You seem to be arguing that there is some (lower) objective standard that's acceptable and that blacks are unfairly penalized for meeting that standard rather than the higher (narrower) one imposed by those who run an institution.No-- I'm not saying those standards are higher or lower- you are the one evaluating them on that scale. My argumnent here is not about test scores- it's more about conduct. The one and only point I'm making here is this- sometimes certain standards of conduct matter, sometimes they do not. When they don't, why punish those who don't act according to those standards?
You miss my point entirely, which is
who determines whether or not the conduct matters? If I think it matters, then I have every right to form opinions based on that conduct. What you are telling me is that,
in your opinion, the conduct shouldn't matter in certain situations where I think it should. But, I ask, on what basis other than your opinion? You have offered no objective basis. As to conduct in school and attitudes of respect towards adults generally, teachers in particular, and behaving according to the norms of politeness and civility, there is a long tradition that suggests that polite, quiet and attentive behavior and a displayof respect are conducive to learning and the operation of civil society. I don't consider loud, rude and vulgar, disrespectful behavior acceptable from any group, be they black, brown, yellow or white. Within 'white' society, the middle and upper middle classes are at least as judgmental about lower class whites who display unacceptable behaviors (especially when they are 'ethnic' whites) as they are about blacks and other minorities.
Having heard my Reconstruction-era (born 1871) Southern-raised grandmother be far more condemnatory of "white trash" than of "colored people" [a term she used scrupulously because only "white trash" used the "n" word] because "colored people can't help it" and "with white trash it's their own fault", I formed a firm conviction that the only nonracist way to judge people was to apply the same standards to everyone.