Columnist wonders if 'outside forces' have 'conspired' to put more black people in poverty

Cynthia Tucker, a blogger for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has a column for CNN.com headlined "Ben Carson, admirable man with a mistaken philosophy." In it, she argues that Dr. Ben Carson, the new conservative darling who is black, is out of touch with African American voters at large.

Tucker also says the success Carson has achieved is the exception among black people, not the rule...

From her column, emphasis added:

Carson eventually got into Yale and became, at 33, the youngest person to head a department at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He is famous for separating conjoined twins.

That's a compelling and powerful tale. But it differs from those of other hardworking black people I know only in the degree of success that Carson attained as a result, not in the measures of ambition, industriousness, discipline and self-respect his mother instilled in her children.

Yet black Americans know better than to believe those traits are enough to guarantee success. History taught us better. Just look back over the last decade and a half. In 2000, according to the U.S. census, less than a quarter of black Americans -- 22.5% -- lived in poverty. By 2010, that number had risen to 27.4%. Was there a sudden outbreak of indolence among black folk over that period? Or were there outside forces that conspired to knock them back down the economic ladder?

Tucker offers no explanation in her column as to what "outside forces" she's alluding. Presumably not President Obama.

@eScarry