A study released within the last few weeks by the National Center for Health Statistics, a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reports the sad and grim data that blacks are indeed far more sexually promiscuous than whites.

According to the findings, blacks are twice as likely to have sex before the age of 15 as whites and half as likely to have abstained from sex before age 21.

Almost half of black males report having had more than 15 female sexual partners over their lifetimes compared to about a quarter of white males. And 37 percent of black males reported having more than two partners in the previous year, compared to 14 percent of white males.

Among black females, 13 percent reported more than 15 male partners over their lives, compared to 10 percent of white females, and 19 percent reported having had more than two partners in the previous year compared to 9 percent of white females.

The damage caused by irresponsible sexual behavior goes beyond the pain and suffering of sexually transmitted diseases. It touches every aspect of the quality of one's life. Single-parent homes are the homes most likely to be poor. Poverty, and the host of problems associated with it, is also disproportionate in the black community, as is the incidence of HIV/AIDS.

It is most reasonable to trace the preponderance of problems that are tearing up black life in our inner cities today to irresponsible sexual behavior.

I am sure Clinton, and her fellow Democrats, can come up with an explanation as to why racism drives a black man to have 10, 20 or 30 sexual partners, and to abandon the children that he fathers. But this is itself racism, because it dismisses that blacks can take control of their own lives.

But blacks can take control of their own lives. We have many successful blacks in our country today who demonstrate this fact. But to do so in our troubled neighborhoods takes promoting an agenda that, unfortunately, is quite apart from what our Democratic line-up has interest in.

In general, it is to understand that we need to get traditional values communicated to young blacks. In particular, to appreciate that the most effective way to do this today is vouchers and school-choice opportunities to allow these kids the option to attend church schools.