Politics & Power Quote by Alexis Herman

A confident promise dressed up as reassurance, Alexis Herman's line is doing two jobs at once: selling the economy as broadly hospitable while narrowing the pitch to a group long excluded from its benefits. The phrase "enormously good" reads like a morale boost, but it also functions as a policy argument in miniature: education is framed not merely as self-improvement, but as the most reliable shield against labor-market volatility.

The rhetorical tell is her careful sequencing: "first of all" signals she is building a case, not sharing an observation. Then she pivots to "particularly African Americans", a pointed acknowledgement that good macroeconomic news doesn't land evenly. In the 1990s context Herman is associated with, tight labor markets and falling unemployment did create real openings. Yet the subtext is more complicated: "with a college degree" becomes the gate. Opportunity is offered, but conditional, almost contractual. The statement implies that the system works if you meet it on its preferred terms.

And then there's the slightly awkward finish, "you really breach the unemployment rate", which reveals the political tightrope. She wants to claim a breakthrough without naming the structural barriers that make such a breakthrough necessary in the first place: discrimination in hiring, unequal schools, uneven access to networks and capital. By emphasizing degree attainment, she aligns with a mainstream, technocratic optimism that avoids confrontation. It's aspiration talk with an implicit disclaimer: the era may be "good", but only for those allowed to enter through the credentialed door.