Rock Center
In his new book, "Coming Apart: The State of White America 1960-2010," Charles Murray claims that the cultural divide has never been wider between working class and upper middle class Americans.
Murray is no stranger to controversy. His previous book, “The Bell Curve,” examined variations in intelligence across socioeconomic and racial lines.
In an interview with Rock Center Anchor and Managing Editor Brian Williams, Murray defended his latest book, starting with its controversial title.
"White America is my reference point. To put it one way, they have no excuses. They aren't recent immigrants who don't speak the language. They don't have a legacy of slavery. If you got problems there, we've got to think of other understandings of how we can solve them," Murray said.
Murray claims that the upper middle class is increasingly insulated in a bubble of people just like themselves, making them out of touch with the lives of working class Americans.
To help people gauge how insulated they are, Murray created a quiz, "How Thick is Your Bubble?"
Click here to watch the interview with Charles Murray that aired on Rock Center Feb. 22.
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Brian, fascinating segment, unfortunately the link isn't working.
there is a server error to take the quiz
quiz page is unavailable.. :(
there is a server error to take the quiz
the link to the quiz wont work :-( it keeps saying "
nginx error!
The page you are looking for is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.
Website Administrator
Something has triggered an error on your website. This is the default error page for nginx that is distributed with EPEL. It is located /usr/share/nginx/html/50x.html
You should customize this error page for your own site or edit the error_page directive in the nginx configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf."
Mr Murray said in his book that people can thrive on $25,000 to $27,000 a year. Has he ever been to a grocery store? From the $10,000 suit look my guess is not. This guy poses psyco babble. What has happened to NBC. This is horrible. Try broadcasting real news. Not this B.S.!
Seriously, John? A $10K suit? Do you honestly believe that Dr. Murray spent $10K on a suit? C'mon. Maybe $1500 to $3K.
And as for surviving on $25K to $27K per annum, it is doable, but painfu for a single person. Not sure about married w/children. One needs to do some severe cutting of extracurricular spending (i.e. eating out, buying xbox/ps games, books/magazines, Starbucks, etc). And I know from personal experience. I have been surviving on less than this for the last four months due to a job lost. And unemployment insurance isn't much, but it does help a bit. Is it tight, very. Does it kill your social life? Completely. Do I miss my daily fix of Starbuck's? Every damn day. As for groceries, lemme introduce you to generic brands. It saves $$$ and I never thought I'd start clipping those damn coupons, but hey, it saves $$$ too.
Can't get the quiz to open? Can anyone help?
quiz unavailable... you really should check these things before you announce it on national television.
I wanna take the quiz! :-/
quiz isn't available... why announce that something is available before it's ready?? don't you have people to check these things?
Bad gateway error message + another error message.
I think RockCenter just accidentally DDOS'd ProProfs.com or at least this quiz' particular server.
The link doesn't work, so I googled it and was able to take the quiz. I got a 59. There are 25 questions total.
I don't know what quiz you took. There are only 20 questions and a possible score of 20. Apparently your quiz was bogus.
To quote SNL
JUST FIX IT!!!!
I just completed the quiz, it took forever to load but did eventually.
Proof: Link
That is my "Certificate" for completing the 20 question quiz...
no link...
If only I had a "tinyurl" ... / 6tw9yzt
Charles Murray is a blind man. He claims that his new book “has nothing to do with race” because it's about only white people. White people in the Untied States are profoundly influenced by race. Race has had a powerful influence on our culture from the time white people first came and settled here. It's true that it's hard for most white people to recognize that, but only because most of us don't have to interact with non-white people on a regular basis; nevertheless, people of color and the things that have happened to them in our country have had a powerful influence on all of white people's culture, lives, and understanding of the world. A person who pretends to a deep intellectual understanding of culture in our country should take the trouble to study the culture and history of all the ethnic groups here, enough to be able to recognize their effects on each other. By assuming he can write about white people only, without involving race, Murray shows himself to be a man deliberately blinding himself to American life and American reality, most likely through his own refusal to recognize the existence and influence of people who aren't white like him. As far as I can seen, “racism” is a good word for that kind of deliberate blindness. Murray's bubble is thicker than most.
Did you watch the segment? In effort to avoid your spin on this subject, he went to extraordinary lengths to distance himself from race. Further, from your spin on race on how you"know" "white people" I can surmise that you are not white. I am a caucasian male, and I know what we think about and I can tell you with complete confidence that "white people" do not think about race all of the time, nor do they influence all of our behavior. What we think about is is there enough money for food, what's the price of gas today, I love my spouse and many other things. Since we are in the majority as a "racial" element in this country, we think very little about race because we do not see it on a daily basis. However, minorities see the majority in a different light and blame many of their problems on the inequities they feel and experience. I don't deny that minorities feel that way or that there is an inequity, whether purposeful or not.However, to say that you understand white people's thoughts on race as a group is completely wrong.
