Posted on 07/01/2003 11:22:27 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
In last week's U.S. Supreme Court's affirmative action decision, Justice Clarence Thomas' dissent included a quotation from an 1865 speech by abolitionist Frederick Douglass. "What I ask for the Negro," Douglass said, "is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice. ... All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone! ... Your interference is doing him positive injury."
Forget how the majority used the phrase "compelling state interest" to trump the 14th Amendment's requirement of equal treatment under the law and give continued sanction to racial discrimination. Let's examine some practical matters ignored in the pro-affirmative action celebration of the court's decision.
According to recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reports, the average black high school senior had math skills on par with those of the typical nitnth-grade white student. The average 17-year-old black student could read only as well as the average 12-year-old white. Twelfth-grade black students were doing science problems at the level of sixth-grade white students and writing about as well as whites in the eighth grade.
As of 1998, only 18 percent of black students were rated proficient or advanced in reading, as compared to 47 percent for white students, which itself is nothing to write home about. In Michigan, the source of the controversy leading up to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision, just 2 percent of black eighth-graders score proficient in reading, compared to 34 percent of whites -- again, nothing to write home about. In addition to grossly fraudulent education, there's unthinkable school violence at many of the schools that black students attend.
According to a Department of Education report, "School Crime Patterns" (August 2002), "High schools with the highest levels of violence tended to be located in urban areas and have a high percentage of minority students (black and Hispanic), compared to high schools that reported no crime to the police."
The bottom line is given the day-to-day destruction of education for black students at the primary and secondary levels of schooling, most will never be able to compete academically. The fact that the affirmative action crowd demands discriminatory admission practices for post-graduate education such as in law and medical schools confirms something else. Black performance on admittance exams, such as the LSAT, MCAT and GRE, is stark testament that four years of undergraduate education cannot erase the damage of 12 years of fraudulent primary and secondary education.
In the name of diversity, college administrators and their campus sycophants support racially discriminatory admissions practices. They argue that racial diversity enriches the education experiences of all college students, for which there's absolutely no evidence whatsoever. However, since most college students and administrators are white, it might simply mean that racial diversity gives them a greater sense of superiority having a few campus mascots around, who can't hold their own, beholden to them.
Then there's the false-face of diversity, as Justice Antonin Scalia pointed out in his dissent. Academics support campus "tribalism and racial segregation" with "minority-only student organizations, separate minority housing opportunities, separate minority student centers, even separate minority-only graduation ceremonies."
Black politicians and civil rights organizations' loyalty to the education establishment means academic doom to black youngsters. Washington, D.C,. politics and its schools, among the worse in the nation, are a case in point. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, along with most members of the Congressional Black Caucus, use private schools to educate their children. But, when D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams broke ranks with most black elected-officials and endorsed recently proposed education vouchers, Norton blasted him as being "a sell-out."
Whom do you think Frederick Douglass would deem the sell-out: those who seek an alternative to rotten schools that cost taxpayers $13,000 a year per student or those who support the status quo?
©2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
The Schools with the money and the more efficient systems are predominantly "White".K, I dropped out of high school in the tenth grade, and later got my GED. I do a bit of reading, and am by nature, am a mechanic. I fit things together and I can see what will be accomplished when the combinations are complete.So, the question: as the stats may suggest (depending how you construe them) Are Black kids intellectually inferior to White kids?
Or is this "system" failing a segment of its population?
You sound like an educated man, George.Is it part of 'Black Culture' to just get by, to perform poorly in school and expect a handout from our "Great White Uncle"?
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(1) The schools that are "predominantly "White"" in many cases recieve less money, and are still "successful". Until recently, administration was mostly "White" also. That has changed a lot over the past few years. Education has gotten worse during the same period. Today more money goes to "Black" districts on average than "White" districts. Things have gotten "progressively" worse for "Black" students over the same period of time. Also for "White" students.
(2) As the Russian noted once upon a time, "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics that in that order go from bad to worse
In Baltimore, They put the "Calvert Curriculum" in two elementary schools {Barclay Elementary, and another elementary in Cherry hill [Woodson??]}. California standardized tests had these 95-98% Black children {most defined as "needy" due to recieving lunch money} finishing 39 points above the NATIONAL AVERAGE. When Nancy Grasmick's {State Superintendant of Education} M.S.P.A.P. {Maryland State Performance Assessment Program} test was administered, the SAME children in the SAME school years finished "close to the bottom" of Baltimore City Schools, which at the time were close or at the bottom of the NATIONAL AVERAGE. SO, the curricula in these SAME schools had to be changed. EVERYBODY ACCEPTED THIS WITH VIRTUALLY NO COMMENT.
