"Learning While Black": Racially profiling in the classroom?

National Review Online ^ | May 30, 2002 | Roger Clegg

[mafree]

I sympathize with your concerns, truly, despite the serious points I've made in other posts.

I never doubted that in you. Otherwise, this debate would either not take place or deteriorate into something unpleasant.

[justshutupandtakeit]

The young man who won the national spelling bee last night had a darker skin than most afro-americans. Did not stop him from spelling everything they threw at him. He is of Hindian descent.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Your complaint is the exact reason I have opposed affirmative action programs not specifically targeted on recruitment and discovery of talent.

No defender of a.a. (a form of apartheid imo) can truthfully answer when I ask them if they would go to a doctor knowing the he only got into med school because of a.a. (some of the hardcore black nationalist types/whackjobs would but none of their white allies would.)

The real tragedy is that the black professional who attained his education w.o. benefit of a.a. is also suspect which is the syndrome your children are facing. Thus, a.a. is one of the most insidious underminers of black success. Another brilliant Liberal program at work.

[Henrietta]

I don't know of any AA quotas for women in university admissions. I know that there have been some job quotas for women in other areas, but that's not what we were talking about. I vigorously dispute that women were ever AA beneficiaries in university admissions.

[Tired of Taxes]

I don't know of any AA quotas for women in university admissions. I know that there have been some job quotas for women in other areas, but that's not what we were talking about. I vigorously dispute that women were ever AA beneficiaries in university admissions.

You really don't know, then, do you? Gender quotas have been an issue in universities and medical schools since the 70's. Here, I found a site that addresses it. This is a pro-AA site, so it has a leftist slant. But, you can do a search yourself to find other articles on gender quotas in college admissions. Click here

[Henrietta]

Thanks for the link, but the link does not say what you say that it says. It merely supports the concept of affirmative action for "women and other minorities." The site itself does not offer any evidence that such programs for women actually exist. But I welcome you to keep trying. Again, I've never received any affirmative action. (Maybe you have, and that's why you keep bringing it up, to show that others similarly situated must have recieved it too, and therefore owe their success to it, as you do yours?)

[Tired of Taxes]

Henrietta, you are either very young or living in denial. Yes, I am a woman, too. Have I ever been the recipient of affirmative action in a college admission? Well, how the hell should I know? I wasn't in the college admissions office selecting applicants. Were you?

So, ask yourself, how does anyone know that RACE plays a major role in college admissions? We know because "race" has been written into affirmative action policies, and educational institutions admit to "considering race" in selecting applicants.

Well, guess what? "Gender" is also written into affirmative action, and educational institutions admit to "considering gender", too.

Here's a piece of text from an ACLU site for you. Maybe now you'll believe it:

Affirmative action for women

An ACLU briefing paper on affirmative action reports: "Six million women have received opportunities in employment and education directly because of affirmative action programs. Between 1970 and 1990, the proportion of women physicians doubled from 7.6% to 16.9%. From 1972 to 1979 -- the years when affirmative action programs were most vigorously enforced -- the number of women becoming accountants, lawyers and judges, and school administrators increased substantially. And during the last 10 years the overall number of black professional women grew 125%." (7)

I don't know how old you are, but I remember in the 70's people complaining that men were being denied access to medical schools, for example, to make room for less qualified women.

I am not trying to take away from anyone's success, including yours. I'm simply pointing out that African-Americans are not the only recipients under AA.

[Henrietta]

You're talking about the past, TOT. Currently, AA for women is not going on. There are now more women than men enrolled in college, and that is evidence that there is not a disparity that needs to be corrected. You probably went to college in the 70's and 80's, when women recieved AA. Now, women don't receive AA. It's that simple. Quoting past stats is not evidence that women are currently receiving AA, which is what the whole discussion is about. Women do not currently receive affirmative action in university or law school admissions.

[Tired of Taxes]

I'd like to make this one my last post... No, I didn't attend college in the 70's. I'm not that old. And, yes, I know there are more women than men in universities today. However, even now, colleges still admit to considering "gender" in admitting applicants. And most of the people educated in the 70's are now working in their fields. So... that brings me back to the original question: If you are wary of hiring an African-American as a doctor or lawyer, why aren't you wary of hiring a woman? The female doctor or lawyer you hire may have been educated at the height of AA. I personally am not wary of hiring either.

[Henrietta]

To answer your questions, because I don't believe women are AA recipients, and because race is the BIGGEST factor that unqualified blacks are being admitted to universities. We're talking major, major differences between white kids and black kids in terms of grades and SAT scores. You seem to be the only one on this forum unaware of these FACTS.

[Henrietta]

Here's the biggest reason: Because I didn't notice that my female classmates were obviously stupider and less qualified than my male classmates. I did notice that my black and hispanic classmates spent an inordinate time bitching about how "oppressed" they were and blaming their bad grades on everything but their own stupidity. Their lack of preparation for college was obvious. The lower quality of these students was obvious. Their qualifications as racial tokens was obvious. They were obviously unqualified to attend the particular institution that they were attending.

[Spyder]

In my experience, blacks are less likely to be disciplined for any given offense. Our child was bullied last year - the worst offender being a black child. The white kids who did the bullying were usually punished while the black child never was. Don't know if the teacher was afraid of being accused of being racist (which I felt ultimately she was anyway).

[Tired of Taxes]

Well, you've answered my question. Thank you. Obviously, you're just a bigot. For the record, I noticed a great number of completely and totally STUPID white people, many of them women, in college and in the world. Stupidity is not limited to any one race or gender.

[Henrietta]

Ah, yes...the old (but familiar) ad hominem attack. Yawn.

[TC Rider]

Indeed, the stance of the civil-rights establishment is contrary to the interests and self-respect of African Americans.

Of course, the civil-rights establishment is only interested in their own continued existance.

[SauronOfMordor]

I can't wait to interview a job candidate with "Afro-American Studies" listed as their major. I will laugh them out of my office.

And then you will likely be sued, if the job requirement was simply "bachelors degree" or some such.

Way back when, employers could just hire kids straight out of high-school, give them a simple test to see if they knew how to read and write well, and put them to work. Then the feds decreed that such tests, if they had "racially disparate impact" (i.e. more whites passed than blacks), were discriminatory and thus forbidden. So employers then started makeing college a requirement, on the assumption that they would wind up with people who were somewhat literate, and the response was to create nonsense-degrees so that the stubbornly-illiterate could meet the job requirements