Census Bureau, the average black family’s income is only 62 percent of the average white family’s; nearly twice as many white people have bachelor’s degrees.

The article exposes a chilling fact about race relations today. Too often people overlook the socioeconomic conditions that make pulling oneself up by the bootstraps nearly impossible. The article cites Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama as an example proving that because a handful of black people have succeeded, we can all go home.

This provincial attitude underscores why some sort of diversity requirement needs to remain in place for every freshman class. Only dialogue can disprove the article’s many errors and oversights.

The community does not need a vitriolic reaction against the writer herself. The Daily has received many rancorous letters to the editor, which we decided not to publish. We share the outrage at the article’s claims, but extreme responses do nothing to build understanding. The staged hate crimes of Jamie “Xander” Saide should remind everyone that over-the-top responses to racial injustice end up doing more harm than good.