Well, the article (which I hugely enjoyed reading and learned a lot from) concludes: "Those of us who believe that individual responsibility is a far better ro

Well, the article (which I hugely enjoyed reading and learned a lot from) concludes: "Those of us who believe that individual responsibility is a far better route to success than racialization can still reverse what Ylvisaker, Samora, Alinsky, and the rest have wrought." I'll hit that another way. I took an American Studies class in university required through the School of Humanities for my math degree. It was taught by a Fullbright scholar. One of the assigned books was Horatio's "Ragged Dick". By the teacher's assessment, this is a book for kids - which it is. But the shoe shiner boy in the book Dick exemplified a decently good take on what it is to be American in a way that that doesn't engage race, victimization. In particular, - Dick had street smarts - Dick worked hard, got out early to the good spots for shines. He was always on the look out for opportunity - Dick periodically bought supper for his shoe shiner fellows if they were down on their luck (empathy) - Dick did a good job on his shines and got tips - Going the other way, Dick received help and recognition from his betters (read vaguely rich) which he accepted. Through their help he got into school and received a new suit. He started to learn how to read. - Dick didn't whine; he was quick with a joke or good story. Ex: when asked why his pants were so old, dirty rather than bemoan his situation he said that in fact they were Napoleon's trousers e.g. from a strong and venerable person. To me this silly kids' book gets a lot right. Now to be fair it has been criticized too ... it's hard to fully escape injustice. A New Yorker article some years ago took Horatio to task for never engaging slavery, the class system in England, and other injustices. In a sense Horatio ducked some of the hard issues nevertheless giving a decent take on what we want in fellow Americans as I see it: go-getter, competent, forward looking, mostly cheerful, and connected to his fellows. There's some strange parallels of Ylvisaker, Samora, Alinsky to Russian intellectuals who started Communism. I not taking on or wanting to engage Communism here at all. I am simply pointing out that some strange effects arise when relatively richer, intellects try to "fix" things for other people they claim they're helping.