Intellectuals and Race

Sir... Gold dammet... How can you compare lower class British Whites with lower class American Blacks, and see no points in common between them... If they do not have the resentment of a people who have been exploited, sometimes to the edge of death, and beyond, who have been sold a bill of goods and know it, who have been robbed of their birthrights by being born in a hole they will never dig themselves out of, then they are nothing like our black people... It is said that Moses marched his Hebrews through the desert for forty years to get the stink and memory of slavery off of them... How many besides the blacks came to America to trade one form of servitude for another, never having risked all to have freedom and never having seen its shining gleam but in imagination??? How many people come here looking at all of us as a captive nation to exploit because what our laws do not forbid they encourage??? Look at some of your Old Testament prophets looking back to Israels days in the wilderness where men were free, and lived by their own minds and merits with the help of God and the consent of nature, without ever turning the lash upon their fellow man... People are done when they begin to exploit each other and give up on conquest and exploitation of the world... I am not saying the exploitation of humanity is one part worse than the exploitation of ones nation; but the one is moral and the other is not, and that they are each part and parcel of the same motive common to crimminals everywhere, to live off the work of others...Eventually, when the price of colonialism becomes too dear, societies end their days in deciding who will use who, who will be cast into bondage, and who is too powerful to resist... We have many, like yourself, made and ready for the yoke... Servility is your passion, and freedom is your fear... My dogs are not good dogs, and I tell them so... Compared to you they are great human beings, loyal, honest, consoling, and kind...Poverty teaches the same inhumanity that wealth teaches, but in addition, wealth teaches people to hide their animality, their brute disregard for morality behind a veneer of civility... The poor and the rich are equally destructive of the morality that makes all communities, and it is wrong to consider that the rich are more free only because they have more freedom... Since they can conceive of themselves in no other sense than what they are they are slaves to the slavery they promote... If htey could imagine a world where they lived by their own labor and their own knowledge and their own ingenuity; and they could achieve it as imagined they would be free...If you make the rich poor, or the poor rich as some times happens you cannot so change their moral character... If you put a begger in the saddle they will ride the horse to death... Having been ridden in like fashion they know nothing else, and it used to be that the rich would care better for their horses than for their men, as now they care better for their cars...Look at how the Duke of Wellington talked of the men who made him...If he were correct would that be strange; but all he needed was to include his own failed humanity in his assessment to grasp the whole immorality of exploitive societies everywhere...The greatest good to come out of any people such as the Greeks or the Romans, out of their law or philosophy is always limited by the lower condition of the lowest forms of life that carry society, and yet drag it down... And what defense against attack are slaves and poor people??? You can have a pile of gold sitting like a pimple on the cancer of a failed society and it is no more than a lure to those barbarians who would push it into its grave...Do you think they will value the finer points of our culture when it could not make us moral, and when immorality makes us weak???

We—Whites, Hispanics, Asians, Blacks—do to ourselves what we don't want others to do to us: Ostracize or even segregate ourselves!

I recall my high school days when at lunch the rich kids sat in one area, the athletes in another, and the academics and geniuses in their own worlds. I also remember when a college professor was discussing civil rights in America and she so eloquently spoke of how the older black movement was supplanted with Black Power. The demand was for black identity, not universal rights. Not rights but power counted: It insisted on respect for blacks as blacks, not as human beings.

As a young “professional,” I recall my mental gyrations when I was asked to give a talk at a Hispanic Medical Association meeting and I asked: “Is there a Hispanic way of removing a gallbladder? Yet, at the other end of the continuum, I thought to myself would I be “ostracizing” myself if I accepted the Gold Medal Award by the AMA.

Regarding so-called intellectuals and race—Hispanics in particular--the most widely held and prevalent view of Hispanics shared by many outside the Hispanic community (as well as many Hispanic leaders, ironically) is that Hispanics have little hope of making it in America. The trouble with this perception is that it is wrong. The success of Hispanics in the United States has been tremendous on many fronts and many levels. Even though Hispanics represent an emerging and economically volatile mid-class that is a valuable addition to America's economy and culture, their story has been largely and effectively suppressed by self-serving groups whose only interest seems to be in spreading the notion that Latinos cannot make it in America's society.

Hispanics have more in common with America than differences. For example, they're working hard to fulfill the American dream, as evidenced by greater educational, economic and social mobility. Hispanics are building solid mid-class lives that include two-parent households, with a male head who works full-time and earns a wage commensurate with his education, training, or experience. As educational levels rise, their earnings no longer reflect wide disparities with those of non-Hispanics, and their occupational distribution is coming to more closely resemble that of the general population.

