William Julius Wilson

“In all probability, DuBois would not voice surprise at the serious class problem today or its entrenchment in the economic situation, or the impact of the industrial and economic organization and policies employed by the United States upon the underclass. If he were here, he probably would project a kind of social upheaval unparalleled in this country primarily because of the battle of countervailing powers (big labor, big business, big government, and helpless consumers) over slices of the real no-growth economic pie and the powerless position of the sub-groups of income recipients and dependents and the rising strength of organized workers in public and private essential service industries. The economic future of blacks in the United States is bound up with that of the rest of the nation. Policies, programs, and politics designed in the future to cope with the problems of the poor and victimized will also yield benefits to blacks. In contrast, any efforts to treat blacks separately from the rest of the nation are likely to lead to frustrations, heightened racial animosities, and a waste of the country's resources and the precious resources of black people."

Vivian W. Henderson”
― William Julius Wilson, The Declining Significance of Race : Blacks and Changing American Institutions