My ralings to the school board, the mayor, teachers, principals, the offices of the NAACP, radio talk shows and numerous state, county, and city legislators was mostly ignored except by a VERY brave few. For, to question education authority is to "bring the wrath of the gods" upon oneself.
(3) The "system" is failing EVERYBODY!!! And, deliberately so. With the complicit help of teachers, principals, "Black" and "White" "leaders" alike who go along to get along. For, contrary to cultivated "belief", Teachers and above make enough money they ARE afraid of losing their jobs.
(4) For many, it IS a matter of "part of 'Black Culture'' to "perform poorly in school and expect a handout from our "Great White Uncle"?".
To do otherwise is to "be acting white". Many "Black" talk radio hosts, guests and callers echo these sentiments, while DEMANDING a greater "handout from our "Great White Uncle"?"."
The "handouts" for public education have increased at an obscene rate over the past couple of decades, and public schools and education have changed immensely. THEY HAVE GOTTEN WORSE!!!!!!!!!!!!! And, they have gotten worse accross the board when "race" is considered.
WHY is it that things like the Calvert Curriculum and other good programs are ignored by so many?? Is it because they teach with "classics" that are out of copyright, and won't allow favored writers works???
WHY is it that such abominations as "Inventive" spelling are ignored and/or defended as "a way to get children to write. They will learn spelling later." Especially, when those voicing such drivel surely KNOW that "later" NEVER comes. If students miss something today, they are passed on to the next phase regardless. "We mustn't hurt their self-esteem." If spelling is lost, definition is lost, and the written language is no longer a way of communication {Creole as an example where "leaders" decry "their people" learning english. WHY?????}.
In conclusion, I do NOT think "Whites are more intelligent than Blacks", or anybody else for that matter. It ALL has to do with content of curricula, and the willingness and ability {We are NOT "all created 'equal'". Just with equal rights in this country alone.} of the individual students. AND, the atmosphere in which the students learn. If only two students are in a class, and one is forever disruptive, neither student will learn in that atmosphere. The only hope for either student is outside this atmosphere.
It's a REAL mess. And more money ain't gonna fix it. Like the guy says, "If one dooes something the same way a second time, and expects a different outcome, he/she will be sorely disappointed." My suggestion: Get rid of the BUMS in administration and policy making positions. Peace and love, George.
How about a black politician that would go down in the ghetto and talk the dudes into marrying the "'hos" that bore their children?
Some would have to commit bigamy, but wouldn't it be great if black families didn't have the welfare carrot dangling in front of them?
Pre-Lyingdon Johnson's "Great Society" there was a man sitting at the front of the table. Today, that man's been replaced by checks and foodstamps and we have generation after generation of welfare hogs who spend the government money to keep themselves fat and give the kids mustard bread sandwiches.
But, not to worry. The local schools serve breakfasts and lunches; some even during the summer recess.
The federal government beats them to it everytime. I think a perfect example of how the central government destroys families is replacing Dad with a welfare check.
The schools that serve breakfast to children should be considered an insult to black mothers, but it isn't. Now, in addition to breakfast and lunch, the schools are continuing this feeding program through the summer months. Ma doesn't have to do anything.
It won't be long until, in addition to midnight basketball, government schools will serve dinner. Somehow, sandwiched between all that eating going on, introducing youngsters to sex by showing them how to put a condom on a banana, and bringing in homosexuals to tell them how good perverted sex is, the kids might learn to read and write....a little.
Government is the enemy of the black family!
?????How are you not treated equal under the law? Or have you bought into the victim crap spewed constantly by the dems.
A great man wrote this, and a great man included it in his speech.
How can we be so fortunate as to have a Clarence Thomas and so unfortunate to have race-baiting pimps like Sharpton, Jackson(x2) and Waters ?
No, American Blacks are very able, especially the homeschooled ones I know. Just one of the families I know has raised a Doctor, a boy who is attending one of the top business schools in the U.S., and a violinist who will likely have a solo carrier.
It is not in the dems best intrest for there to be any gains in Black America's status. They need an uneducated (all provided by dem controled schools) angry voting population. They govern by division.
