Watts article

[Keith McMullen]

 >>>"While the white culture is concerned with various forms of 
systematized
folly--the economy of the area in fact depending on it--the black 
culture is
stuck pretty much with basic realities like disease, like failure, 
violence
and death, which the whites have mostly chosen--and can afford--to 
ignore."

He says here explicitly ("mostly") in this brilliantly formulated 
sentence
(which is why it's on my favorites-list of the Watts-article) that not 
all
whites have chosen or can afford to ignore those facts of reality, 
doesn't
he?<<<

The modifier applies to choice. There is no modifier on 'can afford.'

Whites have mostly chosen.

Whites can afford.