Correspondence
Correspondence A big bellyache Hollis, N.Y. To the Editors: Fred Siegers book review ["Wake Us When It's Over/The Quest for the Presidency 1984/On the Campaign Trail/Canarsie," September 6]...
...1, 1924, to current issues available through University Microfilm, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Mi...
...To that end I suggest he take the time and trouble to read Canarsie...
...The black underclass is beyond redemption — too far down to be reached by any kind of help, and eventually converting sensitive young white people into bigots...
...To the Editors: Regarding Maurice R. Berube's article ["Assessing a Revolution," September 6], the record should be straight...
...According to these sessions, blacks were receiving "special privileges...
...Microfilm from Vol...
...It is run by a new breed of "caudillo" with Soviet backing of techniques and finances...
...intermediate school pupils the 27 percent drop-out rate for Cuba would seem very (Continued on page 685) Commonweal is indexed in Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, Catholic Periodical Index, Index of American Periodical Verse, Book Review Digest and Book Review Index...
...Stanley Greenberg Analysis Group in Michigan, which by his description was nothing more than a series of structured bellyaching sessions...
...Siegel's celebration of ethnic nobility is really an anti-black binge...
...Our Christian belief teaches us that "man shall not live by bread alone...
...He quotes with approval the "local parlance" that divides blacks into "parasites and producers...
...p. 662, Carol Simpson...
...Copyright © 1985 Commonweal Foundation...
...But it is hard to see from what Mr...
...My italics...
...48106 and on Microfiche from Bell & Howell, Wooster Ohio 44691...
...Oddly enough, Mr...
...Laird has misread my review essay...
...it will repay his effort...
...The first and much longer part ft a sober attempt at political analysis wherein three books are commented on at some length...
...Then he casually adds: "Greenberg subsequently discovered that in-depth polling around the country turned up similar results...
...This "ethnographic study" is supposed to supply us with the key to the sound Democratic defeat in the 1984 election...
...But before it can be dealt with, it has to be understood...
...In other words, blacks are receiving "special privileges" on a massive scale...
...Illustrations: Cover & p. 665, Fritz Eichenberg...
...Letters of not more than 250 or 300 words naturally have a better chance of being published...
...I can understand his concern, the racial backlash which subtly underlies Reaganism is a deeply disturbing matter...
...To the Editors: Fred Siegers book review ["Wake Us When It's Over/The Quest for the Presidency 1984/On the Campaign Trail/Canarsie," September 6] comes in two parts...
...He's confused my point of view with those of discontented Democrats who voted Republican in 1984...
...p. 668, Ade Bethune...
...Berube forgets to mention that high school attendance in Cuba is not mandatory and is in fact selective by examination, while in the U.S...
...Siegel wants to elevate to the level of a standard, almost definitive book on the condition of blacks in America...
...What is it doing in the pages of Commonweal") ROLAND LAIRD The author replies: Mr...
...An example of this is a portion of Mr...
...students aged 14 to 18) in a definite case of comparing apples with oranges...
...Rieder's book is not "the most important book of the year" but a vehicle for the unexamined opinions of vocal Canarsie ethnics...
...nearly 27 percent of sixteen-year-olds drop out of school — a figure that still compares favorably with the 45 percent who drop out of school after that age in urban high schools in the United States...
...If we rely solely on what "The Autopsy of Your Choice" contains, Mr...
...This vehicle Mr...
...Today Cuba is a totalitarian police state...
...However, the bottom line is that the writer is overlooking the basic reality of living in the Caribbean Marxist Paradise...
...664, 679, 680, Paul Valerry...
...all students are forced to go to school until they either graduate or drop out...
...Commonweal: 658...
...MARINO LOPEZ BLANCO Apples & oranges Bronx, N.Y...
...667, 669, Rita Corbin...
...Siegel pronounces a final judgment on them as' 'campaign ephemera...
...In some cases it is difficult to know for sure whether this is merely the result of sloppiness or the intentional desire to mislead the reader...
...The second part is not a review at all but a celebration of moral and intellectual qualities exemplified by white ethnics in Canarsie...
...Serials Data program No.: ISSN 0010-330...
...Political liberties are nonexistent...
...He compares a group which includes intermediate school students in Cuba (junior high school students under the age of 16) with urban high school students in the U.S.A...
...There are no religious freedoms, no union freedoms, no freedom of travel, no individual rights...
...To the Editors: I have felt somewhat frustrated over the apparent inability of some academicians to deal accurately with statistical data...
...Eradication of hunger, improving health care and literacy does not in any way balance the revolution's record...
...Siegel tells us about the book that it is a "study" at all...
...The "parasites" are the black underclass and the "producers" are the black middle class...
...In perusing this article one tends to think that the Cuban people is blessed with this regime, and that the Cuban model is valid for addressing some of the problems of our neighbors across the Rio Grande...
...FRED SIEGEL Not by bread alone San Francisco, Calif...
...Maurice Berube's article on Cuba ["Assessing a Revolution," September 6 ]. He states for instance that in Cuba...
...The writing appears to be a glowing description of the successful accomplishments of the Castro regime...
...After paying lip service to the existence of the black middle class and the deserving black family, he then tries to justify racial polarization in the Democratic party by appealing to so-called evidence unearthed in another study, the Commonweal welcomes letters on subjects treated in its pages...
...Had he opted to compare the drop-out rate of Cuban intermediate school pupils with U.S...
...p. 660, Bas...
...Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y...
Vol. 112 • November 1985 • No. 21
