On Feb 15, 2008, at 11:20 AM, Julio Huato wrote:
> Doug wrote:
>
>> There's just a 10% remnant:
>
> But sure, that remaining 10% is still uphill and full of dangers.
> There's still much to do. But we should pay homage to those who
> struggled before us, leading to the abolition of slavery and the
> recognition of civil rights, already a long part of the way.
> Approximately, like 89.99999999%, which we can safely round up to 90%.
>
> C'mon, it's a rhetorical figure. Not a claimed made in a
> scientific paper.
But Julio, it's crap. I happen to be reading E. Franklin Frazier's book on the black bourgeoisie now (and Charles is right, it's not in the Marxist sense - it's about the petty bourgeosie), and it's a reminder of just how poor and isolated black Americans were 50 or 75 years ago. There has really been a great deal of progress. But the gaps are still enormous. Black household incomes are still only about 60% of white incomes - up a few points from the early 1970s, but off a few from 2000. The wealth gap is much larger. There's been very little progress on the life expectancy at birth gap since 1960 - and the gap at age 65 has actually widened since then. So this 90% thing isn't even close.
Doug