Among Blacks, the MMPI has fallen severely in the last decades; it has remained steady or increased for white women since 1954. In the poor community of Oakland in Chicago, the MMPI for Blacks over 16 years of age was 70 in 1950; in 1980, there were only 19 employed Black men per 100 black women. This drastic decline in the MMPI is, Wilson argues, one of the main causes of the tendency to delay marriage and the low rate of marriage among Black women--which both contribute to the number of female-headed households and out-of-wedlock births.
THE real impact of the concentration of poverty in the ghettos and the increasing social isolation of the underclass has been to create "a social milieu significantly different from the environment that existed in these communities several decades ago." Increasingly, the members of the underclass live in a world radically different from mainstream society.
But Wilson is making a fine, but important, correction to the culture of poverty thesis which also sees the ghettos as preserves of deviant behavior. For Wilson, the prevalence of single-parent households is not the result of a change in attitudes towards the traditional family, but rather the effect of economic forces which make it hard for men to support families. In his recent Godkin lecture at Harvard, Wilson noted that the latest survey research shows that the truly disadvantaged actually share mainstream attitudes towards work, family and crime.
Social isolation aggravates the effects of highly concentrated poverty. With the absence of strong urban Black middle and working classes, individuals undergoing extended spells of poverty and joblessness can no longer look to the social institutions of their community (such as churches, schools, community groups etc.) for support or to succesful Blacks as role models. In such an environment, joblessness as a way of life tends to lose its stigma and the connection between education and good jobs disappears from sight.
THE recognition of the impact of structural constraints and opportunities on the life chances of the underclass opens up a slew of public policy alternatives. Wilson states in his preface that a major goal of The Truly Disadvantaged is precisely to spell out some of these public policy alternatives.
Wilson makes no bones about being a social democrat, and his policy suggestions are correspondingly nothing if not ambitious in the context of American politics. He is not afraid to claim that helping the underclass entails an overhaul of the American economy and growth in the public sector.
Given that the underclass is over-whlemingly comprised of Blacks and Hispanics, it may at first seem suprising that Wilson opposes affirmative action. Wilson has two objections to racespecific policies. First, affirmative action programs in their different forms all tend to benefit the relatively well-off disproportianately. For inner-city Blacks without access to an appropriate job market, affirmative action is of little use. Secondly, race-specific policies are notoriously unpopular politically, especially in times when the economy suffers setbacks.
Race-specific policies such as afirmative action or training programs are not to be abandoned, but are to be incorporated into a universal program of economic reform, designed to benefit all segments of society. Specifically, Wilson suggests a "macroeconomic policy designed to promote both economic growth and a tight labor market" combined with fiscal and monetary policies designed to curb inflation. A tight labor market would raise wages and aid the truly disadvantaged disproportionately, as increased labor force participation rates for both Black men and Black women would go far in stabilizing underclass family and community structure.
AS of now the truly disadvantaged are being made to play the role of Sisyphus, with public policy makers condemning them for failing to-reach the top. Until it is recognized that like in that ancient parabale, the failure lies beyond the control of the individual, a solution to the problems of the inner city will never be found.