In chapters three and four of the Ethnic Myth by Stephen Steinberg, the “ethnic myth” and “culture of poverty” are discussed. Chapter three begins by questioning if ethnic values produce unequal ranks for different races, if arrival time generates different success and states how the variety in cultures is a starting factor not a result. Chapter four then goes into how if there on cultural values that are believed to make certain ethnicities successful then there must be cultural values that are preventing other races from success. It would be foolish to deny that there are values which promote success and others that do not but how that played into ethnic accomplishments compared to others is not the only factor to be taken into consideration. Life doesn’t work through destiny continuously favoring some groups over others but rather that those who are willing to put in the time and give up possibly favored parts of their life will eventually surpass those not making a devoted effort to success. It is important to evaluate an ethnic groups’ life prior to immigration to accurately explain majority achieved or failed culture mobility. If the ethnicity was relatively taught skills that aligned …show more content…
There isn’t a culture with specific values that guarantee success but rather a variety of values that successful ethnicities shared which correlated with American job demands. For those that were part of the “culture of poverty” often lacked prior skills and had experienced obstacles that created a cycle of poverty for future generations. However, this isn’t solely based on cultural values but includes external challenges and can be overcome if society works together against poverty. In other words the “ethnic myth” and “culture of poverty” statements are just ways to avoid social inequality reformation by blaming ones ethnic values instead of possibly world wide