Read on Twitter
This stunning article by Lawrence Mead, an NYU professor, argues that Blacks and Hispanics, because they are not European, are “unprepared” for “individualist culture” in America. A few highlights: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12115-020-00496-1
More insights from Lawrence Mead about the differences between “the West” and “the non-West”
Even more wisdom from Lawrence Mead: “the West has simply chosen a more ambitious way of life than the non-West, where minorities originate”
According to Lawrence Mead, “the West” is simply more ambitious, confident, and enterprising than “the non-West”
Lawrence Mead’s coup de grace: “Today, the seriously poor are mostly blacks and Hispanics, and the main reason is cultural difference. The great fact is that these groups did not come from Europe... Their native stance toward life is much more passive than the American norm”
Lawrence Mead is not some marginal academic. He was an intellectual architect of welfare reform in the 1990s. And he advised Rudy Giuliani when he was NYC mayor. (Thanks @powellnyt for reminding me of this context)
Postscript: NYU’s politics department, where Lawrence Mead teaches, does not currently have any Black tenured or tenure-track professors https://as.nyu.edu/politics/allpeople.html
