Word: underclass
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...racism argument, replied: "Absolutely not, although I realize that there have been instances of discrimination. We have to have someone in office who can understand what it is like to be discriminated against." What this attitude ignores, of course, is that blacks face handicaps not suffered by earlier underclass groups. Further, as long as they remain submerged, most of the city's problems will be insoluble...
That is a truth that moderate and liberal leaders must recognize. Even so, it is equally true that the "underclass"-the blacks, the Mexican Americans and others-have even more reason to feel left out. They too are fed uo, with justice delayed and promises deferred-a fact that Cartoonist John Fischetti expressed in a drawing of an anonymous black imitating the President's "up to here" gesture. Yet viewed rationally, the long-range interests (if not the short-term problems) of the two sides coincide. The slums suffer more from crime and disorder than the suburbs, and blacks...
...eminent power, still reveled in the accouterments of prosperity, still enjoyed a standard of living far more abundant than that of any other civilization. But 1967 awakened many of its citizens to the fact that conscienceless affluence can not only despoil the environment and drive a deprived underclass to the brink of rebellion; it can also pervade society with a sense of impotence and bring on the loss of unifying purpose...
...Harvard hockey team flew out of Troy, N.Y., last night in search of the comeback trail, but got woefully lost, 7-2 to R.P.I. Harvard eventually wound up outshooting the Engineers, 35-31, but the strong squad of underclass Canadians outskated and outscored the Crimson in each period...
...Liberals must somehow overcome the curious condescension which takes the form of sticking up for and explaining away anything, howsoever outrageous, which Negroes, individually or collectively, might do." Distinction must be made between "the vast Negro underclass, a disorganized, angry, hurt group easily given to self-destructive violence, and the radical, nihilist youth [that seeks to use the underclass for] apocalyptic confrontation with white society." The differentiation "means facing up to some of the realities of life in that class that liberals have been notoriously unwilling to acknowledge...