“The Riot Report,” the latest entry in PBS’s historical documentary series American Experience, regrets the lack of influence of the radical 1967 government-issued report on race relations, widely known as the Kerner Commission Report. The report’s infamous concluding statement encapsulated liberal pessimism on race, and that the billions of dollars spilled out for anti-poverty programs wasn’t nearly enough: “This is our basic conclusion. Our nation is moving toward two societies. One black, one white. Separate and unequal.”
The two-hour PBS program was larded with left-wing voices like Elizabeth Hinton of Yale University, and Jelani Cobb, dean of Columbia Journalism School. Before the main course, a small sample platter was another cold serving of misguided Nixon-bashing.
Hinton came out against preventive policing designed to keep crimes from…
