Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Racism, Alive & Well In America


Via Altercation, go read the whole thing, we get:

Forty-five percent of black children whose parents were solidly middle class in 1968 -- a stratum with a median income of $55,600 in inflation-adjusted dollars -- grew up to be among the lowest fifth of the nation's earners, with a median family income of $23,100. Only 16 percent of whites experienced similar downward mobility. At the same time, 48 percent of black children whose parents were in an economic bracket with a median family income of $41,700 sank into the lowest income group."
....
This is true across the board, but it is at the bottom rung where the failure of the American system is most apparent. In the Nordic nations, for instance, three-quarters of those on welfare had moved up and out of the system by the time they reached their 40s, but barely more than half of their American counterparts had. As the editors of The Economist (subscription required) put it, "In other words, Nordic countries have almost completely snapped the link between the earnings of parents and children at and near the bottom. That is not at all true of America." In Britain, too, fully 70 percent of those enmeshed in the welfare system had moved out within a single generation, again -- a higher percentage than in America. The magazine points to the generous tax and welfare provisions for families as "the obvious explanation for greater mobility in the Nordic countries ... especially when compared with America's."
....
Author Andrew Hacker notes that in studies of black and white job-seekers with identical résumés who apply for publicly advertised jobs, we find incontrovertible evidence of "systemic discrimination that cannot be attributed to differences in skills between comparably educated blacks and whites."
....
All of these problems contribute to the horrible situation in which we find ourselves, in which black ghettos constitute a permanent underclass and breeding ground for social pathologies that are then exploited by the likes of Murray, Peretz, Sullivan, and Podhoretz, together with the Glenn Becks, the Imuses, the Rush Limbaughs, etc., to ensure that our society remains one where the poorest are the victims of the poor and near poor -- and vice versa, while the wealthy live behind gated communities, retaining all available privileges for themselves, all the while preaching the virtues of hard work and "playing by the rules."


I have never believed that racism is simply a way to excuse bad behavior, racism is a real thing, a real existential problem for the U.S. & we continue to ignore it at our peril. My emphasis.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Imus will be back on Dec 3. I am looking forward to Imus giving Al Sharpton an opportunity to atone for his racist comments.

I was recently in a small family owned resturant in Chippewa Falls where they had a sign that said "try our Ho-made pies". So I did. It was an apple pie and very near the best I have ever had. After paying the bill, I commented how good the pie was and asked which Ho made it. After a short pause they suspended the customer is always right rule and acted as if they didn't want my repeat business. Guess it doesn't pay to take everything literally

Anonymous said...

"The magazine points to the generous tax and welfare provisions for families as "the obvious explanation for greater mobility in the Nordic countries ... especially when compared with America's."

I don't understand how you cannot see that this ideology is the foundation of the problem. We continue to grow Government handouts and then complain that there are generations of people who are poor and then turn it around to be racially motivated and then hand them more benefits. I know a family where the dad is “disabled” and can not work (he has no visable signs of any physical problems that would keep him from working). The mom has some depression issues and cannot work. They have 2 children at home (17 & 16) so they get all sorts of “help” from the Government as well as no cost school lunches etc. Last week the dad came to pick up his boy from my house in a brand new 2008 Cadillac. Now how do you suppose he managed that? I will tell you. While he is collecting all of his deserved handouts, he works under the table. How is it that he can do a job under the table but is disabled enough to collect? This is not an isolated case. Look around and you will see many new cars, lots of designer cloths and lots of “bling” on the kids.

I have dated many black men, as well as whites and I have to tell you that the mind set amongst the black men, in my age category (30-40’s) is they are owed something. Not that they need to work towards something. This is also the mindset of my children’s generation amongst the black kids. They see it on Black Entertainment TV and MTV. They are seeing all of these young people get very rich, very fast and think it is owed them.

I also want to say it is not only black issue. There are many white kids from affluent families who also think they shouldn’t have to work for anything. It is their right to be successful.

I believe there is still some racial injustice just as there is inequality in pay levels of men and women for the same jobs. But you don't see women out there screaming and asking for compensation!

Just my 2 cents.

Anonymous said...

Interesting article. It's just one point of view though. There are many more reasons for this. Young blacks (men) don't want to go to work for "the man" THE WHITE man. According to some - we all know the uncle Tom metaphor. Lack of family values in the community and a work ethic will certainly keep you from moving forward.

Anonymous said...

Don't throw out those old asterisks, Barry might need them.

coldH2O said...

Prudence:
I believe you misinterpreted the quote from the piece - it is BECAUSE OF the generous tax & welfare benefits that poor people were able to MOVE UP the economic scale in the Nordic countries. It is true that an ideology of compassion & care improves the social standing of all people. It is America that we don't value human beings very well, i.e., everybody is supposed to out for number one & then pull themselves up by the bootstraps.

As far as Barry Bonds is concerned - who cares, every player with glasses or contact lenses, sun glasses, caps, helmets gloves uses these performance enhancing technologies to ENHANCE THEIR PERFORMANCE, so they ought to asterisked as well.

Anonymous said...

Using steroids to gain 40 pounds of muscle so you can set the all time home run record is not the same as using viagra to make a porn movie. Is nothing sacred.

coldH2O said...

Steroids DO NOT IMPROVE the ability to see the ball or the ability to hit the ball or pitch the ball. They do allow for weight gain & a quicker recovery from injuries. I still say that baseball players should not be allowed to use any technology, including jock straps, if they are going to continue to harass Barry Bonds. A performance enhancer, is a performance enhancer, no matter what the enhancer enhances. Yeah, that's my story & I'm sticking with it.