Pandering Progressives:Is AG Holder Right about Racism?

What if he did ? What's the difference between benefiting from affirmative action and benefiting from a rich daddy?

If you dont know the difference between feasting at the public trough like the bush family did during the first and second world wars and a poor man trying to feed his family from that same trough there is no sense in talking to you.

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From "a 'minority view'. (It is necessary to actually read this provocative essay to the end to know what the authori is actually saying.)

Quote:

A Nation of Cowards

Attorney General Eric Holder said the United States is "a nation of cowards" when it comes to race relations. In one sense, he is absolutely right. Many whites, from university administrators and professors, schoolteachers to employers and public officials accept behavior from black people that they wouldn't begin to accept from whites. For example, some of the nation's most elite universities, such as Vanderbilt, Stanford University and the University of California, have yielded to black student demands for separate graduation ceremonies and separate "celebratory events." Universities such as Stanford, Cornell, MIT, and Cal Berkeley have, or have had, segregated dorms. If white students demanded whites-only graduation ceremonies or whites-only dorms, administrators would have labeled their demands as intolerable racism. When black students demand the same thing, these administrators cowardly capitulate. Calling these university administrators cowards is the most flattering characterization of their behavior. They might actually be stupid enough to believe nonsense taught by their some of sociology and psychology professors that blacks can't be racists because they don't have power.

What about Holder's statement that America is "voluntarily segregated"? I say, so what. According to the census, in 2007, 4.6 percent of married blacks were married to a white; less than 1 percent of married whites were married to a black. While blacks are 13 percent of the population, they are 80 percent of professional basketball players and 65 percent of professional football players. Mere casual observance of audiences at ice hockey games or opera performances would reveal gross voluntary segregation. What would Holder propose the U.S. Justice Department do about these and other instances of voluntary segregation?

Attorney General Holder's flawed thinking is widespread whereby people think that an activity that is not racially integrated is therefore segregated. Blacks are about 60 percent of the Washington, D.C. population. At the Reagan National Airport, which serves D.C., nowhere near 60 percent of the airport's water fountain users are black; I'd guess blacks are never more than 5 percent of users. The population statistics of states such as South Dakota, Iowa, Maine, Montana and Vermont show that not even 1 percent of their populations are black. Does that mean Reagan National Airport water fountains and South Dakota, Iowa, Maine, Montana and Vermont are racially segregated? If Holder does anything about "voluntary segregation" at the state level I hope it's not court-ordered busing; I'm not wild about their winters. Just because some activity is not racially integrated does not mean that it is racially segregated.

The bottom line is that the civil rights struggle is over and it is won. At one time black Americans didn't share the constitutional guarantees shared by whites; today we do. That does not mean that there are not major problems that confront a large segment of the black community, but they are not civil rights problems nor can they be solved through a "conversation on race." Black illegitimacy stands at 70 percent; nearly 50 percent of black students drop out of high school; and only 30 percent of black youngsters reside in two-parent families. In 2005, while 13 percent of the population, blacks committed over 52 percent of the nation's homicides and were 46 percent of the homicide victims. Ninety-four percent of black homicide victims had a black person as their murderer. Such pathology, I think much of it precipitated by family breakdown, is entirely new among blacks. In 1940, black illegitimacy was 19 percent; in 1950, only 18 percent of black households were female-headed compared with today's 70 percent. Both during slavery and as late as 1920, a teenage girl raising a child without a man present was rare among blacks.

If black people continue to accept the corrupt blame game agenda of liberal whites, black politicians and assorted hustlers, as opposed to accepting personal responsibility, the future for many black Americans will remain bleak.

Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University.

http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/09/ANationOfCowards.htm

1 Reply

@Foxfyre,

Well, I'm glad you pulled it back onto the actual subject of the topic.

