It is hard for this old civil
rights attorney to be called a “racist,” but some recent comments
of mine on minority under-performance kicked up a firestorm of
criticism. This hurt, but there are important issues involved, and
America needs to talk frankly about its problems. It is unfortunate
that political correctness, a liberal orthodoxy, prevents us from
openly discussing what’s important.
Partly out of the
fear of offending Hispanics, for example, the environmental
community has avoided tackling the issue of immigration. The Census
Bureau projects, under current immigration rates, a billion
Americans by the end of this century. I suggest that there is no
happy scenario for America’s environment without addressing the
mass immigration that is now the chief cause of America’s
population growth. Ironically, polls show a majority of Hispanics
oppose illegal immigration, so this timidity is unnecessary.
A similar issue on which political correctness retards
debate is minority under-performance. The growing percentage that
African-Americans and Hispanics make up of our population demands
that this discussion not be put off. America is not producing the
skills, talents and educational achievement in its young people to
keep us competitive in a global world. Meanwhile, we are fast
growing a Hispanic underclass, not having fully solved the problems
of the first underclass.
Let me suggest, respectfully and
sympathetically, that much of the future progress of
African-Americans and Hispanics lies within their own efforts and
control. We must unblinkingly look at the total problem of why we
are losing so many of these kids. As controversial as it is, that
includes looking at the emerging issue of culture, defined by
scholars as the combination of values, attitudes, beliefs and
assumptions prevalent in a society or a subgroup of that society.
Just as individual traits partly determine the success of an
individual, so also do the collective traits of a country or
subgroup partly determine the success of that group. All cultures
are entitled to understanding and respect, but all cultures do not
produce equal results. Culture is the opposite of race, for it
looks at all the non-genetic reasons that people act as they do.
It is easier to talk about culture when we define
characteristics that lead to over-achievement. The highest family
incomes in America are all minorities who have been discriminated
against. Japanese-Americans, Jews, Chinese-Americans and
Korean-Americans all out-earn white Americans. None of these groups
had it easy here, and all faced discrimination and racism.
Discrimination and racism are social cancers and can never be
justified, but it is enlightening that, for these groups, they were
a hurdle but not a barrier to success.
The Italians, the
Irish, the people from the Balkans — America has viewed all
these groups and many more with hostility and suspicion — yet
all have integrated and succeeded. Hispanic organizations excuse
their failure rates solely in terms of discrimination by white
America, and they objected vociferously when former Education
Secretary Lauro Cavazos (himself a Hispanic) observed that Hispanic
parents “don’t take enough interest in education.” But
Cuban-Americans have come to America and succeeded brilliantly. Do
we discriminate against Hispanics from Mexico but not Hispanics
from Cuba?
Most of our Spanish-speaking immigrants come
from failing countries and failing economies. With the possible
exception of Chile, there is not an economically sound nor socially
mobile country south of our border. Spain and Portugal failed to
leave successful institutions or cultures in their colonialist
wake, and the “cultural capital” of these societies has not
produced successful countries. It is not surprising that immigrants
from these places bring some of those negative cultural traits with
them.
Elsewhere in the world, a dialogue has begun that
goes beyond blaming others. Yet in our own country, white America
is often intimidated from voicing an opinion on the subject of
minority underperformance. At some point in our recent past, this
reluctance made white Americans co-dependants to minority failure.
There is a “soft racism of lowered expectations,” where majority
Americans have too often have come to excuse and even to expect
lower performance from minority America.
Racism was a
valid excuse in my youth, because no matter their talents,
minorities were discriminated against and excluded from
participating in American society. But the vestiges of racism left
in our society are now more of a hurdle than a barrier. Today, the
emphasis on “minorities as victims” is self-defeating. It allows
minorities themselves to excuse low performance even when
discrimination is not the cause. We must now broaden the dialogue,
because the unmentionable has become unavoidable.
Richard
D. Lamm is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of
High Country News (hcn.org). He is a public
policy professor at the University of Denver and a former
Democratic governor of Colorado.
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