Why be alarmed about the present situation? Such a complacent projection of the past into the obscure future is fallacious for several reasons. First and foremost Is the fact that in the past. most of the inhabitants of slums were recently arrived white foreign immigrants. They knew that their predecessors for generations had worked their way out of poverty in the cities. They were convinced that they could do likewise. The almost complete lack of such convictiona consequence of the tragic story of the Negro in the United Statesis the outstanding charact~ristic of youth in the Negro slum. Secondly. a foreign immigrant came from an impoverished but stable society. for the most part a peasant society with its own ancient mores. The pride of family and often strong church connections were social cement that kept the slums from being complete social jungles in spite of the fact that the dwelling conditions were often far worse than they are today. Lastly. for most of our history. labor shortages rather than labor surpluses were characteristic.
Identified stereotypes
Generalization that past immigrants worked their way out of poverty and came from stable societies with strong social structures.