NCJ Number
147264
Journal
Public Interest Volume: 28 Dated: (1972) Pages: 82-89
Date Published
1972
Length
8 pages
Annotation
The failures of urban gangs and rent-strike organizers in trying to help establish businesses and minimize the need for outside assistance are compared with the successes of Chinese and Japanese immigrants in similar efforts.
Abstract
The analysis notes that the antipoverty program of the 1960's assumed that the informal social structures in low- income areas could stimulate small businesses more effectively than government. However, an effort to involve Puerto Rican gang leaders in New York City in developing businesses and organizations for recreation, education, vocational training, and culture succeeded in obtaining Federal funding, but made no substantive achievements. Similarly, a rent strike supposedly organized by tenants in another city was ineffective due to the organizers' focus on disrupting meetings and attracting media attention rather than on the hard work of forming an effective organization. Blacks, Chinese immigrants, and Japanese immigrants have all experienced extreme prejudice and persecution. However, Chinese and Japanese have been successful in establishing small businesses and taking care of their poor people, while blacks have not. The rotating credit associations formed by the Chinese and Japanese were instrumental in their success, but these social forms were possible only because of the strong sense of ethnic identity and mutual responsibility in these groups. It is possible that a weakly developed sense of ethnic honor contributed to the failure of the other efforts. Ethnic honor has operated efficiently, and government operates inefficiently, clumsily, and at cross purposes. However, in the absence of natural forms of informal social organization, no other alternative may be available.