The "marriage gap" between white and black plays a big part in this story. African-Americans are much less likely than their parents were (or than white adults are now) to be married. They are also more likely to have children outside of marriage than their parents were, or than white adults are today.
When 25 percent of children in a community are born outside of marriage (as among whites today) that's a serious problem. When almost 70 percent of children in a given community are born outside of marriage (as among African-Americans today) that's a tsunami blocking the intergenerational accumulation of human and social capital.
So far, the silence about the issue among our leaders is deafening. Hillary, Barack, Fred, Mitt, Rudy: Who will take up the challenge of reducing the marriage gap written so starkly in black and white? Who wants to rebuild the American Dream for all our children?