hard heads soft hearts

a scratch pad for half-formed thoughts by a liberal political junkie who's nobody special. ''Hard Heads, Soft Hearts'' is the title of a book by Princeton economist Alan Blinder, and tends to be a favorite motto of neoliberals, especially liberal economists.
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Friday, June 14, 2002
 

the pain of being an ethnic minority is that to
survive (to get a job, a loan, take part in the
community, etc.) you must depend at least to some
extent on the good will and tolerance of the ethnic
majority. A member of the ethnic majority, on the
other hand, can live a perfectly adequate, successful
life while snubbing minorities and keeping to his own
kind. This breeds an understandable and ineradicable
psychic insecurity among minorities, and this is why
bigoted statements from minorities are not as
wounding, hurtful or morally bad as bigoted statements
from majorites.

To put it in plain english, it's much easier to be
generous when you're on top.