Quotes by William Julius Wilson - Page 1

The middle class has just fallen further and further behind the rich.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Class
Middle
Middle Class
Rich
Further
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There is a tendency to want to treat blacks as a monolithic socioeconomic group.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Groups
Treats
Want
Blacks
Tendency
Treat
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There are many positive things to say about the black community. No question about it.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Black
Black Community
Community
Positive Things
No Question
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Black employers are just as negative as the white employers concerning inner-city workers.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Black
Cities
Employers
White
Workers
Concerning
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The worst thing we could do is impose time limits and then expect people to sink or swim once they move off welfare.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Swim
Welfare
Impose
Sink
Worst Thing
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Crime, family dissolution, welfare, and low levels of social organization are fundamentally a consequence of the disappearance of work.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Work
Consequence
Crime
Disappearance
Dissolution
Levels
Organization
Social Organization
Welfare
Fundamentally
Low
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Prior to 1940, the affluent and the middle class began to converge, but after 1979, the economic gap between the middle class and affluent widened significantly.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Affluent
Class
Economic
Gaps
Middle Class
Converge
Middle Class Class Middle
Gap
Prior
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My research clearly reveals that if we want to put inner-city workers to work immediately, we just can't rely on the private sector. They don't want to touch them; they don't want to hire them.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Cities
Private Sector
Rely
Research
Want
Workers
Hire
Immediately
Reveals
Sector
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Liberals were intimidated by the Reagan administration and did not want to appear naive by talking about programs that called for government support. I just said, 'The hell with that. I'm out there.'
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Government
Administration
Intimidated
Support
Talking
Appear
Programs
Liberals
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But the person who scored well on an SAT will not necessarily be the best doctor or the best lawyer or the best businessman. These tests do not measure character, leadership, creativity, perseverance.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Leadership
Businessman
Character
Creativity
Lawyer
Perseverance
Sat
Tests
Doctor
Measure
Necessarily
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A lot of joblessness in the black community doesn't seem to be reachable through fiscal and monetary policies. People have not been drawn into the labor market even during periods of economic recovery.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Black Community
Community
Economic
Economic Recovery
Joblessness
Labor
Monetary
People
Periods
Recovery
Community People Black
Community Black People
Drawn
Fiscal
Market
Policies
Seem
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I maintain that the period during the first half of the 1990s, the period in which rising inequality reached its peak, was a period in which we came very, very close to a demagogic immobilization of racism in this society.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Half
Inequality
Racism
Rising
Maintain
Peak
Reached
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Certain people are just saying, 'Look, I'm a businessperson and I have to run a business effectively and I want people who are going to do the job, who have the training and the education and the personality traits - the soft skills.'
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Skills
Traits
Businessperson
Effectively
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During the Great Depression, African Americans were faced with problems that were not unlike those experienced by the most disadvantaged groups in society. The Great Depression had a leveling effect, and all groups really experienced hard times: poor whites, poor blacks.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Depression
Great
Society
African American
Disadvantaged
Great Depression
Groups
Hard
Hard Times
Poor
Most
Really
Had
African
African Americans
American
Blacks
Those
Were
Effect
Times
Experienced
Faced
Unlike
Leveling
Problems
Whites
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I don't think we should stop emphasizing race because I think, you know, race is still very, very important, and we have to recognize that and continue to introduce programs to address racial inequities. But we have to widen our vision and also address the growing problems of economic class.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Class
Economic
Race
Vision
Address
Emphasizing
Introduce
Programs
Problems
Recognize
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If you're not working, over time you're much more likely to develop attitudes and orientations and behavior patterns that are associated with casual or infrequent work. And then when you open up opportunities for people, you notice that these attitudes, orientations, habits and styles also change.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Opportunity
Attitude
Casual
Patterns
People
Style
Time Change Work
Associated
Attitudes
Change Time Work
Develop
Change Work Time
Habits
Likely
Notice
Opportunities
Styles
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Black professors make more than white professors. That's because we are in demand. I'll tell you, give me two blacks in institutions of higher learning, one has a Ph.D. from an elite institution and has a certain publication record. You give me a white scholar with the same credentials, and I will take that black scholar.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Credentials
Demand
Give Me
Giving
Higher
Professors
Publication
Scholar
Two
White
Blacks
Elite
Institution
Record
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I think it is difficult to achieve a meaningful political coalition if you have race-based programs that divide members of the coalition. The problem I have, however, is that white people assume an either/or position: Either we have race-based programs or we don't. What I see is comprehensive social reform that includes race-based and race-neutral programs.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Meaningful
People
Thinking
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If you're talking about the narrow issue of public assistance, I would like to see us move to a more healthy system. But until we come up with certain guarantees - for example, guaranteed jobs where mothers move off welfare - I support welfare very strongly. The worst thing we could do is impose time limits and then expect people to sink or swim once they move off welfare.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Mother
Moving
People
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Racism should be viewed as an intervening variable. You give me a set of conditions and I can produce racism in any society. You give me a different set of conditions and I can reduce racism. You give me a situation where there are a sufficient number of social resources so people don't have to compete for those resources, and I will show you a society where racism is held in check.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Giving
People
Racism
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If we could create the conditions that make racism difficult, or discourage it, then there would be less stress and less need for affirmative action programs. One of those conditions would be an economic policy that would create tight labor markets over long periods of time. Now does that mean that affirmative action is here only temporarily? I think the ultimate goal should be to remove it.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Mean
Stress
Thinking
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A lot of joblessness in the black community doesn't seem to be reachable through fiscal and monetary policies. People have not been drawn into the labor market even during periods of economic recovery. Employers would rather not hire a lot of workers from the inner city. They feel people from the inner city are not job-ready, that the kids have been poorly educated, that they can't read, they can't write, they can't speak.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Kids
Recovery
Writing
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Over the years, black leaders have been slow to recognize the need for a very, very progressive agenda. Anytime someone has talked about putting America back to work, blacks should have said yes, but they didn't. They were so preoccupied with affirmative action that they didn't provide the kind of leadership that would help some of the other progressive folks. Only now are black leaders beginning to realize the impact of economic issues.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Black
Helping
Leader
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Unemployment is higher in Europe than in the United States and primarily concentrated in immigrant minority populations, so people are worried about what's going to happen and if American-style ghettos are emerging in Europe. There are some of the problems there that America sees associated with the lack of economic inclusion - family breakdown, gang behavior, and racial tensions. I get the sense that in Europe they are much more concerned about these issues than in the United States.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Ghetto
People
Problem
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I don't know if you've been in any inner-city schools, but it's pretty demoralizing. The kids come to class bright-eyed, enthusiastic - entering first grade really looking forward to school. By the fourth grade they're just completely turned off, and by the time they enter high school, they see little relationship between school and employment. It's bad enough you have incompetent teachers and schools that are poorly run, understaffed, and lack material resources. It's even worse when the kids themselves don't feel they have any stake in school.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Running
Teacher
School
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If you're going to compare a middle-income black kid with a middle- income white kid, and, say, you control for family background, family education, and family income, and if this middle-income black kid doesn't score as well as the white kid on the test, then I say, look, you haven't taken into consideration the cumulative effect of living in a segregated neighborhood and going to a de facto segregated school. You're denying a position at Harvard or some other place to a kid that really could make it. That's why I support affirmative action that's based on both class and race.
William Julius Wilson / Sociologist
Kids
School
Taken
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William Julius Wilson Quotes - Page 1

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