Interesting essay. And I can't find one statement that I disagree with except the I don't think Holder was necessarily expressing the fact that he was blaming anyone about the fact that blacks and whites remain fairly segregated socially. I think he was just making what he believes to be a statement of fact

Quote:

The bottom line is that the civil rights struggle is over and it is won. At one time black Americans didn't share the constitutional guarantees shared by whites; today we do. That does not mean that there are not major problems that confront a large segment of the black community, but they are not civil rights problems nor can they be solved through a "conversation on race." Black illegitimacy stands at 70 percent; nearly 50 percent of black students drop out of high school; and only 30 percent of black youngsters reside in two-parent families. In 2005, while 13 percent of the population, blacks committed over 52 percent of the nation's homicides and were 46 percent of the homicide victims. Ninety-four percent of black homicide victims had a black person as their murderer. Such pathology, I think much of it precipitated by family breakdown, is entirely new among blacks. In 1940, black illegitimacy was 19 percent; in 1950, only 18 percent of black households were female-headed compared with today's 70 percent. Both during slavery and as late as 1920, a teenage girl raising a child without a man present was rare among blacks

I've wondered about this myself. I remember watching a documentary on the Montgomery bus boycott during the civil rights movement and being struck by the articulate and eloquent speech of the women who were interviewed - and they were, for the most part, maids- who were walking miles to and from work to protest sitting at the back of the bus.
And I asked myself, 'What's changed so much between now and then?' because I don't think if you spoke to a middle classed young woman of any race today you'd find very many as articulate and wellspoken as these women who were basically eighth grade educated menial laborers living in segregation.

From my observation, I'd say that opportunities are available, and those who put their back into it and work hard and take personal responsibility definitely can succeed, but there is still a level of distrust between blacks and whites, and as many social and cultural institutions are run by white people, that impacts negatively on the level of participation and cooperation of nonwhites. Whether this distrust is justified or not- the fact is it does exist.

I saw this very often in schools. On parent nights, many times, the parents of the black students would not come. I don't believe for a minute they cared less about the progress of their children- they wanted them to be educated and succeed, but I do think there may have been a level of discomfort in an environment in which they may have felt not known, or understood, in which they felt they'd be looked at as different or less able.

And I don't think this feeling of otherness or differentness can really be dissipated unless people DO desegregate socially.
One of my favorite activities at the last public school I taught at in the US was our Unity Dinner. It was always in February - and we had people of all races-students, parents, teachers, administrators, and any guest anyone wanted to bring, coming together - everyone brought a dish from their culture and we all ate dinner together, listened to poetry and music, danced-in other words got to know each other as something other than black or white or hispanic or asian.

I think these are the sort of activities, rather than mandated conversations on race, that will end up making any sort of difference in desegregating socially.

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@aidan,

All of this merely illustrates that, in his well-composed but very patronizing speech, AG Holder provided us all with an excellent example of the "cowardliness" of which he accused the Justice department employees he was addressing directly and the rest of us as well. The most interesting thing about his speech is what was obviously required by his central proposition and which he left out entirely. No mention of the growing pathologies within Black culture after the civil rights struggle was (deservedly) won, and how correcting that may be the central needed element of the new phase of our collective struggle. Instead he gave his audience only the tired rationalizations for endless affirmative action for Blacks (but no one else), reminding us that we will have to continue things like Black History Month untill we all get it right - by his analysis.

1 Reply

@aidan,

aidan wrote:

Well, I'm glad you pulled it back onto the actual subject of the topic.

Interesting essay. And I can't find one statement that I disagree with except the I don't think Holder was necessarily expressing the fact that he was blaming anyone about the fact that blacks and whites remain fairly segregated socially. I think he was just making what he believes to be a statement of fact

Quote:

I would agree had he not followed this:

Quote:
Given all that we as a nation went through during the civil rights struggle it is hard for me to accept that the result of those efforts was to create an America that is more prosperous, more positively race conscious and yet is voluntarily socially segregated.

Immediately with this:

Quote:
As a nation we should use Black History month as a means to deal with this continuing problem.

Admittedly Holder may have intended that last line to be in a general sense of discussing racism, but it didn't sound that way when he gave it or when you read it. But I'll give him benefit of the doubt as I can't know what his intent was without him elaborating on it.

I believe Williams point however, is 'voluntary segregation' is not a problem that needs to be anybody's concern. Voluntary is voluntary. There are real issues out there, however, that should be a concern for everybody not the least of which are those who are most hurt by them.

