Posted on 02/17/2022 8:07:52 AM PST by karpov
At the American university where I teach, one of my assigned tasks is to advise undergraduates—mostly freshmen and sophomores. This essay describes a conversation I had in 2017 with one of those advisees. I will call him Daniel.
Daniel was a sophomore at the time. He had been an advisee of mine for a year already, and I’d come to understand that he was a prodigy. I’d also formed a hypothesis, based on a certain bluntness and lack of social tact he exhibited, that Daniel might be on the autism/Asperger’s spectrum. He seemed weak on interpersonal skills and narrowly, even obsessively, focused on math and science. During his first year of university studies, Daniel had taken a number of upper-level math and physics courses that none of my other advisees had taken, and had earned flat As in almost all of them. His GPA probably would have been a perfect 4.0 if the university had allowed him to take only math and science courses. As it was, it was a 3.85.
At the end of his freshman year, Daniel applied for admission to a competitive honors program that our university runs, but he was rejected. He came to my office to discuss this—or, rather, to complain about it. I soon realized that he was not just disappointed; he was angry. Daniel believed he’d been treated unfairly. He believed he was the victim of reverse racism.
I told Daniel that I understood why he was upset, but I reminded him that the program he’d applied to is highly competitive. The admissions committee presumably received many strong applications. There is always some subjectivity in admissions decisions, I noted, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Subjectivity isn’t the same as unfairness.
(Excerpt) Read more at quillette.com ...
I want conservatives who have great stories to tell to find editors who will cull their verbosity and make it possible that someone some day will read all the way to the end of their articles.
I recently sat in a staff meeting at my University when the topic turned to hiring to fill vacancies.....
it was made perfectly clear that whites need not apply...
LOL! “Affirmative action editor wanted.”
There is another factor besides race here, although that is the primary one: autism.
A friend has a son who had the highest GPA in his junior class at a difficult private school. Yes, he is smart in math and engineering and volunteers a lot tutoring younger kids at the school.
At the end of the school year there was an awards ceremony. Even though he was the best student, he did not get the top student award or even runner up. From the rumors going around the school the administration did not want an obviously autistic kid going up and giving a speech as the top student.
After the ceremony he just broke down and did not come out of his room for days.
“affirmative action” is not well intentioned and makes up for slavery....blah, blah, blaf”
It is racism. Pure and simple. It has the collateral benefit of giving the closet racists in charge an opportunity to pick&choose — that makes these losers feel so powerful. And, that is why it will continue forever, losers gotta get something somehow.
We would have to start with professors who are not weak and timid. A president cannot do this.
The term “reverse racism” concedes the point that “actual racism” is something only whites do to others.
You should never accept use of this vile blood libel.
See the PDF file linked in this post: http://allanfavish.com/index.php/affirmative-actionracial-preferences/181-lawsuits-against-the-university-of-california-re-racial-admissions-policy
Too bad; he could have had an opportunity to speak on Autism and educate his classmates, who may think him simply weird. You'd think the usual "woke" school administration would have picked up on that.
When Daniel heard me use the word “racist,” even in this conjectural, non-accusatory way, he responded angrily. He told me that he was not a racist. He had voted for Democrats in the 2016 election and hated Donald Trump. And as it happens, I had reason to believe this was true. The morning after that election, Daniel had come to visit me in my office, deeply troubled by what a Trump presidency might mean for scientific research and funding.It makes you laugh. Daniel tries to show his bona fides as a true and good liberal (hates Trump, Democrat, Jewish) and concedes affirmative action is good, but he just doesn't want it applied to him. He is unhappy that the Jewish people were first discriminated against for NOT being white and now they are discriminated against because they ARE white.Daniel told me that he believed affirmative-action policies were justified for college admissions, but he did not think they should be used to filter out qualified applicants to honors programs and graduate programs.
He then spoke for several minutes about his own ethnic background. He reminded me that he was Jewish, and told me that both of his parents had put up with a lot of antisemitic discrimination in their universities and workplaces. Back then, they were regarded as “non-white” and were discriminated against as a result; now (ironically) he was considered “white” and was being discriminated against on that basis.
"Daniel" has a lot of growing up to do about the ways of the world.
This is a great article, and mirrors almost word for word what an old friend of mine who is a professor at Michigan State University told me. Every single memo or letter sent out to department heads or from them always now, ALWAYS, has some form of social justice or racism mention somewhere in it.
He enjoys his job, as a white male knows he will never get tenure so he doesn’t even bother like most there aren’t, he just walks right up to the invisible line that is drawn by the staff above him, and stands up for what he thinks is right. He knows if he so much as smudges that line his contract will not be renewed there.
He also knows he’s not the only one who feels this way, but most won’t even discuss it privately lest word gets out on how they really feel about things there and how bad they’ve gotten.
Whites are the new Native Americans—without the courage to stand up for themselves.
They will be let go instantly if they speak out now.
Like Daniel, I dislike Trump intensely. I don’t have much in common with his followers, and I certainly don’t think of myself as one of them. But I do, increasingly, understand some of the grievances that motivate them. I wish I didn’t, but I do.But you can be forgiven for not wading through all those words.
It always cracks me up when liberal kooks say "I HATE Trump and all of his followers, BUT I have to admit that they DO have some good points. And I hate myself for admitting that."
There is no reverse racism. There is only racism.
Its just that the race obsessed think they are opposed to racism.
It is super obvious—but bears repeating.
The most racist societies in the world are in Asia—China, Japan, both Koreas etc.
Whites have tried for decades to be “nice” and play well with others—it has backfired big time.
what a jerk this guy is.
Mealy mouths the whole thing to a rationalization of simply not doing anything.
Who gives a crap if the kid was autistic. He earned a slot in the program.
Then says you have to lay down and take a hit for “social transformation”.
Hey, Russia is trying to socially transform Eastern Ukraine and everyone appears to be upset about that. When did this social transformation that includes handing over taxpayer institutions to Mexico pass a vote of the average 10th generation American? About the same time that ethnic German Ukrainians in Donetsk voted to become Russian Federation citizens...i.e., never.
Whites can find far better opportunities overseas. Basically, they are not wanted here.
“Then says you have to lay down and take a hit for “social transformation”.”
The idiot is letting his enemies define the narrative.
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