The success of Barack Obama's presidential campaign has been described as a "watershed moment" in American history. The fact that a black man could win an election in one of America's whitest states supposedly means that we have taken a huge step forward in our nation's racial history.

But lost in the jubilation is one inconvenient fact: Racial separation is almost as pervasive today as it was over 40 years ago.

Consider the following:

* A statewide survey of California students found that a majority of whites, Hispanics, blacks and Asians agreed with the statement that "people are happier when segregated."

* A Harvard study of 2000 Census data found that only 1 percent of whites and 5 percent of blacks marry outside their race.

* Nearly 95 percent of American churches (including Obama's church) have congregations that are at least 80 percent one race or ethnic group.

* Verizon Communications has begun offering segregated telephone directories. In 2004, it debuted its first listing for minority-owned businesses.

* In the South, the number of blacks attending majority-white schools went from 43 percent in 1988 to less than 30 percent in 2001.

* In Michigan, close to 75 percent of black students attend schools that are at least 80 percent black.

* Taylor County High School in Butler, Ga., broke with a 31-year tradition in 2002 and tried an integrated prom. In 2003, the school switched back to separate proms.

* Many local chapters of the NAACP, which helped lead the fight for integration, are now 100 percent black.

When asked point-blank, ordinary Americans do not show much reverence for integration. When the NAACP and Hamilton College commissioned a poll of "Generation X" opinions on race, they found that about half of 18- to 29-year-olds agreed with the statement that "it's OK if the races are basically separate from one another as long as everyone has equal opportunity."

Harry Edwards, a black sociology professor at University of California at Berkeley, put the case as bluntly as anyone. Integration, he explained, "has not been approached or achieved because nobody wants it. Blacks have always wanted to associate with themselves." This sentiment is on the increase. Doris Wilkinson was the first black to enter the University of Kentucky after the 1954 Brown decision, but has lost faith in integration, which she calls an "absolute, abysmal failure." Now a sociologist at the University of Kentucky, she said she looks forward to neighborhood schools that reflect the racial patterns by which people live. "I hope we get those schools with all deliberate speed," she said, quoting the Brown ruling.

Leslie Innis, on the faculty at Florida A&M, was one of the first blacks to integrate New Orleans' Catholic schools, but now thinks the struggle was misguided. She believes that so long as it is voluntary, there is nothing wrong with segregation. "What I have young people telling me is the whole thing about a comfort zone," she said. "That they prefer to be around people they feel more comfortable with."

The failure of integration underlines just how far from realization is the dream that inspired the racial activists of the middle of the last century. There has been no official declaration of defeat, but integration -- not just the abolition of legal segregation but voluntary, widespread racial mixing -- remains rare.

Some Americans live in broadly diverse settings, but many more do not. Americans still assert that integration is an important national goal, but there is hardly any indignation over the fact there is virtually no progress toward that goal. If they think about it all, most Americans would probably say integration would be wonderful, but that if it does not come naturally it should not be forced.

Why are we not integrating in the way most experts thought we would in the 1960s? Civil rights laws cannot change deeply-rooted preferences. This is why every new generation baffles the social engineers by behaving remarkably like the previous generation. This is why the diversity campaigns that fill our schools, churches, legislatures and airwaves change only the outward forms of life. This is why black and white school children sit together at lunch only when there is assigned seating. This is why, although Americans conform to the requirements of law in those areas of life touched by law, the preferences that govern their private lives seem to make a mockery of the law.

Is segregation simply an unfortunate part of human nature? Is this why self-segregation persists, despite our best intentions? If this is so, even a President Obama, despite its powerful symbolism, is not likely to change the lives of most Americans.

Jared Taylor is president of the New Century Foundation. He is the author of several books on race relations including a forthcoming book on integration.

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