By Paul Nachman
05/12/2015
Eugene Gant’s recent blog entry here, In FOREIGN POLICY, A Liberal Is Shocked By The Clear-Eyed View The Chinese Have Of Baltimore (May 11, 2015), brought to my mind something from the late Lawrence Auster’s classic extended essay, Huddled Cliches: Exposing the Fraudulent Arguments That Have Opened America’s Borders to the World [PDF].Here is Auster’s introduction to an excerpt from a 1991 op-ed in the San Francisco Examiner, followed by the excerpt:
In the sort of frank analysis of American racial and cultural problems that seems to come only from foreigners, Japanese economist Yuji Aida has argued that it will be very difficult for America to remain a leading industrial power if Hispanics and blacks become the majority in this country:Do blacks and Hispanics, for instance, have the skills and knowledge to run an advanced industrial economy? If the answer is yes, America will maintain its vitality through the next century and beyond. But I’m skeptical.
To compete in a high-tech age dominated by microelectronics requires a disciplined, well-trained labor force. Brilliant inventors and innovative engineers are not enough. [Italics added, by Auster]. Workers themselves must be highly motivated and equipped to meet the stringent norms of standardization imposed by precision-perfect high-tech manufacturing.
Blue-collar employees have to work steadily, day in and day out, at jobs requiring great concentration and manual dexterity. They must continually hone skills and improve personal performance and products through quality control.
Unfortunately, relatively few national groups meet these exacting requirements. I doubt that many African or Latin American countries, for instance, will become high-tech societies in the foreseeable future … . [T]he experience of the last 500 years leaves little room for hope. Blacks and Hispanics will not be able to run a complex industrial society like the United States unless they dramatically raise their sights and standards in the next 40 years.
Burdened with a handicap of this magnitude, how will the United States cope?
America’s Ethnic Achilles’ Heel, San Francisco Examiner, April 9, 1991[PDF].
All serious VDARE.com regulars should download and read "Huddled." At about 18,000 words, that'll be an hour-long project for typical readers. Once you've read it, you'll likely refer to it repeatedly.
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