Posted on 09/05/2012 12:23:44 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Among all the bizarre ideas that emanate from the callow and sciolistic mind of the modern American liberal, the statistical disparity argument is one of the most fallacious. It has permeated and destroyed so many aspects of society. It is now being offered by Obama’s education secretary, Arne Duncan, in the area of disciplining school students.
I first ran across this during the 1970s as a night school accounting student taking a sociology course. The professor announced the canard that America has something like five percent of the world’s population but uses twenty-five percent of the world’s resources. Do not quote me on the exact words and figures. You get the idea.
But the fallacy of the argument is lost on the holier-than-thou liberal. Omitted is the fact that America produces thirty percent of the goods and services that the world uses. Or that America is the biggest economy in the world and is the market that other countries need to acquire wealth through trade.
One of the worst applications of this has been in crime. The ACLU, as well as the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons of the world, use the fact that blacks are arrested and imprisoned in higher percentages than there are blacks in the general population as proof of racism.
The whole story is not told though. What the leftists omit is that blacks are also crime victims in higher percentages than they are in the general population. So unless the ACLU et al. are willing to admit that the black criminals are preying on black victims because of racism, then this obviously proves that more blacks are in prison because more blacks are committing crime in greater numbers.
Maybe the liberals should confine their efforts to why this is rather than try to excuse this with specious claims of racism.
Gail Heriot, a commissioner of the United States Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR), makes this same argument in rebuttal to the policy being implemented by Duncan, which essentially demands that a quota be developed for disciplining school students.
Duncan, in 2010, dramatically announced that the Dept. of Education (ED) “will be issuing a series of guidance letters to school districts and postsecondary institutions that will address issues of fairness and equity. We will be announcing a number of compliance reviews to ensure that all students have equal access to educational opportunities, including a college-prep curriculum, advanced courses, and STEM classes. We will review whether districts and schools are disciplining students without regard to skin color. … African-American students without disabilities are more than three times as likely to be expelled as their white peers. African-American students with disabilities are over twice as likely to be expelled or suspended as their white counterparts. Those facts testify to racial gaps that are hard to explain away by reference to the usual suspects.”
Are they not explained by the usual suspects?
Heriot does not think so. She wrote in her rebuttal contained in the USCCR’s briefing report, which was derived from 2011 testimony the USCCR heard examining the effect ED’s “Disparate Impact” initiative had on schools and school districts across the country.
She said, “What if an important reason African-American students were being disciplined more often than white or Asian students is that more African-American students were misbehaving? And what if the cost of failing to discipline those students primarily falls on their fellow African-American students who are trying to learn amid classroom disorder? Will unleashing the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and its army of lawyers cause those schools to eliminate only that portion of the discipline gap (if any) that was the result of race discrimination? Or will schools react more heavy-handedly by tolerating more classroom disorder, thus making it more difficult for students who share the classroom with unruly students to learn?”
Another member, Commissioner Abigail Thernstrom also noted the specious nature of the Obama administration’s argument. She wrote in comments in the report, “We can all agree that, proportionate to their school population, black children are much more likely than their white or Asian peers to be disciplined for behavior the schools find intolerable. I hope we can also acknowledge that whites are twice as likely to be disciplined as Asians.”
But the most scathing criticism came from Commissioner Todd Gaziano. He is very familiar with the Obama administration’s penchant for unequal enforcement of civil rights laws, having battled Attorney General Eric Holder’s stonewalling of the New Black Panther voter intimidation case that the USCCR tried to conduct.
Gaziano wrote, “As Deputy Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights Ricardo Soto explained in his statement to the Commission, the Department’s regulations prohibit ‘race-neutral policies, practices, or procedures that have a disparate impact on the basis of race, color or national origin.’ Although this phrasing has been part of the executive branch’s lexicon for some time, it is still worth pausing a moment on the Orwellian doublespeak of anything having a ‘disparate impact on [a] basis’ to show how hard the Department must strain to use some of the words of the statute in service of the opposite of what they provide. Because a disparate impact is usually understood as an unintended effect, and may include many unintended effects, this formulation awkwardly attempts to equate unintended ‘impacts’ with the actual basis (or ground) for the action. Putting aside this nonsensical use of the English language, Soto’s testimony accurately described the Department’s disparate-impact theory …”
Gaziano also observed that the statistical disparity argument applied to school discipline is just as hollow as it is in the field of criminal justice. He noted the deleterious effects of that policy.
