“Opening minds and angravating liberals since 2001”
“I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.”
http://defendmichael.wordpress.com/
Genesis 3:19
My Friends and Fellow Linguists:
We are going to be hitting some old ground but with an odd twist.
It is akin to a shibboleth or a tricky sports question.
(A shibboleth has come to mean something like a code word, something that would identify someone as a member of a group. It comes from the Bible where the men of Gilead asked the fleeing Ephraimites to say the word “shibboleth.” Because of their speech patterns they could not make the “sh” sound, thus exposing themselves as the enemy and we killed. We have evolved, we no longer kill our enemies, rather, we elect them.)
You see, our old friend “Affirmative Action” (AA) has hit the newswires again. The University of Michigan ceased using AA back in 2006 after the voters passed a referendum banning it.
Now, before you start crying racist, and you know your Precious is anything but a racist, let me amplify on this for a second.
AA was, like many laws, based on a good premise. It was created by an Executive Order signed by JFK to eliminate racial discrimination in hiring people: “not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, creed, color, or national origin” and “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin”.
There is nothing at all objectionable about that statement. Now, of course this has been corrupted, but that is nothing new. I am not sure when it happened (and it is irrelevant) but somehow, AA became the way for “minorities” to get into college.
(SIDEBAR: I canNOT attest that educational was part of the initial AA deal. But looking more recently At Lawrence, when the lawyers claimed that gays just wanted “privacy” and were not looking for marriage, how long after they prevailed in court was the talk about “marriage” bandied about? Days? Hours? Minutes? So, it was plausible that the Left used this as a springboard for AA in schools.)
We need first to discuss the rampant racism in the Democrat Party. From the support of slavery to the rise of the KKK to the eugenics of Margaret Sanger –yes, she was a Socialist but how many of today’s Dems are? – to the continued segregation, bussing and so up to the racist president LBJ.
LBJ was aware that the poor, particularly the poor blacks put more emphasis on “entitlements” than “moral issues.” And that is why despite the best efforts of even their own religious leaders that the topics such as abortion do not resonate with them. And of course they do not believe that Sanger promoted black genocide. In fact, LBJ (in)famously said that the purpose of the entitlements was designed “to have them n*****s voting Democratic for the next two hundred years.” See: http://www.acton.org/pub/commentary/2012/11/14/lbj-curse-black-vote
So far that plan seems to be working.
Back to the story…
The poor, and for the most part, the poor black kids have a number of strikes against them, some of their own doing, others thrust upon them. Their schools are not the best and until the advent of the Charter Schools and others similar, was their no true excellence in the poorer schools.
One of the results, other than truancy, drug use, sexual activities and more was low test scores.
Some of these poor (in both senses of the word) were graduated functional illiterates, others were “retired” from school at the age of twenty-one. Bottom line is that very few of these kids could get into a college.
It took the Democrats to identify the dearth of blacks on campus to find a cause that they created that with their meddling would be made even worse.
They somehow saw “employment” as the same as “college education.” They used that to force schools to accept a certain number of “minorities” to their freshman class.
I stand-off “minorities” because it has nothing to do with “minorities” as technically as there is a not a majority of any one ethnic group, say, Germans, then we are all minorities. However, for the purposes of their own racism, the Dems refer to blacks as “the minorities.”
Let’s be pragmatic for a second. In the best of worlds, fifty-percent of the doctors, lawyers, engineers and so forth are graduated in the bottom-half of their class. Now, add to that those whose previous education has not prepared them for the rigors of college.
And before you say that the poorer students will wash out, consider that most colleges and universities are run by Libs, Socialists, Communists and NWO-types, is it far-fetched to say that some are graduate despite their education rather than because of it?
Is there any wonder why today there are degrees offered in Communication, Women’s Studies, African Studies, Lesbian Studies and other degrees that with that sheepskin and $6.50 you can get a vente-double-coolatta-mochca-arabica with a shot served to you by another communications major? Once you are graduated from a college, especially a prestigious one, your GPA is secondary in many cases.