You took particular note of this point in Williams essay:

Quote:

The bottom line is that the civil rights struggle is over and it is won. At one time black Americans didn't share the constitutional guarantees shared by whites; today we do. That does not mean that there are not major problems that confront a large segment of the black community, but they are not civil rights problems nor can they be solved through a "conversation on race." Black illegitimacy stands at 70 percent; nearly 50 percent of black students drop out of high school; and only 30 percent of black youngsters reside in two-parent families. In 2005, while 13 percent of the population, blacks committed over 52 percent of the nation's homicides and were 46 percent of the homicide victims. Ninety-four percent of black homicide victims had a black person as their murderer. Such pathology, I think much of it precipitated by family breakdown, is entirely new among blacks. In 1940, black illegitimacy was 19 percent; in 1950, only 18 percent of black households were female-headed compared with today's 70 percent. Both during slavery and as late as 1920, a teenage girl raising a child without a man present was rare among blacks.

And you responded with this most astute observation:

Quote:
I've wondered about this myself. I remember watching a documentary on the Montgomery bus boycott during the civil rights movement and being struck by the articulate and eloquent speech of the women who were interviewed - and they were, for the most part, maids- who were walking miles to and from work to protest sitting at the back of the bus.

And I asked myself, 'What's changed so much between now and then?' because I don't think if you spoke to a middle classed young woman of any race today you'd find very many as articulate and wellspoken as these women who were basically eighth grade educated menial laborers living in segregation.

From my observation, I'd say that opportunities are available, and those who put their back into it and work hard and take personal responsibility definitely can succeed, but there is still a level of distrust between blacks and whites, and as many social and cultural institutions are run by white people, that impacts negatively on the level of participation and cooperation of nonwhites. Whether this distrust is justified or not- the fact is it does exist.

I saw this very often in schools. On parent nights, many times, the parents of the black students would not come. I don't believe for a minute they cared less about the progress of their children- they wanted them to be educated and succeed, but I do think there may have been a level of discomfort in an environment in which they may have felt not known, or understood, in which they felt they'd be looked at as different or less able.

And I don't think this feeling of otherness or differentness can really be dissipated unless people DO desegregate socially.

One of my favorite activities at the last public school I taught at in the US was our Unity Dinner. It was always in February - and we had people of all races-students, parents, teachers, administrators, and any guest anyone wanted to bring, coming together - everyone brought a dish from their culture and we all ate dinner together, listened to poetry and music, danced-in other words got to know each other as something other than black or white or hispanic or asian.

I think these are the sort of activities, rather than mandated conversations on race, that will end up making any sort of difference in desegregating socially.

What changed, in my opinion, was overt government meddling that failed to recognize the virtues and institutions in the black community that strengthened and sustained it as it struggled to gain its rightful place in society. The government systematically went about destroying those institutions in the name of desegregation and, with the very programs intended to help, made the black father irrevelent and made the nuclear black family unnecessary and perhaps even undesirable. If you read some of the best works of Shelby Steele, Thomas Sowell, and others who have done in depth analysis of the real black history, most come to that same conclusion.

In my opinion two things need to happen to eradicate the last vestiges of racism in this country:

1. Both opportunistic whites and blacks need to be exposed for the scavengers they are and we should stop rewarding them for keeping black people as victims and therefore in need of rescue so that those presuming to be the 'saviors' will be kept in power.

2. All of us should swallow hard, take a deep breath, and vow to lose the hypersensitivity and political correctness yokes that requires that we treat black people differently from white people. How can anybody ever feel like 'one of the boys or girls' if he or she must be treated with kid gloves and forever remind that he or she is black and therefore different.

Let's not be cowards and talk about that.

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@georgeob1,

Quote:

All of this merely illustrates that, in his well-composed but very patronizing speech, AG Holder provided us all with an excellent example of the "cowardliness" of which he accused the Justice department employees he was addressing directly and the rest of us as well.

