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Why no African Americans "Most Likely to Succeed?"

In looking at the young people most likely to succeed, the question arose; why out of the whole City of Fresno, you could not find one African American most likely to succeed?

Patricia Davis


This question is not easy to answer. For a front-page story June 8 looking at area grads deemed "most likely to succeed" by their peers, we picked a sample of area high schools, looking for a mix of urban and rural from around our circulation area. None of them happened to have chosen students who are black.

There is considerable racial diversity in the group, but African Americans -- at less than 7% of the local population -- are, just as a matter of chance, less likely than some other ethnic groups to be included in such a small sample.

Should we have made a conscious effort to show racial diversity? The correct answer isn't obvious, but I would be uncomfortable with that. As a newspaper, our job is to reflect reality, not to dress it up.

Maybe a better answer would be to tally ALL the "likely to succeed" students in the area and choose example students in proportion to the ethnic mix of the whole group. If that effort is practical, we'll certainly consider it next year. Thanks for raising the point.

Answered by at 09:18 AM | Comments (0)

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Betsy Lumbye was named senior vice president and executive editor in 2006. After coming to Fresno as assistant managing editor in 1997, she was promoted to managing editor the following year. She was managing editor at The Herald in Rock Hill, S.C.; was metro editor at The Record in Stockton; was a reporter, assistant city editor and city editor at The Knoxville (Tenn.) Journal; and was a reporter at The Colorado Springs Sun. She graduated from the University of Virginia, where she majored in English and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society.

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