Thomas Sowell’s classic book “Ethnic America” is more than 30 years old, but it came to mind the other day as I read
Those aren’t Griego’s words, by the way. They belong to former Denver Mayor Federico Peña. And they were echoed by Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia, who urged listeners to “get past the word we use too often: ‘potential.’ Potential simply means that we have unrealized power, and it is time for us to realize it, to put it into action and to make a difference.”
They’re right of course about the untapped power: With 21 percent of Colorado residents and 30 percent of its children now Latino — and with both percentages growing — greater political power, and perhaps dominance, is only a matter of time. Even if Latino leaders splinter into disarray, charismatic individuals with broad appeal will emerge and sweep into ever more offices, including the governor’s mansion.
Peña himself provided a preview of the model back in 1983.
The question is whether an organization that is the “strongest political force” in the state is likely to actually improve the life of the average Latino. And that’s where Sowell’s work comes in handy.
In recounting the paths to success taken by various ethnic groups, Sowell provides little support for those who believe power is a prerequisite for prosperity. Having power rarely hurts, but the general welfare of an ethnic group isn’t usually linked to it.
The Irish, for example, were adept at politics yet also relatively slow in climbing the income ladder. Indeed, Sowell writes, “their first successes were in politics, where some achieved influential positions by the middle of the 19th century and within a few decades became dominant in big city political ‘machines’ in Boston, New York and other metropolitan areas. Their successes brought prosperity and prominence to a few, but had little immediate impact on the economic conditions of most Irish Americans. As late as the 1890s, most of the men were still laborers and most of the women domestic servants.”
By contrast, “some of the most remarkable advances in the face of adversity were made by groups that deliberately avoided politics — notably the Chinese and Japanese.”
Nor did Jews — largely “destitute and illiterate” upon arrival on U.S. shores — rely on politics to broker their remarkable economic rise. Shunned by the larger society, they relied instead upon their “labor and their business sense” — and the next generation’s thirst for education — to propel them forward.
Peña and Garcia are sophisticated students of history, so I doubt they harbor many illusions regarding the transformational potential of political power. The great challenge for Colorado is not how to more equitably distribute political clout — if that’s your Holy Grail, prepare for disappointment — but how to elevate the test scores and educational achievement of non-Asian minorities. For example, Colorado’s Latino graduation rate languishes at just 56 percent, according to a “Snapshot of Colorado Latinos” available at the summit.
A related challenge is how to interest more Latinos in the demanding but often better-paying natural sciences and engineering. Nationally, the “Snapshot” notes, “only 3 percent of Hispanics entering four-year colleges and universities … enroll in a science or engineering program.”
You don’t have to be a college graduate to be highly successful, as Bill Gates and thousands of other entrepreneurs prove, but as Sowell reports, “For every ethnic group, finishing college means an income above the national average.”
And that’s true whether or not that group has forged a political juggernaut.
Reach Vincent Carroll at vcarroll@denverpost.com
