Europe's Dirty Little Secret

"Since all of the white European civilizations of the world, including America, are in demographic decline"

Not in the 'red states' - this is a phenom of white liberalism (aka our euro-philic 'blue states'), and in Europe as well.

It can be stopped: End abortion, end the fear of overpopulation - a phony fear, love life and quit having pro-death policies, celebrate the family and reject radical feminism which in turn rejects motherhood. Then you'll have more healthy growing families. This is probably the #1 cultural change required to really save western civilization.

Good luck with 'assimilation' - alas the multiculturalists have destroyed that concept ...

"I expect that with intermarriage and metissage, it will no longer be able to be told who is of what origin, precisely, and it will not matter, other than as a matter of color."

No. the multiculturalists insists on cultural ghettos in the university, insist on ignoring our culture while celebrating every non-Christian non-western one, ...

"So, is Islam a genetic trait?"
... it's made so when we dare not face up against it intellectually. I dont see us 'competing' against Islam when our public school get rid of (christian) prayer but are teaching folk how great mohammed and ('religion of peace') are...

At least you show an optimism that is uncannily ... American. Zut alors!

"No. the multiculturalists insists on cultural ghettos in the university, insist on ignoring our culture while celebrating every non-Christian non-western one, ...

I dont see us 'competing' against Islam when our public school get rid of (christian) prayer but are teaching folk how great mohammed and ('religion of peace') are..."

Of course you speak here of America. There are no cultural ghettos as such in French university (other than the ghetto of professorial scholasticism; but this is a different problem). Nor is there are any appreciable celebration of any culture in universities. There is simply the way people live and operate, which is French culture. And then, if anyone happens to be studying foreign culture, there is of course an understanding of that culture.

There has never been prayer in school in France, so the second issue, again, is an American one.

"this is part of our 'multi-culturalism' and France elites believe in that too"

It is so different.
This sort of legal preference for a race or a religion: it would be illegal in France and is contrary to the principles of the Republic. Affirmative Action is one of the great mysteries of America. If all men are created equal, how can laws distinguish between men based on inherited characteristics?

"This sort of legal preference for a race or a religion: it would be illegal in France and is contrary to the principles of the Republic. Affirmative Action is one of the great mysteries of America. If all men are created equal, how can laws distinguish between men based on inherited characteristics? "

IT'S A MYSTERY TO ME AS WELL! :-)
seriously, very bad thinking and 'victim'-claiming took over; it was noticed that mere 'merit-based' approaches were not enough to 'balance' opportunities, it was claimed past inequalities created the situation (phony argument, but who cares, there are jobs to be handed out) ... so we got: Equality-of-result over performance and equality-of-oppty.

Quotas and preferences, eqpecially in govt hiring, was a form of ethnic-based patronage from the Democrat party to the minorities - which has caused the Democrats to be adamant to defend this unjustified idea. The Republicans sometimes attempt to chip away at it, but see more benefit in minority votes than in intellectual rigor so do not press an issue that makes the left call them 'racist'.

Too many professors in "Ethnic Studies" have careers at stake for this nonsense to get killed, so it perpetuates itself in the university as well as in Govt.

So it falls to maverick reformers like Ward Connerly (ironically enough multi-cultural in person, being biracial) to fight the wrongs of racial preferences.

Just do the 'math' on %age of university students that are from your muslim slums... let me guess that they are 'under-represented'. Wait for the day when some opportunist decides that is a 'problem' that demands 'Egalite'. If his names sounds something like "Jesse Jackson" be very afraid.

Once it is started, it is hard to stop.

"Just do the 'math' on %age of university students that are from your muslim slums... let me guess that they are 'under-represented'. Wait for the day when some opportunist decides that is a 'problem' that demands 'Egalite'."

But French university is free, and open admission. So anybody who wishes to go, assuming he has passed the bac, can go. Passing is a different thing. Universities routinely fail about 70% of students each examination cycle, and perhaps 10% of them pass on the September re-examinations. So, some students - those who do not care and who do not focus - can spend years attempting to pass. But anyone who wishes to go, can go.

