What makes certain successful low-income immigrant communities different from pockets of entrenched poverty? There are many reasons why some people get out of poverty and others don’t, and why some people require public assistance more than others. But these are uncomfortable topics, and they’re rarely discussed or given their proper due.
Avoiding an honest look at differences between immigrant neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods is one of the biggest weaknesses of urban planning and policy today. We are at a moment when our cities are experiencing ever-widening inequality, and real social mobility seems ever more fleeting. Meanwhile, we’re avoiding a discussion about how some immigrants have dramatically moved up, and failing to draw any general lessons from their experiences. We’re also trivializing their success by not addressing it.
The article was about the controversy over the Pan Am Hotel, where a predominantly Asian population is protesting the placement of mostly black and Latino families in a pop-up homeless shelter.
Why do Asians succeed?
Asians value education.
Asians do not drop out of school.
Asians do not get pregnant at 16.
Asians know who their children's fathers are.
Asians generally live in nuclear families and even extended families.
Asians do not worship thug culture.
Asians are willing to work their asses off.
There are several reasons for the difference right there. No sociology degree required. Let's be honest: it's a cultural problem.
34 comments:
You don't know Asians. Plenty of them do do these things. Let's not suddenly put them on a pedestal because they happen to be on our side on this one issue.
By latinos you mean black latinos like cubans, puertoricans and dominicans right? They are hardly considered latinos.
Yet you call them invaders, outsiders who should be allowed in "your" neighborhoods. Please.
Just like those that belilive brown committing a Robbery 10 before contact with a cop is irrevelant. Some people are just wired differently. But many blacks have to be black before anything else,but they take it too extremes, to their own detriment.
And Asians dont steal cigarillos high on weed from convenience stores.
wow you're a racist fuck huh?
Dumb. Asians also have among the highest poverty rates in the city too. It's equal to Hispanics.
They succeed because they live four families in a two family house so their mortgage payments are lower or they rent houses through their churches. They break so many housing laws just to attempt to get into a good school district. I see it all the time in bayside.
I don't know what's racist about the truth. I never called Asians outsiders and they aren't flooding homeless shelters. As for lying about living in the school district, plenty of white folks do that as well. I even see them admitting to it on Facebook. There are also a whole lot of fake storefront churches in black and Spanish areas.
Let's just admit that a lot of success is a cultural thing.
I don't know. Maybe because white people haven't been actively oppressing asians for the better part of the last 500 years? Maybe because the US government hasn't been actively assassinating asian cultural leaders? Because the FBI hasn't been interdicting with violence when small-time asian[-american] political groups begin colluding? Maybe because the US heavily subsidized the progression of manufacturing jobs to Asia over the past 50 years and not to Africa?
This list could go on for 1,000 pages.
So those are the reasons why girls are dropping out of school and having 2-3 kids with different fathers before they turn 18? That's the main cause of poverty, not any of the things you just mentioned.
Nice try, though.
I admire the Chinese work ethic. It's a shame the rest of society doesn't. Resenting people for being successful does nothing to change your own situation.
America once was ruled by the Protestant work ethic. Before it was decided that everything should be handed out free of charge.
Asians are coming here dirt poor, and when they lived in China they worked on farms or in factories for a few cents a day. So I don't get where Mr. Liberal is coming from when he says Asians are better off than Africans because manufacturing was sent there. The Africans that come here also work their collective asses off. It's American thug culture that causes American blacks to not succeed. Unless there is a revolution in the way they think, this situation will continue indefinitely.
The question was "why do low-income immigrants succeed where low income native born fail?" A valid question, but the response turned into a celebration of Asian culture. For the unenlightened, there are immigrants of all cultures (yes, including BLACK people like those from Nigeria, Ghana, various islands in the Caribbean).
When I went to grad school, inevitably, the Black people who were getting degrees were either immigrants from those countries, or the 1st generation children of immigrants from those countries.
It's too bad that people can't see the difference. Do you even know any Black people? I guess everybody's got that one friend, neighbor, etc.
The original post was in response to the homeless shelter protest, which has been portrayed as Asian immigrants vs. American blacks. That's why the focus was on Asian immigrants. The commenter before you mentioned that African immigrants are also hard workers and generally not comfortable staying in poverty. If we're going to have a discussion about this, the first thing that needs to happen is dropping the knee jerk reactions to things that aren't being alleged.
It's not just eastern Asians. South Asians are also disproportionately successful. Jews too.
Anonymous said...
"Asians are coming here dirt poor, and when they lived in China they worked on farms or in factories for a few cents a day. So I don't get where Mr. Liberal is coming from when he says Asians are better off than Africans because manufacturing was sent there. The Africans that come here also work their collective asses off. It's American thug culture that causes American blacks to not succeed. Unless there is a revolution in the way they think, this situation will continue indefinitely".
Thank you for telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth! This is a stone cold fact that no amount of Leftist excuse making and laughable charges of racism can ever change.
