Elizabeth Martinez, De Colores Means All of Us (1998)
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All-out opposition to diversity mounted when Allan Bloom fired a major salvo with his 1987 bestseller, The Closing of the American Mind. That same year, the National Association of Scholars in Princeton, New Jersey, was founded to defend "excellence" from extinction with the help of intellectuals like D'Souza and magazines like the Atlantic. The Anglo generals in the war soon had a few lieutenants of color, like African-American professor Shelby Steele of California State University in San Jose (and later Ward Connerly, also of California). Steele attacked affirmative action, saying it represented over-reliance by minorities and women on "the power of being victims." In its place we should follow the Horatio Alger formula for attaining success through individual responsibility and hard work. Not long after came a few Chicano academics who also advised Raza students to forget affirmative action; just stop whining, study hard and help your mom sell more tamales, you too could be Hispanics.

— Elizabeth Martinez

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "All-out opposition to diversity mounted when Allan Bloom fired a major salvo with his 1987 bestseller, The Closing of the American Mind. That same year, the National Association of Scholars in Princeton, New Jersey, was founded to defend "excellence" from extinction with the help of intellectuals like D'Souza and magazines like the Atlantic. The Anglo generals in the war soon had a few lieutenants of color, like African-American professor Shelby Steele of California State University in San Jose (and later Ward Connerly, also of California). Steele attacked affirmative action, saying it represented over-reliance by minorities and women on "the power of being victims." In its place we should follow the Horatio Alger formula for attaining success through individual responsibility and hard work. Not long after came a few Chicano academics who also advised Raza students to forget affirmative action; just stop whining, study hard and help your mom sell more tamales, you too could be Hispanics." in the context of "Elizabeth Martinez, De Colores Means All of Us (1998)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Allan Bloom" (Quotes about Allan Bloom) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Allan Bloom

About Allan Bloom

Allan David Bloom (14 September, 1930 in Indianapolis, Indiana – 7 October, 1992 in Chicago, Illinois) was an American philosopher, essayist and academic. Bloom championed education based on the study of 'Great Books', as did his mentor Leo Strauss. He criticised contemporary American higher education in his 1987 book, The Closing of the American Mind, which became a bestseller.