In what way did you find it patronizing? I didn't find it patronizing at all. I don't think he went into very much detail, which may have been interpreted an an example of the very cowardice he spoke about, but also may have just been a matter of this being his introduction to the fact that he thought this was one of the issues he's anxious to see addressed.
Maybe the hows and wherefores will come in the next speech.

Quote:

No mention of the growing pathologies within Black culture after the civil rights struggle was (deservedly) won, and how correcting that may be the central needed element of the new phase of our collective struggle.

I agree, this definitely has got to be addressed and as you stated - collectively.

Quote:

Instead he gave his audience only the tired rationalizations for endless affirmative action for Blacks (but no one else), reminding us that we will have to continue things like Black History Month untill we all get it right - by his analysis.

Why would you say this - that we will HAVE to continue things like Black History Month until we all get it right..?
That's the sort of comment or attitude that I think feeds into the atmosphere of distrust. Do you resent having black history month?
I actually always really enjoy it - to tell you the truth. Especially as a teacher. When I was in school learning history - there wasn't the emphasis on how blacks contributed to our country's history, so the first few years I was teaching it was as much a learning experience for me as it was for the students.
And really - how much does it affect anyone of any race who isn't in school?

And yes, there've been other nationalities of immigrants, but none that were involuntary as blacks were, and none who played the unique role in our nation's history that black people have.
I would feel we were losing something valuable if we didn't HAVE to have black history month, myself.

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@aidan,

fyrefox said:

Quote:

2. All of us should swallow hard, take a deep breath, and vow to lose the hypersensitivity and political correctness yokes that requires that we treat black people differently from white people. How can anybody ever feel like 'one of the boys or girls' if he or she must be treated with kid gloves and forever remind that he or she is black and therefore different.

Let's not be cowards and talk about that.

I don't feel pressured at all to treat black people differently than I treat white people - and I can honestly say that I don't.
I feel that that would be insulting to do to anyone.

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@aidan,

I don't think I treat anybody differently because of their race, either etc., but some of the heaviest insults and snotty comments I've received on A2K have been when I have tried to explain that. At least the barbs were comparable to those I took when I suggested that traditional marriage was something worth defending or when I thought immigration laws should be enforced. Smile

Oh well. You're lucky that you've perhaps never been in a situation where it was an issue.

The point is though that our society is hypersenstive. Trent Lott, Senate Majority Leader, for instance, was forced to resign his position for telling a 90-year-old colleague, Strom Thurmond on his birthday, that he would have made a great president. Because that 90-year-old colleague was running on a segregationist ticket four decades before, Lott's comment was branded racist. Lott almost certainly wasn't thinking of that old platform at the time, and Thurmond's exemplary change of heart and advocacy for minority rights in his later years counted for nothing. Lott was censured and lost his post over that almost certainly innocent remark.

That stupid dead chimpanzee cartoon--disgusting but not because it was racist--is another example. Because black people were once taunted as being 'jungle bunnies' and have been sometimes portrayed as 'ape like', the hypersensitive among us immediately branded the cartoon racist. Apparently the accusers don't see that THEIR making such a connection is in itself racist I guess.

I want to be able to treat black people exactly as I would treat anybody and not have to measure every word and nuance to avoid anything that might trigger an accusation of racist attitude or insensitivity. It is only when such freedom is allowed that racism has any chance to cease to exist.

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@aidan,

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@blueveinedthrobber,

The problem there is that people get into Harvard , Yale and other fine schools mainly because of their test scores. Or havn't you looked at the evidence lately?

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@Foxfyre,

foxfyre

I just realized that I called you fyrefox in the last post- I've got a cold and I'm a little dippy- sorry.

Quote:

Oh well. You're lucky that you've perhaps never been in a situation where it was an issue.

I don't think it's that so much as a generational thing maybe. I know that you and Georgob are a little older than I am and so you guys probably came up in a time when relationships between blacks and whites were 'different' than during the time after civil rights when I grew up.
I won't assume that they were better or worse - only that I never had a conscious moment when I remember thinking my black neighbors were any different from any of my other friends - they sat next to me in school- their dads rode the train into work with my dad - their dads had the same kind of job that my dad had...you know...and that's how I came up.
I never thought of them as different or less than - I learned about the whole civil rights thing in school and I was SHOCKED! I looked at Francis Mayberry, my little friend who happened to be black and thought, 'You mean, there was a time when Francis and I wouldn't have been able to go to the same school? Why?'
I think that probably explains it more than anything else.

