Thursday, May 08, 2014

The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations

This woman could not be more correct:
As much as I appreciate liberals’ concern for the welfare and success of black Americans, we are not hobbling around with crippled feet. We’re smart, capable, and successful. Yes, we need opportunities, just like every American! But opportunity and racial preferences are not the same thing.

Opportunity gives a chance to a qualified, capable individual. Preference grants someone favor. I am grateful for every opportunity I have been afforded in my life, but I don’t need to be coddled as if I am unable to succeed without special attention. Just look at Kwasi Enin, an African American high school student with a whopping 5.0 GPA who got accepted into every Ivy League college – a feat only achieved by few.

As black students, being treated as a special class of citizens is the worse thing that could happen, because we will not be held to the same standards as our white peers. The most relevant example is the ‘I,Too’ movement happening at different universities, in which minority students write down racial experiences they have had, whether negative or positive, as a response to the lack of diversity at their school. Many of their experiences had to do with, unsurprisingly, other students thinking that they were affirmative action placements. They felt demeaned and underestimated, two of the worst feelings in the world, yet they would just as readily fight for the very thing that undermines them.

How can we truly move toward racial equality if we are treated as less than capable?
What was it Chief Justice Roberts said?  Oh yes:  The way to stop discriminating on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.  But let's see what else Ms. Hill has to say:
When America was still a deeply prejudiced nation, African Americans needed affirmative action to ensure they wouldn’t be passed over for positions or rejected from schools simply because of their race. However, today we live in a society where political correctness doesn’t let us acknowledge the progress that has been made since then, lest we think we live in a “post-racial” society.

While I’ve never thought that, I do think we have reached the point where we can scale back laws demanding racial quotas. I have a hard time understanding why working to get rid of racial quotas is a step backward. If anything – it’s a step forward – because it acknowledges that, in a country where there are black professionals in every arena, as well as a black president in his second term, America is moving leaps and bounds ahead of its deeply racist past.
There are some who would lose power if racism were no longer to be thought of as a serious, systemic problem.

5 comments:

  1. Not to diminish his feat ... but how is it mathematically possible to have a 5.0 GPA? Surely he had to take at least one non honors class ... say, PE? And wouldn't an A, worth 4 points, cause his GPA to be lower than 5? I'm sure that all the Ivy league schools were jumping over themselves to admit the smart black kid ... but that number MUST have been misreported ... and it really bugs me that no one is questioning it. Not because I'm racist, not because I don't wish him well, but because it is wrong ...

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  2. Perhaps *you* are wrong, and they only count "college-track" courses when determining a GPA and not PE or certain electives. Just a thought.

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  3. I guess I might be... but I know when I applied to college, they counted all of them. And, I applied to Princeton and they certainly counted them all ... and turned me down. If you want to cherry pick GPA classes, I suppose you can ... but that totally ruins the concept of GPA. As does grade inflation.

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  4. And, additionally ... that would not change his GPA. It would only change the 'considered' GPA. Which should be reported, if true.

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  5. Jerry Doctor9:06 PM

    How do you get a 5.0? Simple. Find a school that not only gives a bonus point for honors classes, but 2 bonus points for AP! (Yeah, I've seen it.)

    Frankly I hate the whole bonus point concept. Honors courses are often ruined by students that are only there to get the extra point. I lost track of the number of parents complaining their kid got a B, or even a C, in honors chemistry. At some point they almost always stated "Well science just isn't her/his thing."

    It was all I could do to keep from screaming "If science isn't her/his thing, why the Hell is she/he in my honors chem class?"

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