Let's unpack some of Sowell's verbiage here. What do you say?
'Middleman minorities are middlemen not only in a purely economic sense but also in social and political senses. Where a ruling class or race collects money from a large class of poorer people whom they do not wish to deal with directly, middleman minorities may take on the role of collecting rents or feudal dues for landlords, or taxes for government-- all roles virtually guaranteeing unpopularity.' TS
One point to note here, in passing, is that a middleman minority is substituted in these instances for an actual or potential indigenous middleman group which is either nonexistent, competitively or mandatorily unnaturally ousted, or partially or whoely supplanted from a role or position within the middle ranks of the host imperial or host colonial society by the ruling class or race in favor of an alien minority having allegiances of its own either within its own ranks or to a third foreign ruling class or race.
If the ruling class or race is also itself foreign, this further complicates a situation where the ruling class or race declines to use its own foreign ethnic or national group or groups to accomplish middleman minority tasks, while bringing in a third minority for the purpose.
This will tend to create animosities that are triangulated, more or less complicated, and seldom merely bilateral.
'Middleman minorities are middlemen not only in a purely economic sense but also in social and political senses. Where a ruling class or race collects money from a large class of poorer people whom they do not wish to deal with directly, middleman minorities may take on the role of collecting rents or feudal dues for landlords, or taxes for government-- all roles virtually guaranteeing unpopularity.' TS
One point to note here, in passing, is that a middleman minority is substituted in these instances for an actual or potential indigenous middleman group which is either nonexistent, competitively or mandatorily unnaturally ousted, or partially or whoely supplanted from a role or position within the middle ranks of the host imperial or host colonial society by the ruling class or race in favor of an alien minority having allegiances of its own either within its own ranks or to a third foreign ruling class or race.
If the ruling class or race is also itself foreign, this further complicates a situation where the ruling class or race declines to use its own foreign ethnic or national group or groups to accomplish middleman minority tasks, while bringing in a third minority for the purpose.
This will tend to create animosities that are triangulated, more or less complicated, and seldom merely bilateral.
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