Quote:

Trent Lott, Senate Majority Leader, for instance, was forced to resign his position for telling a 90-year-old colleague, Strom Thurmond on his birthday, that he would have made a great president. Because that 90-year-old colleague was running on a segregationist ticket four decades before, Lott's comment was branded racist.

Strom Thurmond was racist til the end of his life - and a hypocrite to boot. No one who was committed to freedom and equal treatment of all people would EVER have wanted him to be president.

Quote:

That stupid dead chimpanzee cartoon--disgusting but not because it was racist--is another example. Because black people were once taunted as being 'jungle bunnies' and have been sometimes portrayed as 'ape like', the hypersensitive among us immediately branded the cartoon racist. Apparently the accusers don't see that THEIR making such a connection is in itself racist I guess.

I agree with you here. It was the furthest thing from MY mind.

Quote:

I want to be able to treat black people exactly as I would treat anybody and not have to measure every word and nuance to avoid anything that might trigger an accusation of racist attitude or insensitivity. It is only when such freedom is allowed that racism has any chance to cease to exist.

I think you can. I know that I feel that I can. But I also know that as I said, I know I don't hold any feelings of resentment over any of the civil rights I've seen enacted for people of all races. I'm nothing but grateful that things have changed. And I would only like things to change more positively, and I would feel honored to be a part of that positive change.

1 Reply

@aidan,

Yes, I was in highschool when segregation ended in our school system. The black kids had been bussed 20 miles to an all-black school in a neighboring town which made absolutely no sense to us who were not bussed. Our parents, born and raised in the south, were nervous about desegregation. We kids had no problem with it and the group of very uncomfortable black kids entering our school for the first time were quickly assimilated and, so far as I know, made it okay. At least some still come back for the reunions. Smile

Disagree re Strom Thurmond though I did err in my earlier post. It was his 100th birthday rcognition where Trott made his now infamous compliment. Sure Thurmond was a staunch segregationist as a younger man. But he did change his views, his foundation has helped many many black kids go to college, and the legacy at his funeral went something like this:

Quote:

His 1948 presidential campaign was launched to protest the national Democratic Party’s civil rights plank. His record filibuster in 1957 was an attempt to kill part of a civil rights bill. In the 1950s and 1960s, he condemned nearly all court rulings and congressional proposals that extended civil rights to African-Americans.

Thurmond once vowed that “there’s not enough troops in the Army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the Negro race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches.”

But many black and white people credit Thurmond for changing his views on racial issues. He became the first Southern member of Congress to appoint a black person to his professional staff. He voted for the Voting Rights Act of 1982. And he was honored in 1995 by the presidents of historically black colleges and universities for his support of those schools.

“In most instances I am confident that we have more in common as Southerners than we have reason to oppose each other because of race,” Thurmond once told Ebony magazine. “Equality of opportunity for all is a goal upon which blacks and Southern whites can agree

http://web.mit.edu/molly/Public/strom.htm

The treatment of Lott was unlike Robert Byrd, former Klansman, who was allowed public use of the "N" word out of deference for his age and changed views.

Williams, and other black professionals in his somewhat right of center group, have been beating pretty much the same drum. All the major battles regarding race and discrimination have now been fought and won. It is now time to stop focusing on race in our social fabric and start talking about what makes it possible for human beings to achieve and thrive.

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This is a follow-up to my original post; since AG Holder believes we should talk about race, I'm taking him up on it:

Is Affirmative Action necessary any longer?

Depends. Some of my friends, upper middle class, married, providing advantages to their children in SAT prep, campus visits, and simply expecting their children to go to college certainly give them the upper hand against the kids of mutual friends of ours, single parents who are not so well off and not really interested if their kids go to college.

We are all friends from long ago, through work and our kids growing up in the same small town.