@Big Daddy, I think you need to read Lucy from Madison's post again. She specifically said "It's true that it's hard for most white people to recognize that, but only because most of us don't have to interact with non-white people on a regular basis", so I think it's safe to assume she IS white.
I think you're both drifting pretty far from the point though. I think Lucy completely misunderstands Murray's decision to focus only on white people. I don't think he's ignoring the role has played in economics; rather he's recognizing the privilege that race has often given whites, and saying that's how much things have changed - being born a white middle class American is no longer any guarantee that one will do well.
I'm just guessing, LOL, haven't read more than the short aricle here so far...
I took the quiz and the conclusion was that I don't have a bubble.
i tried quiz halfway until link broke. for the questions i answerd right it made me look has a redneck :)
Charles Murray is a blind man. He claims that his new book “has nothing to do with race” because it's about only white people. White people in the Untied States are profoundly influenced by race. Race has had a powerful influence on our culture from the time white people first came and settled here. It's true that it's hard for most white people to recognize that, but only because most of us don't have to interact with non-white people on a regular basis; nevertheless, people of color and the things that have happened to them in our country have had a powerful influence on all of white people's culture, lives, and understanding of the world. A person who pretends to a deep intellectual understanding of culture in our country should take the trouble to study the culture and history of all the ethnic groups here, enough to be able to recognize their effects on each other. By assuming he can write about white people only, without involving race, Murray shows himself to be a man deliberately blinding himself to American life and American reality, most likely through his own refusal to recognize the existence and influence of people who aren't white like him. As far as I can seen, “racism” is a good word for that kind of deliberate blindness. Murray's bubble is thicker than most.
(@ Lucy From Madison)Did you watch the segment? In effort to avoid your spin on this subject, he went to extraordinary lengths to distance himself from race. Further, from your spin on race on how you"know" "white people" I can surmise that you are not white. I am a caucasian male, and I know what we think about and I can tell you with complete confidence that "white people" do not think about race all of the time, nor do they influence all of our behavior. What we think about is is there enough money for food, what's the price of gas today, I love my spouse and many other things. Since we are in the majority as a "racial" element in this country, we think very little about race because we do not see it on a daily basis. However, minorities see the majority in a different light and blame many of their problems on the inequities they feel and experience. I don't deny that minorities feel that way or that there is an inequity, whether purposeful or not.However, to say that you understand white people's thoughts on race as a group is completely wrong.
man network might be too busy..... I guess public television{or free} goes far away for all you out there try current tv or hbo's documentaries
For those who had problems, keep trying. The servers are overloaded. But let me save you some time. This test is worthless. The questions are vague and open to interpretation. One question asked, "Have you ever lived for at least a year as an adult in an American neighborhood in which the majority of your nearest 50 neighbors probably did not have college degrees?" LMAO! What? How could I possibly know this? Other questions talked about beer but I quit drinking beer for health reasons. Bet he didn't calculated that in to his scoring. Another question asked about watching Oprah all the way through, but I don't watch any shows all the way through. I usually skip around the channels until I get bored and go for a walk or work out in the yard. Yet, I scored a 6 on the scale and was told "get out some more" This guy is a stooge.
after 20 min I was on question unlucky 13 and the link errored.
So whatever I am I am.
Well by just putting Have You walked in a factory floor or Have u parade in the interview tells you how much the status of this people except for the author
Lucy From Madison, you miss his point. I am not saying I necessarily agree with his approach; but, what he is suggesting is that by limiting his focus on what he defines as what is perceived as the traditional 'American Core'....i.e., White, Traditional All American Valued, Family Oriented, Mostly Anglo Saxon Protestant, etc.....he seems to be saying that if there is a breakdown in cohesion among this group, then as a country we must clearly be culturally divided. Perhaps his use of the word 'white' is an over simplification of his point. It is an interesting point that he observes that among these 'whites'...historically they were all on the same page...but today, they are far apart culturally.
I have not read the book but I watched the segment and I took the quiz. From that I decided I think this theory is flawed. I took the test and it told me I was part of the "new upper middle class" If that is the case, we as a nation are screwed. I have been unemployed a year this month and made less than 20k last year. I grew up poor and have struggled for everything I have. Dont get me wrong, I have done well but I am FAR from upper middle class, hell at this point, Im far from middle class. On a side note, I agree with the post from digitalbeachbum, how in the world would I be able to know whether or not my neighbors have college degrees??? JI do not know how he came up with his theory but I think he needs to re-think a few things. Just sayin.