I think this country was established with a healthy skepticism, even cynicism, of the benefits of government because of the inherent dangers in giving others the power to govern.
The black family has historically had few friends in this country. It's truly a shame that many came to believe that the federal government was a good one - but it is understandable how some state governments and surrounding communities made the federal government look like a best friend.
I'm optimistic that the black family is resilient, capable of introspection, and ultimately aware of what's in their best interest. With the celebration of the 40th anniversary of MLKs march, the debate today in the black community seems more sophisticated and diverse, than it was then.
Al Sharpton is a conman, a liar, a crook, a thug, and a race baiting hustler, responsible for the deaths of some, the destroyer of reputation of at least one, and one of YOUR " heros ". Why is that ?
Jesse Jackson, now there's an exemplar of ... NOTHING much of value. Yes, he marched with MLK Jr. and NO ONE, not a single responsible leader, member of that group, nor King himself, thought that Jesse was worth a bucket of warm spit. But then, I guess that what Abernathy had to say about Jesse the race hustler, crook, shakedown artist, adulterer, liar, self aggrandizer, conman supreme, doesn't count. Why is that ? Jesse waved that bloody shirt and lied ! Jesse's " business dealings " are lower than Al Capone's ; who, BTW, fed the poor and destitute during the Great Depression. I guess that that clears Capone of all of the murders, beatings, and illegalities...RIGHT ? Oh, nooooooooooooo, can't be, Al Capone was a white man. Whites are the " devil " and so, he's baaaaaaaaaaaaaad.
Calling me names doesn't prove any point. Neither does trying to make me out to be some cartoon characterization, you delusionally have of me and post.
Most people don't sit around talking about others, from different classes. Those who do, do so because of stupidity, ignorance, and yes, bad manners. Status ( as in which class one belongs to ), has more to do with whom one associates with, than does race, and in some circumstances, religion or lack thereof. Common interest bind people together.
You claim that I am " emotional. Look at your replies and other posts. You are the emotional one, the one NOT debating factually at all, the one who keeps playing the race card over and over and OVER again, and YOU are the one who abjectly lacks knowledge ( or is it just the admittance of same ? ) of the historical facts; continually whinging about " level playing fields " and " parity ". Laugh all you want, but my replies have been factual, unemotional, cogent,and on topic.It's your lack of comprhension, that is blinding you and making you sound foolish.
We live in a REPUBLIC; a free society,mostly unemcumbered by the racism you delusionally see everywhere. What you want is COMMUNISTIC/SOCIALISTIC; " special " treatment to assuage the aggirevement you carry around with you. You're deaf and blind to the present; look backwards and hate. You and your ilk are the RACISTS and answering you is worse than trying to talk sense to a ferral, rabid animal.
That hate is going to eat you alive; it has almost totally consumed you now. Go find another forum...this one isn't for you.
I live in an expensive neighborhood. On my very small street there are 2 black families the last time I checked, who are welcomed by all, not to mention the hispanic and 3 oriental families here. The rest of the neighborhood includes more ethnic backgrounds such as several Indian families.
I am tired of the bull and tired of being called racist just because I am white. The last racist person I knew was alive during the time of the horse and buggy and died some 15 years ago.
Sometimes I think that the black community is missing the greatist opportunity they have ever had to truely become part of society, because society is the least racist it has ever been. Instead all I hear is hatred from that community for something that I had no part of (slavery). My advice, which is worth a grain of salt, is to get over it, get out from under the slavery of the dem party, work hard and create great lives for yourselves no matter how you think others view you. I see others doing it and doing it well. It is time to show them what you are made of. Otherwise it will become a self fulfilling view and society at some point will be less accepting.
I think that blacks in the inner cities have an uphill battle with the dem party, who control the schools(that ensure that they have substandard education and thus have no chance at that executive neighborhood on the other side of town(home school if the family is intact)) and have set up the welfare program to destroy the black family. It is not for nothing that the same party who fought against equal rights for blacks is the same party that has "helped" them so much with the welfare system (helped destroy the black family that is). If you really want to be schocked go back and read what the dem president who set up the welfare program said about locking the blacks in America into voting democrat for the next 100 years.
Anger is fine just use it to succeed. For now little by little African Americans are figuring out that they do not get any where until they do it on their own, and that is the only type of success that will last, and they will be accepted when they do it.
I hope to see you soon in my neighborhood.
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