As far as the Grandes Ecoles go, there are competitive concours to enter, and entry is based strictly on exam score and order of finishing on the concours. It would be grossly unfair to elevate some students over others who had done better on the competitive examination. After all, that is what the examination is: everyone can take it, everyone knows the subject matter, everyone can prepare for it. Therefore, whoever scores the best should obviously get the seat in the Grandes Ecoles. Really nothing else would be fair.

Clearly there are problems with such a system, as in life many things are not properly managed by academic skills but by other capacities. Nevertheless, arbitrarily deciding that skin color or racial origin is a basis for elevating one over another who has scored better than him on the identical competitive exam seems immoral to me anyway.

Which data would you prefer to see?

That there is a difference in kind between the affirmative action law of America and the absence of such a thing in France is not quantifiable. It is simply a fact.

I will be happy to provide such data as you would like to see, but it would be well if you would inform me as to what it is you would like me to quantify.

"As far as the Grandes Ecoles go, there are competitive concours to enter, and entry is based strictly on exam score and order of finishing on the concours. It would be grossly unfair to elevate some students over others who had done better on the competitive examination"

You are 'speaking to the chior'. Of course, merit is the way to go.

It may be obvious to you or I that the student with highest scores would get the slot, but colleges have engaged in racial preferences in the US for decades in the interest of achieving 'balance' ...

This is the attitude of the white elite liberals in the US:

http://www.oneflorida.org/myflorida/government/governorinitiatives/one_florida/bok.html
" Former Harvard University President Derek Bok believes racial preferences are needed to prevent the nation's law schools and medical schools from becoming almost entirely populated by white students."

There is no "positive discrimination" in Europe or preferences in France?
Can someone explain what Justice Ginzburg is babbling about then about EU 'approving' 'positive discrimination'? Can you explain about Sciences Po and their program?

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=7149

"General -- we're part of a world, and this problem is a global problem. Other countries operating under the same equality norm have confronted it. Our neighbor to the north, Canada, has, the European Union, South Africa, and they have all approved this kind of, they call it positive discrimination. Do we -- they have rejected what you recited as the ills that follow from this. Should we shut that from our view at all or should we consider what judges in other places have said on this subject?"

http://www.discriminations.us/storage/002286.html
Blogging will be light over the weekend. I won’t have much time to blog since I need to step back and devote some concentrated and extended thought to the basic principles that underlie most of what I write here. The Chronicle of Higher Education has just reported that one of the elite schools in France (yes, France!) has instituted an affirmative action program that survived a constitutional challenge in a French court!"

"In 2001, in an attempt to shake off its socially elitist image, Sciences Po started a program of preferential recruitment from high schools in some of France's poorest neighborhoods, populated mainly by North African immigrants...."

I had not heard of the recruitment efforts at Sciences Po.
This is not good at all, if it is as reported.

I presume that Mme. Ginsburg, when she speaks of "EU Affirmative Action", may be referring to the efforts to balance males and females in positions.

The sex difference is a completely different thing, I think we would all agree. The male and female are constructed differently, their minds work differently, and each compose half of society. The structures of apportioning power have favored the male approach in government, but to the detriment of much common sense that the female brings to families and society.

Seeking to balance the male and the female in positions of power is a different matter, although I suppose it might be called "affirmative action". It is not done, or at least has not been done (I am alarmed by the Sciences Po declamation and must look into it. I suspect that Sciences Po is encouraging more students from these areas to bother to try for the concours - most do not. Given that the education system is the same, some should be able to pass it) by giving merit seats to the less qualified. Rather, it has been done more directly by the political parties: when they make appointments, they appoint one woman for every man. Nobody pretends that political positions or executive positions in companies are based on a meritocracy. These things are always based upon personal preferences of people in power. The people in power have decided to simply balance the scale by direct appointment of equal numbers of women. This is not, however, overriding a concours. It is the use of discretionary power, a different thing.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.