Unfortunately diversity studies report on the Hispanic poor, who although they only constitute 10 to 20 percent of the overall Hispanic population are visible in areas where surveys and studies are performed.

Thus, poor Hispanics are the ones most likely and usually studied, analyzed and reported on, and almost certainly the ones most likely to be read or heard about. Proof of this is Harvard's 1996 computer search of stories about Hispanics in major newspapers and magazines over a twelve-month period. This search study turned up more than 1800 stories in which the words Hispanic or Latino occurred in close connection with the word “poverty.” Is there any wonder why, in most people's minds, the expression "poor Hispanic" is almost redundant?

Hispanics attribute their success and accomplishments to hard work and diligence, while their emotional fulfillment comes from their appreciation for opportunity and their gratitude to America. They have tended to establish enclave economies, in the traditional immigrant mode, opening restaurants, stores and other йmigrй oriented services. And the second and third generations of these groups have even formed banks, hospitals, and educational establishments. These ventures have provided thousands of new jobs and high living standards.

Often progress among Hispanics is seen by the public as slow, and politicized by Hispanic leaders as a legitimate claim to consider them a more or less “permanently disadvantaged” group. Their "proof" is that statistical measures of Hispanic achievement in education, earnings, poverty rates, and other social and economic indicators have remained largely unchanged for decades. "If Mexicans had made progress, it would show up in these areas," so the argument goes. "Since it doesn't, progress has been stalled"...according to this idea of proof.

In the post civil rights era, it is also assumed that the failure of a minority to close the social and economic gap with whites is the result of persistent discrimination. This contention measures, perceives, and reports progress not in absolute but in relative terms. The poor may become less poor over time, but that progress doesn't matter because there are others on the upper rungs of the economic ladder climbing faster and higher; the poor are believed to have suffered some harm, even if they have made absolute gains and their lives are much improved. However, while these comparisons may be true, in order for minorities on the lower rungs to close the gap, they would have to progress at an even greater rate than whites.

Is this a fair way to judge minority progress? No! It makes no sense to apply this test today (if it ever did) because the Hispanic population itself is changing so rapidly. Increasingly, the Hispanic population is made up of new immigrants, who like immigrants of every era, start off at the bottom of the economic ladder. This infusion of new immigrants is bound to distort the image of Hispanic progress, if each time we measure the group we include people who have just arrived and have yet to make their way in America's society.

In 1980, there were approximately 14.6 million Hispanics living in urban and rural areas throughout the United States; today there are more than 30 million. Not surprisingly, when newly immigrated Hispanics--most often poorly educated with minimal or no ability to speak English--are added to the pool being measured, the achievement level of the whole group falls...the old bell-curve trick. Yet, no major study group or survey agency will acknowledge the validity of the ever-changing immigration demographic as a reasonable assumption. Instead, statistical reporting agencies project inaccurate illiteracy levels, and Hispanic politicians will complain, "Hispanics are the segment of the population that have benefited least from America's economy."

In fact, a careful, diligent and complete examination of the voluminous data compiled over the last 50 years through 2009 shows Hispanics have made significant gains. In short, Hispanics are pursuing the American Dream with consistently increasing success.

Yet, the so-called intellectuals of “our own race” keep doing to us what we don't anyone else to do to us!

We—Whites, Hispanics, Asians, Blacks—do to ourselves what we don't want others to do to us: Ostracize or even segregate ourselves!

I recall my high school days when at lunch the rich kids sat in one area, the athletes in another, and the academics and geniuses in their own worlds. I also remember when a college professor was discussing civil rights in America and she so eloquently spoke of how the older black movement was supplanted with Black Power. The demand was for black identity, not universal rights. Not rights but power counted: It insisted on respect for blacks as blacks, not as human beings.

As a young “professional,” I recall my mental gyrations when I was asked to give a talk at a Hispanic Medical Association meeting and I asked: “Is there a Hispanic way of removing a gallbladder? Yet, at the other end of the continuum, I thought to myself would I be “ostracizing” myself if I accepted the Gold Medal Award by the AMA.

Regarding so-called intellectuals and race—Hispanics in particular--the most widely held and prevalent view of Hispanics shared by many outside the Hispanic community (as well as many Hispanic leaders, ironically) is that Hispanics have little hope of making it in America. The trouble with this perception is that it is wrong. The success of Hispanics in the United States has been tremendous on many fronts and many levels. Even though Hispanics represent an emerging and economically volatile mid-class that is a valuable addition to America's economy and culture, their story has been largely and effectively suppressed by self-serving groups whose only interest seems to be in spreading the notion that Latinos cannot make it in America's society.

Hispanics have more in common with America than differences. For example, they're working hard to fulfill the American dream, as evidenced by greater educational, economic and social mobility. Hispanics are building solid mid-class lives that include two-parent households, with a male head who works full-time and earns a wage commensurate with his education, training, or experience. As educational levels rise, their earnings no longer reflect wide disparities with those of non-Hispanics, and their occupational distribution is coming to more closely resemble that of the general population.

Unfortunately diversity studies report on the Hispanic poor, who although they only constitute 10 to 20 percent of the overall Hispanic population are visible in areas where surveys and studies are performed.

Thus, poor Hispanics are the ones most likely and usually studied, analyzed and reported on, and almost certainly the ones most likely to be read or heard about. Proof of this is Harvard's 1996 computer search of stories about Hispanics in major newspapers and magazines over a twelve-month period. This search study turned up more than 1800 stories in which the words Hispanic or Latino occurred in close connection with the word “poverty.” Is there any wonder why, in most people's minds, the expression "poor Hispanic" is almost redundant?

Hispanics attribute their success and accomplishments to hard work and diligence, while their emotional fulfillment comes from their appreciation for opportunity and their gratitude to America. They have tended to establish enclave economies, in the traditional immigrant mode, opening restaurants, stores and other йmigrй oriented services. And the second and third generations of these groups have even formed banks, hospitals, and educational establishments. These ventures have provided thousands of new jobs and high living standards.

Often progress among Hispanics is seen by the public as slow, and politicized by Hispanic leaders as a legitimate claim to consider them a more or less “permanently disadvantaged” group. Their "proof" is that statistical measures of Hispanic achievement in education, earnings, poverty rates, and other social and economic indicators have remained largely unchanged for decades. "If Mexicans had made progress, it would show up in these areas," so the argument goes. "Since it doesn't, progress has been stalled"...according to this idea of proof.

In the post civil rights era, it is also assumed that the failure of a minority to close the social and economic gap with whites is the result of persistent discrimination. This contention measures, perceives, and reports progress not in absolute but in relative terms. The poor may become less poor over time, but that progress doesn't matter because there are others on the upper rungs of the economic ladder climbing faster and higher; the poor are believed to have suffered some harm, even if they have made absolute gains and their lives are much improved. However, while these comparisons may be true, in order for minorities on the lower rungs to close the gap, they would have to progress at an even greater rate than whites.

Is this a fair way to judge minority progress? No! It makes no sense to apply this test today (if it ever did) because the Hispanic population itself is changing so rapidly. Increasingly, the Hispanic population is made up of new immigrants, who like immigrants of every era, start off at the bottom of the economic ladder. This infusion of new immigrants is bound to distort the image of Hispanic progress, if each time we measure the group we include people who have just arrived and have yet to make their way in America's society.

In 1980, there were approximately 14.6 million Hispanics living in urban and rural areas throughout the United States; today there are more than 30 million. Not surprisingly, when newly immigrated Hispanics--most often poorly educated with minimal or no ability to speak English--are added to the pool being measured, the achievement level of the whole group falls...the old bell-curve trick. Yet, no major study group or survey agency will acknowledge the validity of the ever-changing immigration demographic as a reasonable assumption. Instead, statistical reporting agencies project inaccurate illiteracy levels, and Hispanic politicians will complain, "Hispanics are the segment of the population that have benefited least from America's economy."

In fact, a careful, diligent and complete examination of the voluminous data compiled over the last 50 years through 2009 shows Hispanics have made significant gains. In short, Hispanics are pursuing the American Dream with consistently increasing success.

Yet, the so-called intellectuals of “our own race” keep doing to us what we don't anyone else to do to us!

As a faithful reader of your A Minority View column, there have been numerous times I have wanted to write words of encouragement to your logical voice crying in the wilderness of multicultural mind wash. Your recent "Intellectuals and Race" brought me to this page to urge you to continue endorsing the logic and values of what I fear is rapidly becoming a by-gone era in America.
In "Are Guns the Problem" you said it beautifully . . . and correctly: "Customs, traditions, moral values and rules of etiquette, not laws and government regulations, are what make for a civilized society. These behavioral norms---transmitted by example, word of mouth and religious teachings---represent a body of wisdom distilled through ages of experience trial and error, and looking at what works. . . . .instead of a return to what worked, people want to replace what worked with what sounds good. . . ." And so it goes.
Continue to stick to your guns . . . tell it like it is. Surely there are other professors, reporters, leaders , etc, who will stand up for what is right and honest. . . .because that does not change. God bless your voice to the people.

Martinez and Sweeney -- ever hear of "economy of words?" Your prose is so dense and impenetrable that I doubt if many bother to read your treatises -- I sure don't. Why not follow Prof Williams's example and cut to the chase without a lot of circular BS?