William Julius Wilson, The Truly Disadvantaged (1987)

Today’s ghetto neighborhoods are populated almost exclusively by the most disadvantaged segments of the black urban community, that heterogeneous grouping of inner-city families and individuals who are outside the mainstream of the American occupational system. Included in this population are persons who lack training and skills and either experience long-term unemployment or are not members of the labor force, individuals who are engaged in street crime and other forms of aberrant behavior, and families that experience long term spells of poverty and/or welfare dependency…. The term underclass suggests that changes have taken place in ghetto neighborhoods, and the groups that have been left behind are collectively different from those that lived in these neighborhoods in earlier years.

The liberal perspective on the ghetto underclass has become less persuasive and convincing in public discourse principally because many of those who represent traditional liberal views on social issues have been reluctant to discuss openly or, in some instances, even to acknowledge the sharp increase in social pathologies in ghetto communities….

One approach is to avoid describing any behavior that might be construed as unflattering or stigmatizing to ghetto residents, either because of a fear of providing fuel for racist arguments or because of a concern of being charged with "racism" or with "blaming the victim."…

A second liberal approach to the subject of underclass and urban social problems is to refuse even to use terms such as underclass. As one spokesman put it: "’Underclass is a destructive and misleading label that lumps together different people who have different problem. And that it is the latest of a series of popular labels (such as the ‘lumpen proletariat,’ ‘undeserving poor,’ and the ‘culture of poverty’) that focuses on individual characteristics and thereby stigmatizes the poor for their poverty."…

A third liberal approach to the subject of problems in the inner city and the ghetto underclass is to emphasize or embrace selective evidence that denies the very existence of an urban underclass….

Finally, a fourth liberal approach to the subject of the ghetto underclass and urban social problems is to acknowledge the rise in inner city social dislocations while emphasizing racism as the explanation of these changes…. [This] is to ignore a set of issues that are difficult to explain with a race specific thesis…. To put the question more pointedly, even if racism continues to be a factor in the social and economic progress of some blacks, can it be used to explain the sharp increase in inner city dislocations since 1970?

When figures on black crime, teenage pregnancy, female-headed families, and welfare dependency are released to the public without sufficient explanation, racial stereotypes are reinforced. And the tendency of liberal social scientists either ignore these issues or to address them in circumspect ways does more to reinforce than to undermine these racist perceptions.

Discrimination is the most frequently invoked explanation of social dislocations in the urban ghetto. However, proponents of the discrimination thesis often fail to make a distinction between the effects of historic discrimination, that is, discrimination before the middle of the twentieth century, and the effects of discrimination following that time. They therefore find it difficult to explain why the economic position of poor urban blacks actually deteriorated during the very period in which the most sweeping antidiscrimination legislation and programs were enacted and implemented.

The population explosion among minority youths occurred at a time when changes in the economy posed serious problems for unskilled individuals, both in and out of the labor force. Urban minorities have been particularly vulnerable to structural economic changes such as the shift from goods-producing to service-producing industries, the increasing polarization of the labor market into low-wage and high-wage sectors, technological innovations, and the relocation of the manufacturing industries out of the central cities.

If I had to use one term to capture the differences in the experience of low income families who live in inner city areas from the experience of those who live in other areas in the central city today, that term would be concentration effects. The social transformation of the inner city has resulted in a disproportionate concentration of the most disadvantaged segments of the urban black population, creating a social milieu significantly different from the environment that existed in these communities several decades ago.

In short, cultural values do not ultimately determine behavior or success. Rather, cultural values emerge from specific circumstance and life chances reflect one’s position in the class structure. Thus, if underclass blacks have low aspirations or do not plan for the future, it is not ultimately the result of cultural norms but the product of restricted opportunities, a bleak future, and feelings of resignation originating from bitter personal experiences. Accordingly, behavior described as socially pathological and associated with lower class minorities should be analyzed not as a cultural aberration but as a symptom of class inequality.

The urban underclass has not benefited significantly from "race-specific" antidiscrimination policy programs…. If inner city blacks are to be helped, they will be aided not by policies addressed primarily to poor minorities, but by policies designed to benefit all of the nation’s poor. These will need to address the broader problems of generating full employment, developing sustained and balanced urban economic growth, and achieving effective welfare reform.

Measures such as on the job training and apprenticeships to elevate the skill level of the truly disadvantaged are needed…. However, in the foreseeable future employment alone will not necessarily lift a family out of poverty. Many families would still require income support and/or social services such as child care. A program of welfare reform is needed, therefore to address the current problem of public assistance, including lack of provisions for the poor two-parent families, inadequate levels of support, inequities between different states, and work disincentives.

The hidden agenda for liberal policymakers is to improve the life chances of truly disadvantaged groups such as the ghetto underclass by emphasizing programs to which the more advantaged groups of society can positively relate.