Liberal education policies have already damaged public education tremendously. This policy will make the damage irreparable for minority students.
Those are among dozens of recommendations from a state legislative committee that spent the past year and a half looking into why the state's minority youth are less healthy, have lower test scores and are more likely to be incarcerated than other young people.
.....Assembly Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color, led by Assemblyman Sandré Swanson, D-Alameda, will introduce more than 50 pages of policy and legislative recommendations...
......[Swanson] plans to ask Assembly Speaker John Pérez to appoint a new chair so the committee can continue its work next year, and see whether lawmakers should create a state commission on the status of boys and men of color.
Here is a sampling of recommendations from the state Assembly's Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color:....."
Or a certain percentage of black murderers get to go free and unprosecuted, just to allow the rates to equalize. Either way, it is BS.
That crap started in the 60’s.
Failing to discipline misbehaving black students causes a disparate impact on well behaved black students.
Therefore, whoever is caught misbehaving must always be punished, regardless of race, lest their peer group be disparately impacted.
I’ve heard liberals say that many minorities get in trouble at school because we don’t understand ghetto culture. It’s as is we need to understand dissing so that kids do not get in trouble for fighting because they were dissed.
I’ve heard liberals say that many minorities get in trouble at school because we don’t understand ghetto culture. It’s as is we need to understand dissing so that kids do not get in trouble for fighting because they were dissed.
“The soft racism of lower expectations.”
great article. thanks for posting it.
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i think the key point is this:
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“I hope we can also acknowledge that whites are twice as likely to be disciplined as Asians.”
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basically, proving that it is NOT because of “racist” teachers over-disciplining black students.
It’s racist if you don’t wear your pants halfway down your crack and sire children out of wedlock.
It’s racist to even make black kids go to school.
The gender discrimination in school discipline and prison terms is even worse.
Males are only 50% of the population, but 93% of those in prison. The only explanation for this disproportion is illegal discrimination. We must therefore imprison random females and/or release male prisoners until the sex ration in prisons is balanced at 50%.
We also need to release young people and imprison more older people. More discrimination.
Boy, I’ve heard some lame arguments from liberals, but that’s a new one for me. It’s not that we don’t understand ghetto culture, it’s just that we (rightly) don’t tolerate it in our schools. At least, that is the way that it should be.
If they only fit into the system.... but then again it’s a “whiteman’s” thing.... man of these issues would disappear. Instead of being Afro Americans , they need to be Americans. They need to drop their own counter culture for their own survival and success in the “whiteman’s” system.
I do not care where you go, there is only one way to put a nut on a bolt.
It all starts with education, and the parents promoting education...... and not such nonsense as ebonics.
Ghetto culture is regression to tribal ways. Millions of years of genetics has to have effected day to day living for the genocidal maniacs and free rangers. Conversely, the “whiteman” has experienced civilization since the Romans hit town.....thus have other preconceived notions about day to day living.
Well, if you are an evolutionist, then all of the civilization that white folks have had for a couple thousand of years really does not amount to a bucket of spit. Sure, it was the most recent environment we have adapted to, but that would only be a blink of the eye in the evolutionary time scale, not enough to erase our previous genetic predispositions.
For the “whiteman”? Clearly the most single contributor for our social behavior is Christianity. For the industrial free west? Same
For Africa? they never experienced civilization. Maybeeee two spots for a brief period. Show me where they had organized farming and calculation of taxes for the greater social good...
There are reasons.....
“For the “whiteman”? Clearly the most single contributor for our social behavior is Christianity. For the industrial free west? Same”
Yes, this I can totally agree with. However, on the one hand you correctly give credit to Christianity for white people’s success, but then blame the failures of blacks on genetics. Yet, we know that whites can be just as, if not more, barbaric than the worst tribes in Africa, if we abandon our Christian values and faith. Just look at Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
I think the problem is mainly that, when we tried to introduce Christianity to many peoples, it was part and parcel of a secular colonization effort as well. So, when they became disillusioned with the colonial systems, they also wanted to abandon the Christianity that they viewed as tied to it. Basically, they tossed out the baby with the bathwater.