Oh yeah, the kids with the married parents used to have another advantage in CA. They happen to be minorities (although ironically, in my part of CA, minorities are no longer in the minority) who would be given enrollment advantages in the University of California and CSUS systems because of their race.

While the poor kids with single parents, who happened to be white, would automatically be scored lower.

AA was declared illegal in CA; now, the state is going to a system to recognize kids coming from disadvantaged circumstances, which is exactly how I believe it should be...

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@aidan,

aidan wrote:

georgeob1 wrote:
Instead he gave his audience only the tired rationalizations for endless affirmative action for Blacks (but no one else), reminding us that we will have to continue things like Black History Month untill we all get it right - by his analysis.

Why would you say this - that we will HAVE to continue things like Black History Month until we all get it right..?

That was a point Holder made rather clearly in his remarks. He went beyond mere pro forma reference to the "appropriateness" of Black History Month (presumably the occasion for his speech) and emphasized the continuing need for it among non-black Americans to correct for their deficiencies in understanding.

aidan wrote:

That's the sort of comment or attitude that I think feeds into the atmosphere of distrust. Do you resent having black history month?
I actually always really enjoy it - to tell you the truth. Especially as a teacher. When I was in school learning history - there wasn't the emphasis on how blacks contributed to our country's history, so the first few years I was teaching it was as much a learning experience for me as it was for the students.
And really - how much does it affect anyone of any race who isn't in school?

I can't speak for the education of others, but mine (parochial schools) provided a fairly complete and balanced description of all the various peoples who have contributed to our common culture, accompanied by a persistent emphasis on our common human nature and equal worth as human beings. None of the names Holder recited were unfamiliar to me, nor were the details of slavery, the slave trade, the political and military struggle for abolition, the Reconstruction, the emergence of Jim Crow, official segregation in the South and more or less equivalent intolerance in the North, all culminating in the Civil Rights struggle that was, at least in its legal terms, successfully resolved in the 1960s.

For the past two decades or so the social and economic ascent of Blacks has been roughly equivalent to that endured by others in the successive waves of immigration that started in the 19th century, involving Irish, Chinese, Jews, Poles (as well as many others) and today involving Latins & Hispanics and people from South Asia. In my view, the continuing emphasis on affirmative action for Blacks (only) is one of several important factors that contributes to the social and economic pathologies that have increasingly infected an unfortunate generation of them since the Civil Rights movement was sucessfully resolved.

We are entering our fourth decade of affirmative action with respect to Black Americans. I believe that is enough and do indeed resent its continuation. More importantly, I believe that the real victims here are the Blacks themselves, who are being systematically deprived of responsibility for themselves and ownership of the successes they increasingly do achieve.

With respect to our public schools, there appears to be a growing emphasis on indoctrination in "approved" social values and themes, all as an unhappy substitute for real education in history, literature and science. In such a system I suppose the list of fashionable themes needs to be updated periodically, but that is at best an unfortunate substitution.

1 Reply

AA doesn't just apply to African Americans George.

It would apply to white men who wanted to go into nursing, for example.
As an Asian American, I was lower qualified for some resources because I was studying engineering (a field that Asians hold a percentage much higher).

Don't be that guy who tries to make the national racial dialog JUST about blacks and whites.

Black history month is great. I think it's propagandized by both people for and against AA. I think it is not about some social reconditioning, but instead a time to recognize the contributions of blacks over the history of the USA. I'm very pleased so far with my workplace that they have had diversity education for Hispanics, Irish immigrants, African Americans (this month) and I will assume others in the future such as Asians in April.

T
K
O

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@Diest TKO,

You are profoundly ignorant about AA, Diest TKO.

Note:

even at their inception, when affirma-tive action policies were predominantly race-based, they were designed to remedy the insti-tutional exclusion of a number of racially disadvantaged groups.

