Elaine L. Chao

The new U.S. Secretary of Labor, Elaine L. Chao, is an "unabashed believer in the American Dream" who may not realize that hard work alone won't lift the vast majority of indigent Americans, writes Ling-chi Wang in the Jan. 18 edition of Asian Week Chao, a Chinese American, believes "in the myth that America is a land of unlimited opportunity for all," writes Wang, a professor and director of Asian American Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. "That myth, however, frequently turns America racist, nasty and mean," she adds. "Millions of Americans work as hard, if not harder, just to survive," writes Wang. "Power, wealth, income and privilege are not distributed equally."

COPYRIGHT 2001 Community Renewal Society
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