DEMOCRATS

Barone attempts to exhume the discounted culture-of-poverty argument, intimating that some dysfunction among African-Americans prevents them from pulling themselves up by the bootstraps as Latino and Asian immigrants have done. His analysis is doubly flawed. First, Latinos have not “moved up,” as he asserts. In fact, 23.4% of Latino families are still poverty stricken. Second, the relative Asian-American prosperity results from higher educational and occupational levels among many Asian immigrants--not to mention that most came seeking economic opportunity, not as slaves forbidden to be educated.

If the Democrats are to recover, let’s hope they do so with a more astute continuation of their egalitarian vision, not by climbing on the backs of the most convenient scapegoats.

JANE M. SIMONI

PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT

KARINA L. WALTERS

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WELFARE

UCLA