Diest TKO, you do not know ( or do you?) that Asians in some California Universities were discouraged from applying because they were taking what some said were too many places in those Universities>

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@Diest TKO,

Yuo don't seem to know very much about the garbage that school children learn in BLACK HISTORY month. I'll bet you don't know that Cleopatra was black( wrong, wrong, wrong). She was a Macedonian Greek. Black History Month has used the lie that Aristotle raided the Library at Alexandria( Aristotle was not a great thinker, you see, he stole the African Ideas from the Library) but Aristotle never went to Alexandria.

Source:"Not out of Africa" Dr. Mary Lefkowitz.

You have been conned- Diest TKO

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@Diest TKO,

Asian are overrepresented on Phi Beta Kappa lists at major Universities. There are very few blacks on those lists. Top Universities have to accept Blacks.

I have a Phi Beta Kappa List from Harvard University. There were 1,600 graduates. There were 132 Phi Beta Kappas for that year. There were thirty two Asians on the list. There were NO blacks.

Does this mean that blacks are inherently less intelligent than Asians?

Of course not. Anyone even vaguely familiar with Genetics and Intelligence Testing knows that high, average and low IQ's are distributed among each race and among the entire human race in the same proportion.

The problem with black underachievement is a DISFUNCTIONAL CULTURE which has been exacerbated by "do gooder" liberals.

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George OB1 wrote:

For the past two decades or so the social and economic ascent of Blacks has been roughly equivalent to that endured by others in the successive waves of immigration that started in the 19th century, involving Irish, Chinese, Jews, Poles (as well as many others) and today involving Latins & Hispanics and people from South Asia. In my view, the continuing emphasis on affirmative action for Blacks (only) is one of several important factors that contributes to the social and economic pathologies that have increasingly infected an unfortunate generation of them since the Civil Rights movement was sucessfully resolved.

We are entering our fourth decade of affirmative action with respect to Black Americans. I believe that is enough and do indeed resent its continuation. More importantly, I believe that the real victims here are the Blacks themselves, who are being systematically deprived of responsibility for themselves and ownership of the successes they increasingly do achieve.

With respect to our public schools, there appears to be a growing emphasis on indoctrination in "approved" social values and themes, all as an unhappy substitute for real education in history, literature and science. In such a system I suppose the list of fashionable themes needs to be updated periodically, but that is at best an unfortunate substitution.
****************************************************************

Absolutely correct---

In many inner city schools which are all black, the Average ACT score is nine. (9). This score can be achieved by marking randomly.

Liberals say( and have said since the Great Society, when LBJ began to deliver Millions to the inner cities for education enhancement) IF we only had more money, our black children would learn!

It has been demonstrated that money is not the answer. Again, the culture of blacks is largely disfunctional with regards to education especially when compared to groups like Asian. Many blacks view themselves as victims and do revere education like Asians do.

Here is proof that more money is not the answer:

Note:

Money And School Performance:
Lessons from the Kansas City Desegregation Experiment
by Paul Ciotti

Paul Ciotti lives in Los Angeles and writes about education.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Executive Summary

For decades critics of the public schools have been saying, "You can't solve educational problems by throwing money at them." The education establishment and its supporters have replied, "No one's ever tried." In Kansas City they did try. To improve the education of black students and encourage desegregation, a federal judge invited the Kansas City, Missouri, School District to come up with a cost-is-no-object educational plan and ordered local and state taxpayers to find the money to pay for it.

Kansas City spent as much as $11,700 per pupil--more money per pupil, on a cost of living adjusted basis, than any other of the 280 largest districts in the country. The money bought higher teachers' salaries, 15 new schools, and such amenities as an Olympic-sized swimming pool with an underwater viewing room, television and animation studios, a robotics lab, a 25-acre wildlife sanctuary, a zoo, a model United Nations with simultaneous translation capability, and field trips to Mexico and Senegal. The student-teacher ratio was 12 or 13 to 1, the lowest of any major school district in the country.

The results were dismal. Test scores did not rise; the black-white gap did not diminish; and there was less, not greater, integration.

The Kansas City experiment suggests that, indeed, educational problems can't be solved by throwing money at them, that the structural problems of our current educational system are far more important than a lack of material resources, and that the focus on desegregation diverted attention from the real problem, low achievement.

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Pandering Progressives:Is AG Holder Right about Racism?

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