I think viewing the following video might enlighten some of you:
http://www.prageruniversity.com/Economics/The-War-on-Work.html#.U_X-tvldWSo
BTW, many of the commentators here are not "racist fucks". They're working-in-the-field observers of societal conditions. Sociologists of the highest order. These comments are preliminary reports of future academic journal articles.
While the article tends to focus on Asian immigrant versus Blacks and Hispanics, I think that needs to be broken down even further to say Jamaicans, Africans and Haitians compared to American Blacks or break down the various Latin/Hispanic groups such as Ecuadorian to Mexican. I think it is unfair to lump all Blacks or Hispanics together.
Also the fact that boundaries and rules are NOT put into place in many families. It is not unusual in Jamaica to see very young Hispanic kids still outside carry on late at night on a weekday, when they should be inside in bed or young American Black men in Jamaica hanging out at any time of the day or night in front of delis or sitting on stoops of apartment buildings carry on and disrupting peace and quiet late at night (I am using these examples because Jamaica is where I live). Then some people wonder why they are at the bottom of the food chain and then have the nerve to make a million excuses. As the Macy Gray song says “Do Something”.
And on another note, sorry George The Atheist, as a regular pot smoker, weed hardly makes one go out and act erratically or rob bodegas unless the pot is laced with something. Hell you smoke enough, your ass is going to be stoned on a couch watching cartoons, not attempting some robbery. Give me some good weed and I am listening to some good music or watching cartoons, not planning to rob the local deli, hell, I care barely get my shit together to go to the bathroom, let alone plan a heist.
Check out THIS PHOTO in today's NY Times. A black Ferguson "youth" by the name of "Out Hea" at the far right of the trio depicted. Lemme aks y'all: do Asian "youths" dress like that? You ever see this on the corner of Main and Roosevelt?
Queens-bred AG Eric Holder meets yesterday with the "co-moon-i-tay" in Ferguson. Any of you see pictures of him meeting with the store clerk that the thief Brown almost strangled?
Joe, don't ever change.
Re the comment of my fellow commentator the cartoon aficionado Joe Moretti: where does he buy his so-described becalming weed? I hope legally in Colorado.
They should bus the asian kids out to different schools instead of allowing them to clump all together. Maybe the failing schools wouldnt be failing if ethnic groups were just spread out more throughout the school system like they use to be. When I went to school, they bused in black kids from other neighborhoods to my school.
Thank you Mr.Crapper,
It's the truth that brings about emotions which causes confusion!
If we look at fact, we understand that some groups (Asians), look after their kids and promote some sort of success. They know where their kids are, they know who their friends are. They know what and how their kid are doing before, during and after school. Even when the parents work 10,12,14 hr days, they KNOW. Other minority groups just lack the fundamentals that start at home. If the home fundamentals aren't there, unless the are mentally challenged, they have their own mind to make a choice of correct or incorrect direction.
I have a Sociological background and I can look back during my college days and remember students screaming bloody murder because they confused fact for opinion.
Regarding busing, why the hell would parents want their kids brought to lesser school?? Should those good kids be used as some sort of experiment hoping they'll rub off on bad students?
School is not responsible for changing a student, they are only educating them.
The REAL education and direction starts at home.
To the person above mentioning Cubans,dominicans and Puerto Ricans newsflash they ARE latinos...SMH how stupidity is still alive
One has to spend some time with people who have been in the ghetto and ghetto culture for generations.
They would rather remain poor and miserable than admit it's all been a lie: You are at the bottom because you want to blame whites and Asians for all your own failures.
And it starts with parents not caring that their kids are not attending school, or if they are attending, neglecting to do what needs to be done in order to learn.
Scott68, they should be more spread out. I had black kids that were bused into my school. Why is flushing high school filled with only 20 percent Asian, but yet it is a failing school and the other 80 percent is either Hispanic or black.....there are very few black kids living in flushing....why is Francis Lewis 80 percent Asian when most Asians live in flushing but go to Francis Lewis high school? Jamaica is just as close to Francis Lewis high school as flushing is.
South Korea has the highest suicide rate among teens out of any country in the world.
George...
People high on weed don't steal. They just get the munchies.
When I went to Brooklyn Tech in the 70s the Asians would be all together in the back of the Dekalb ave bus 6:30AM studying, at lunch time studying, the trip home studying.
They were like these relentless machines with no interest in girls or anything else. A 99 score on a test to them was "failure"
BTW these Asian's, were good guys to those that spoke to them, all spoke perfect English (no ESL bullshit them days) without a hint of an accent and wiped the floor with all of us on SAT and ACT scores taking almost ALL the scholarships.
Work ethic. Fear of their parents. No appreciation to these wanna be Thug culture. No excuse in terms of education and performance. Sure there are some who do not follow the stereotype..... To anon Thursday, August 21, who said that they have "High poverty rates." No one is questioning that, the comparison is being made between poor minority groups and why do some overwhelmingly succeed while others simply linger. It is cultural.
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