[Steve_Seattle]

"White America doesn't grasp the magnitude of the underclass, its isolation, its hopelessness, its resistance to change. Or its anger."

As I said in an earlier post, I see it every day, and I'm white. For years, it's seemed to me that these people are almost entirely beyond the reach of any conceivable educational reform, any jobs program, any government plan to make them something they aren't. And what they "aren't" is people capable of fitting into this society - or perhaps any society - in a productive manner. At best, they - some of them - could be forced into some kind of low-paying "make work" program, but I'm not sure that would make their anger go away.

[trisham]

For years, it's seemed to me that these people are almost entirely beyond the reach of any conceivable educational reform, any jobs program, any government plan to make them something they aren't.

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There may always be an underclass. Not everyone chooses to work, regardless of race. If one regards oneself as a victim, a victim one will be.