Posted on 03/12/2012 11:45:08 AM PDT by jazusamo
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There have been many frauds of historic proportions for example, the financial pyramid scheme for which Charles Ponzi was sent to prison in the 1920s, and for which Franklin D. Roosevelt was praised in the 1930s, when he called it Social Security. In our own times, Bernie Madoff's hoax has made headlines. But the biggest hoax of the past two generations is still going strong namely, the hoax that statistical differences in outcomes for different groups are due to the way other people treat those groups. The latest example of this hoax is the joint crusade of the Department of Education and the Department of Justice against schools that discipline black males more often than other students. According to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, this disparity in punishment violates the "promise" of "equity." Just who made this promise remains unclear, and why equity should mean equal outcomes despite differences in behavior is even more unclear. This crusade by Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is only the latest in a long line of fraudulent arguments based on statistics. If black males get punished more often than Asian American females, does that mean that it is somebody else's fault? That it is impossible that black males are behaving differently from Asian American females? Nobody in his right mind believes that. But that is the unspoken premise, without which the punishment statistics prove nothing about "equity." What is the purpose or effect of this whole exercise by the Department of Education and the Department of Justice? To help black students or to secure the black vote in an election year by seeming to be coming to the rescue of blacks from white oppression? Among the many serious problems of ghetto schools is the legal difficulty of getting rid of disruptive hoodlums, a mere handful of whom can be enough to destroy the education of a far larger number of other black students and with it destroy their chances for a better life. Judges have already imposed too many legalistic procedures on schools that are more appropriate for a courtroom. "Due process" rules that are essential for courts can readily become "undue process" in a school setting, when letting clowns and thugs run amok, while legalistic procedures to suspend or expel them drag on. It is a formula for educational and social disaster. Now Secretary Duncan and Attorney General Holder want to play the race card in an election year, at the expense of the education of black students. Make no mistake about it, the black students who go to school to get an education are the main victims of the classroom disrupters whom Duncan and Holder are trying to protect. What they are more fundamentally trying to protect are the black votes which are essential for Democrats. For that, blacks must be constantly depicted as under siege from whites, so that Democrats can be seen as their rescuers. Promoting paranoia translates into votes. It is a very cynical political game, despite all the lofty rhetoric used to disguise it. Whether the current generation of black students get a decent education is infinitely more important than whether the current generation of Democratic politicians hang on to their jobs. Too many of the intelligentsia both black and white jump on the statistical bandwagon, and see statistical differences as proof of maltreatment, not only in schools but in jobs, in mortgage lending and in many other things. Some act as if their role is to protect the image of blacks by blaming their problems on whites. But the truth is far more important than racial image. Wherever we want to go, we can only get there from where we are. Not where we think we are, or wish we are, or where we want others to think we are, but where we are in fact right now. But political spin and pious euphemisms don't tell us where we are. After a while, such rhetorical exercises don't even fool others. If we don't have the truth, we don't have anything to start with and build on. A big start toward the truth would be getting rid of the kinds of statistical hoaxes being promoted by Secretary of Education Duncan and Attorney General Holder. |
Just the fact that Mr Sowell has written and published this article, negates the white oppression argument.
If it really existed, he wouldn’t be where he is today.
Great article=great man.
Mrs Ct Hillbilly
everything from the left is a hoax it seems to me
Allow me to also add to your thought: Great Intellect. Dr. Sowell's intellect most certainly surpasses those who believe themselves to be our betters who seek to rule through intimidation by the Feds on these matters.
Ah, the first “post-racial president”...How’s that workin’ for ya, touchy-feely-granola crowd?
There are lies, there are damn lies, and then there are statistics.
Thanks for the ping. Sowell is right on, as usual.
Democracy is the greatest hoax....
No democracy has ever been democratic.. NONE..
Democracy is a lie... Always a Mob, Cartel, Cadre, Junta, or other elite group RULES..
Democracy is expressly Mob Rule by mobsters..
Democracy is indispensable to socialism. The goal of socialism is communism. -V.I. Lenin
The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism .-Karl Marx
Thanks for the ping jaz. Appreciate it.
I know...editing Dr. Sowell is like painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa, but I couldn't resist....
That’s the way the race hustle works. Convince people that they are helpless and downtrodden. When they cry out to be saved offer to help them. The help will, of course, provide the hustlers with a nice income. The worst thing that could happen would be for all the “victims” to wake up tomorrow and decide they don’t need anyone’s help. So that must be prevented at all costs. That’s why I believe this race thing will never end. There’s too much money to be made.
Great edit, totally agree:)
What they are more fundamentally trying to protect are the black votes which are essential for Democrats. For that, blacks must be constantly depicted as under siege from whites, so that Democrats can be seen as their rescuers.
This is why Obama's embrace of and praise for Professor Derrick Bell and his Critical Race Theory is so important for voters to learn about. It's why Breitbart was so determined to get the word out. Holder and Duncan are using Bell's mumbo jumbo voodoo nonsense just like Obama does. To keep the blacks on the plantation and in the Democrat tent.
Although Critical Race Theory does not employ a single methodology, it seeks to highlight the ways in which the law is not neutral and objective, but designed to support White supremacy and the subordination of people of color.
Bookmark
Yes, it is.
Since liberalism's core value is big-government collectivism, and big-government collectivism has been discredited throughout history, then revisionist history, contortionist logic, pretzel reasoning and outright lies are constantly required to prop it up.
Exactly, Smooth. Holder's been doing since day one as AG, don't know about Duncan because I haven't followed him but suspect he has too.
The video you linked is great, nothing more than a couple con women, one leading the other. LOL!
If anyone deserves “blame” for under achieving and undisciplined blacks its black leaders themselves. Why aren’t Sharpton, Obama or Michael Jordan or Lebron James screaming about blacks castigating their young for “acting white” by getting good grades and acting respectably. That is the real tragedy.
Black leaders have essentially institutionalized under achievement in the black community. Where is Holder? What is Obama doing about it? Aren’t those “his people.”
He's right. The problem of "there not enough salt in the stew" can't be solved if - in delusional group-think, the consensus pretends ' too many carrots" is the problem.
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