Headline, September 13 2021/ ''' THE - '' AMERICAN-DREAM ''- TAP '''

''' THE - '' AMERICAN-

DREAM ''- TAP '''

A STUDY BY SCHOLARS FROM Princeton, Stanford and the University of California at Davis found that today's children of immigrants are no slower to move up to the middle-class than the children of immigrants 100 years ago.

It almost doesn't matter whether their parents came from countries from which immigrants are mainly fleeing misery and poverty, or from countries from which immigrants often arrive with marketable skills, children of poor immigrants have higher rates of upward mobility than the children of native born.

This economic success obviously does not mean immigrant groups do not face hardship, bias and exploitation. Almost every immigrant group in American history has faced that.

It just means that education and mobility can help overcome some of the effects of this bias. According to that same study, immigrant groups are largely doing well because they come to places where opportunity is plentiful. They are not so much earning more than those around them, but earning more along with those around them.

Economic progress is one thing. What about cultural integration? One question lingers amid all the debates about critical race theory :

How racist is the United States?

Any body with eyes to see and ears to hear knows about the oppression of the Native Americans, about slavery and Jim Crow.

But does that mean that America is even now a white supremacist nation, that whiteness is a cancer that leads to oppression for other for other groups? Or is racism mostly a part of the American past, something we've largely overcome?

There are many ways to answer these questions. The most important is by having honest conversation with the people directly affected.

But another is by asking : How high are the barriers to opportunity for different groups? Do different groups have a fair shot at the American dream? This approach isn't perfect, but at least points us to empirical data rather than just theory and supposition.

When we apply this lens to the African American experience we see that barriers to opportunity are still very high. The income gap separating white and Black families was basically as big in 2016 as it was in 1968.

The wealth gap separating white and Black households grew even bigger between those years. Black adults are over 16 times more likely to be in families with three generations of poverty than white adults.

Research shows the role racism plays in perpetuating these disparities. When, in 2004, researchers sent equally qualified white and Black applicants to job interviews in New York City, dressed them similarly and gave them similar things to say, Black applicants got half as many callbacks or job offers as whites.

When you look at the data about African-Americans, the legacies of slavery and segregation and the effects of racism are every where. The phrase ''systemic racism'' aptly fits the reality you see - a set of structures, like redlining, that have a devastating effect on Black wealth and opportunities.

Racism is not something we are gently moving past; it's pervasive. It seems obvious that this reality should be taught in every school.

Does this mean that America is white supremacist, a shameful nation, that the American dream is just white privilege? Well, let's take a look at the data for different immigrant groups. When you turn your gaze here, the barriers don't seem as high.

For example, as Bloomberg's Noah Smith pointed out recently on his Substack page, Hispanic American incomes rose faster in recent years than those of any other major groups in America. Forty five percent of Hispanics who grew up in poverty made it to the middle class or higher, comparable to the mobility rate for whites.

Hispanics have lately made astounding gains in education. In 2000, more than 30 percent of Hispanics dropped out of high school. By 2016, only 10 percent did. In 1999, a third of Hispanics age 18 to 24 were in college; now, nearly half are. Hispanic college enrollment rates surpassed white enrollment rates in 2012.

The Hispanic experience in America is beginning to look similar to the experience of Irish Americans or Italian Americans or other past immigrant groups - a period of struggle followed by integration into the middle class.

The interwoven reality of America defies simple binaries of white versus nonwhite. Bigotry and discrimination have not killed the American dream for all groups.

The Honor and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on the American Dream and great opinions and writings, continues. The World Students Society thanks author David Brooks.

With respectful dedication to the Great People of America, and then Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless