Kull, Andrew. The Color-Blind Constitution . Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992: 186

The political premises and the implicit policy prescription of the Moynihan Report epitomized the thinking of traditional liberalism on the subject of black equality, just as the clamorous rejection of the report presaged the coming of a new order. At a critical moment-the close of what Rustin called the "classical" civil rights movement-Moynihan observed that blacks as a group, judged by color-blind standards, would not achieve the equality of results that would henceforth be demanded. His implicit recommendation for policy was that they be assisted to achieve higher performance, measured by unchanged standards. A closer equality of results, counting by groups, was to be brought about by increasing the Negro's "ability to win out in the competitions of American life"-not by changing the terms of the contest, but by helping to form a stronger competitor. This could be done, Moynihan suggested, only by strengthening the institution of the Negro family, which he saw as "the fundamental source of the weakness of the Negro community at the present time." Measures to strengthen families were not spelled out, but the implication was clear that the stable, two-parent family would not become the norm for the black lower class without a dramatic, sustained increase in levels of employment for black males. The report's implicit prescription was for massive government intervention to this end.

Carl Gutierrez-Jones,

Department of English

University of California

Santa Barbara, CA 93106

E-mail: carlgj@humanitas.ucsb.edu