I've been thinking this through this whole debate. Yes, poverty is and always has been (and likely always will be) the most accurate predictor of future poverty. However consider this for a moment: Most blacks in America descended from slaves, and thus come from families that were almost certainly in the kind of extreme poverty most of us can't even begin to comprehend 4 to 6 generations ago. If coming from a poor family is a big indicator of your future success we should expect most blacks to be poor, which is why race and SES are tied together. Similar logic applies to Latinos (who, while not descended from slaves, usually trace their origins to extremely poor immigrants, and usually a lot closer than the slave ancestors of blacks).
Yes, being poor makes you more likely to be poor, but being a minority makes you more likely to have poverty closer to you in your family tree. -----Original Message----- From: Jerry Barnes [mailto:critic...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 2:25 PM To: cf-community Subject: Re: Oops! Did I say that on tape? Shirley Sherrod of the USDA Sticks Her Foot In Her Mouth. "The culture of poverty can be found anywhere. It certainly happens amongst whites, I grew up in the middle of it. But I think that you are deluding yourself if you don't think that there is a historic component to it and that historic component, in the US, is largely racial." I never said that race at some point in history was not a predictor of poverty. You are deluding yourself if you think I said that. I have said race is no longer a predictor of poverty; instead, poverty is the leading indicator of future poverty. J - Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest. - Mohandas Gandhi ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:323378 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
