-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Add your name to the CLEAN GOA INITIATIVE | | | | by visiting this link and following the instructions therein | | | | http://shire.symonds.net/pipermail/goanet/2005-October/033926.html | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- For the past so many days, Mario Goveia has in his own words been waiting with baited breath and keeping his ammunition dry for my "apparently determined attempts to prove that African Americans live miserable lives in the USA." I would like to point out that it is not I, but Mario himself, who has introduced the term "miserable lives" in connection with the existence of the poor in America; I hope he is willing to admit that the poor do in fact live miserable lives, whether they be white or black, or live in the US, in Europe, in India, or other Asian, Australasian, American, or African nations!
Mario launched his opening salvo on Oct. 27: "Victor, if your frame of reference is East Harlem and Bed-Stuy 40 or 50 years ago then you may be right about your experience but also out of touch with what has happened since then." Mario, my experience (and hence my frame of reference) includes Harlem, East Harlem, Bed-Stuy and Flatbush in Brooklyn, Queens and the rest of New York city, and extends from the mid-1950s to the 1990s. Since retiring from teaching in the 1990s I have kept very much in touch. So in assuming I am out of touch you are assuming too much---but then you made the assumption before you took the precaution of keeping your ammunition dry. By the way, was your ammunition dry when you included me among "knee-jerk critics" of the United States? Several paras of one of Mario's posts were devoted to demonstrating that America's poor were not really all that poor---the average poor family lived in a house with so many rooms, owned so many appliances, their children were better fed than those with more means, etc. I will answer those claims point by point in a follow-up post, but would urge Mario not to hold his breath again, unless he is practicing yoga. For now, I will address one of his main points, where he chooses to ignore poor blacks altogether, claiming instead that "76% of African Americans are classified as middle or upper income in the very competitive environment of the USA." This is a statement that he has repeated time and again, for example, in a reply on Nov. 2 to George, on Nov. 3 to me, again on Nov. 3 to Alfred de Tavares, and on Nov. 5 to Marlon. One might well wonder: "classified" by whom? On Nov. 4, in a reply to Bosco, he revealed his source: "This figure comes from the US Census Bureau." Your ammunition, Mario! Take care of your ammunition, it's really all wet! The 76% figure does not come from the Census Bureau. What the Census Bureau statistics tell us is that in 2003, 24.3% of American blacks lived below the poverty level. You, Mario, turned this around, and interpret it to mean that "76% of African Americans are classified as middle or upper income." Yet logic must surely tell you that if 24% live below the poverty level, then there must be countless thousands who live at, or just above, the poverty level? And millions who would be classified as lower middle class at best, living hand to mouth from month to month? Common sense tells us this must be so. Above this layer would come the upper middle class, and above it the "upper income" families would make up the smallest number of all. And if this is the usual pattern in society, then what percentage of American blacks is truly "upper income"? Will you please give us an official US Census Bureau figure? We and the rest of Goanet's 10,000 subscribers await your answer. Take your time, no need for a knee-jerk response---we are all breathing normally. Best regards, Victor Rangel-Ribeiro