I just visited a friend, a teacher in a bankrupt California city. Her first grade class size was increased this year from 20 to 32. There are no aides, Phys.Ed., art or music. There is no library, other than what teachers bring in themselves. Her district has accepted 0bama cash. Her students are primarily black and Spanish-speaking students. An edict has been given to NOT refer any black students to the office for discipline, because it will ruin the district’s statistics. Even the little ones have the power, and they know it. Any deficits in their performance are officially the teacher’s fault. The textbooks cover all the lefty social issues.
In contrast among Africans there is also a wide distribution -- the Ethiopians and Nubian people have been civilised since at leave 1700 BC or earlier -- earlier than European "whites". The West African empires and societies of GhanaEmpire, Songhai Empire etc. in the period 800 AD to 1400 AD did have organized agriculture and taxation
All excellent points.
Here we are in 2012 and the majority of Africa, rural still functions at the tribal level with tribal politicx. Every other year as a result they have a genocide or two. Funny how development works.
See, the interesting thing I have witnessed in Africa is the racist counter culture amongst the illiterates. If someone has learned english , may will shun the kid, and or pick on him too for being “white”.
I would speculate that it is racism being practiced by the illiterate kids here too, for not wanting to participate nor fall into the system.... thus they run into problems getting educated.
“Lets go get some cash... “
in Africa?? Or among African-Americans in the USA?
because the problem is that there are tribes cut across national boundaries.
Proverbs 14:34
Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.
............. As the 50 states for the first time hand out the "persistently dangerous" label as part of the Bush administration's sweeping Leave No Child Behind Act, it is sharpening the debate over what exactly an unsafe school is. It is also raising moral questions within districts about how aggressive they should be in reporting incidents of violence.
To critics, the fact that so few schools nationwide were so designated indicates that administrators are ignoring - or simply not reporting - all the mayhem in their hallways.
"It is very likely that there is reluctance among schools to report incidents now because it would bring them too much trouble," say Ronald Stephens, executive director of the National School Safety Center, a nonprofit advocacy group in Westville, Calif. .........................
................But national statistics of school crime, say experts, seem to indicate that more schools should qualify for the classification. In 2000, 72 of every 1,000 students ages 12 through 18 reported being victims of crimes at school. The average far exceeds most states' requirements for a dangerous school.
At the heart of the discrepancy may well be a reluctance on the part of educators to report campus crime fully. A survey by the National Association of School Resource Officers found that 89 percent of school police believe crime is already underreported. "It's the scarlet letter in education today," says Mr. Trump. "Administrators have said to me privately that they would rather be academically failing than be a dangerous school." *** School-safety rankings - or just black marks?
Exactly. Two days ago I sent office referrals (and placed phone calls) for 7 disruptive students—all of them Black. In each case, individual exhortations desk-side failed to elicit the appropriate response in terms of behavior. That’s 7 out of a class of 29; you can imagine the difficulty the other students were having while trying to listen and learn. I took no satisfaction in the task, except for this: I was standing up for the rights of those students who came to learn that day! This has always been my determining factor in meting out disciplinary measures—measures which,by the way, are scant and ineffective in today’s environment.
Whenever I am challenged along racial lines by parents, students or administrators, I remind them of my students who come to school to learn, how they have comported themselves, ready and attentive, willing to learn; how they will sometimes look at me with pleading eyes; how they’ve come day in and day out hoping to wring some sort of education out of their school day. I remind them that I am here for THEM, as well as the disruptive students. If you ask me, job one for those students bent on disruption is to bring the swift rod of correction down on them—this is the first lesson they need to understand about education: it does not happen apart from [self-]discipline.
Well, gotta go! Off to another exciting day of fun and learning at the good ol’ gubmint school of eju-ma-cashun!
Thanks for your reply. 20 years ago I was a school administrator at a meeting of the Superintendents of 26 school districts. The subject was reporting of violence in the schools. Only one super had reported honestly. The others berated him for making them look bad on honest reporting. When there’s a government rule, there’s an infinite number of unintended consequences.
Honesty left the classroom the moment the left entered.
This isn't about stats, fairness, penological consistency, or any other thing than a contest of wills between the population producing this army of criminals, and the rest of society. It is about race -- that part at least is correct.
This isn't a discussion. It's warfare. Realize that, or be a chump and a victim.
you sound like an excellent teacher.....
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