"Some people will read these facts and feel as if they’re under attack. They’ll rack their brains for evidence of black struggles or handwave these examples of progress away as trivial. They’ll react as if allowing even a moment of positivity is a betrayal."

This reply is too long to engage with individual points, and seems to be addressed to somebody other than me anyway. So I'll simply repeat what I said in the article. Both the above quote, and the fact that we can acknowledge progress without pretending racism no longer exists.

At 61, you were born before the Civil Rights Act, before the Fair Housing Act, before the Voting Rights Act. You've seen racial oppression on a scale I can barely imagine. I'm not trying to deny or minimise that. But the reason I can't imagine it is that things have changed dramatically in the past 61 years. This isn't a claim that things are now perfect. But it is, at least in my opinion, a cause for optimism and even celebration.

You can't keep good people down. And we are good people. But good people can keep themselves down if they give themselves over to cynicism.