(Ironically, some “college” athletes wish to organize in a union. I find that odd as technically they are students and I would venture that most if not all of the Division I major sport athletes are on some kind of free ride. Add to that the perks they get, the “gifts” from supporters and so on in addition to an “education” worth north of $150,000 in many cases and STILL they want to “organize?”)
(Dunno, but if you asked me, instead of having a set of “Dr. Dre Beats” on top of your head 24/7 and getting tattooed on every part of your body and if you actually went to class and paid attention and got a REAL degree you might not feel the need to be in a union. After all, you will be in that union only until you are graduated in 4, 5 or 6 years, right?)
Do not misunderestimate me. I think everyone who truly wants a college education should be given a shot. If their grades or tests are not up to speed, then they should be allowed a year or so of “99” or remedial classes to catch up.
After all, you are not entitled to a driving license. You have to take tests and prove you can drive. (In a perfect world…. But that is whole ‘nother FISH of a different color.) Should we expect any less from any sort of legitimate college graduate?
Imagine, if you will, you get your “degree” in whatever and it is not a BA or a BS but a BAA, a “Baccalaureate of Affirmative Action.” Of course, that would never happen, it would be to demeaning to the recent graduate. One sort of “shibboleth.”
But, I ask you this, is it better to “demean” a student than to be at the mercy of one who is not at the top of his or her game? Substandard perhaps? And sure there are boards and bar exams but that does not mean there is one less doctor or lawyer, but it could be that there is someone who could be a great doctor or lawyer who was a victim of prejudice because they were not black, but White.
The Michigan case was upheld by a 6-2 vote. Sotomayor and Bader-Ginsberg against, Kagan recused herself (should have done that with the OBAMA’S OBAMACARE case as well) and the rest of the men voting for the majority.
Yes, even Justice Thomas who had stated in the past that he benefited from AA voted to uphold the right of Michigan to ignore AA.
Sotomayor was incensed by the ruling and in a typical Democrat way, proved that she was 100% wrong by the “logic” she employed to make her case. Another kind of “shibboleth.”
It bears mentioning that much of this was of not widely disseminated in the SRM and much of the stuff of the interwebs called the ruling “racist” and it was all the fault of the “conservative majority of the SCOTUS.” This makes me wonder of the source of that brilliant statement was math deficient, does not follow recent SCOTUS rulings or is a beneficiary of AA.
Let me put this entire thing to rest. If you look at the statue of “Justice” she has scales in one hand, a sword in the other and typically is blindfolded. Perhaps college admission ought to be as well.
Not saying this is a perfect solution, far from it but better than what we have today, admissions applications have no name or address, sex, ancestry, skin color, religion or any kind of identifying information. Their grades will be on a generic transcript that has been weighted by the strength of that school’s curriculum. ACT or SAT scores will be provided but little else. There may be some other non-identifying information required, such as major and minor fields of interest.
Basically this way a candidate for admission is chosen solely on his or her credentials. (I feel people should be elected in a similar way. We may talk about that someday.)
Of course this will make the admissions process a bit more difficulty and onerous and there will be fewer students admitted to college. Yet, the ones that are admitted are considered able to do the work.
After the first round and it comes to grants and financial assistance perhaps then we can look more into personal aspect of the candidate but for admission alone only the bona fides will be considered.
(I have not worked out the “athleticships” – after all they are not necessarily based on ones scholastics – for the various athletes but I am sure someone will figger a fair and equitable way of making that work.
But, let me leave you with this. Some claim that those against Affirmative Action are racist because they are saying that some should not or might not get into college because of their skin tone. But, if a purple person gets into a school because he is not the most qualified but because he is purple and a green person who is qualified does not get in because the purple person got his spot, you tell me who is racist.
thedailyfish.net 