The discussion under Harlan Dalton's name is the most complete of the issues especially with respect to white supremacy in the wikipedia item.
Charles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Alger_myth http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2006/12/11/the_five_boxes_of_populist_eco/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Alger_myth#Max_B._Sawicky
Max B. Sawicky
Max B. Sawicky, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_Policy_Institute>who has worked in the Office of State and Local Finance of the U.S. Treasury Department <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Treasury_Department>and the US Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Advisory_Commission_on_Intergovernmental_Relations>, also refutes the Horatio Alger myth. In a column on the five leading concerns for populist economics, Sawicky wrote, “trade policy<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_policy>alone is woefully inadequate to significantly lightening the burdens of the working class…[Populism’s] point of departure is the domination of monied elites who jury rig <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_rig> commerce and call it free enterprise, who marginalize dissent and call it democracy. It rejects the Horatio Alger myth, with its false promise that if you study, work hard, and play by the rules, economic security will be yours.”[7]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Alger_myth#cite_note-6>
- Wealth inequality in the United States<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_the_United_States>
- Gini coefficient <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient>
- Income disparity <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_disparity>
- Economic mobility <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_mobility>
- Social mobility <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mobility>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Alger_myth#cite_note-6> [edit<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Horatio_Alger_myth&action=edit§ion=6> ] Harlan L. Dalton
Harlan L. Dalton <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_L._Dalton>, Professor of Law at Yale University <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_University>, not only objects to the Horatio Alger myth, but also maintains that it is socially destructive. Dalton explains that the Horatio Alger myth conveys three basic messages, “(1) each of us is judged solely on her or his own merits; (2) we each have a fair opportunity to develop those merits; and (3) Each of them is, to be charitable, problematic.[*clarification needed<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Please_clarify> *] The first message is a variant on the rugged individualism ethos…In this form, the Horatio Alger myth suggests that success in life has nothing to do with pedigree, race, class background, gender, national origin, sexual orientation—in short, with anything beyond our individual control. Those variables may exist, but they play no appreciable role in how our actions are appraised."[8]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Alger_myth#cite_note-Horatio_Alger-7>
Dalton also believes that the deep appeal of the Horatio Alger myth is that it allows and even pulls people in the direction they want to go. Psychologically, the Horatio Alger myth opens many doors. When the odds are stacked against you, one often has to convince himself that “there is a reason to get up in the morning.”[8]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Alger_myth#cite_note-Horatio_Alger-7>
Dalton also asserts that the myth serves to maintain the racial pecking order. It does so by mentally bypassing the role of race in American society, by fostering beliefs that themselves serve to trivialize, if not erase, the social meaning of race. The Alger myth encourages people to blink at the many barriers to racial equality (historical, structural, and institutional) that litter the social landscape” and believe that all it takes to be successful in America is initiative, persistence, hard work, and pluck.
According to Dalton, there is a fundamental tension between the realization of the American Dream <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Dream> based on the Alger myth and the harsh realities of a racial caste system. Obviously, the main point of such a system is to promote and maintain inequality. Conversely, the main point of the Alger myth “is to proclaim that everyone can rise above her station in life. Despite this tension, it is possible for the myth to coexist with social reality. Not surprisingly, then, there are lots of Black folk who subscribe to the Alger myth and at the same time understand it to be deeply false. They live with the dissonance between myth and reality because both are helpful and healthful in dealing with ‘the adverse events of life.’ Many Whites, however, have a strong interest in resolving the dissonance in favor of the myth. Far from needing to be on guard against racial ‘threat[s] or challenge[s],’ they would just as soon put the ugliness of racism out of mind. For them, the Horatio Alger myth provides them the opportunity to do just that.”[8]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Alger_myth#cite_note-Horatio_Alger-7>
The myth suggests we are judged solely on our individual merits, in turn implying that the caste has little practical meaning, apart from race-based advantages of disadvantages. Generally Whites are more successful than African Americans, as they are facilitated by their preferred social position, while African Americans believe that they can “simply lift themselves up by their own bootstraps”. It is in America's national interest, Dalton believes, to give the Horatio Alger myth a rest, because it is a mythology that assures us we can have it all, when in reality, “we live today in an era of diminished possibilities.”[8]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Alger_myth#cite_note-Horatio_Alger-7>
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