"Equal opportunity." Has such a nice ring to it, doesn't it? It did when it first came into vogue, as well, back in Thee Olden Tymes of the '60's. When well meaning white PIP's (People In Power) decided that all 'Merica needed to do in order to rectify all those years of evil racism was put black people at the head of every line in which they stood because their great-great-grandparents might have been brough here as slaves. (To digress, to be brought to North America from Africa as a slave was a distinct level up from such person's lot in life back in The Dark Continent, and their progeny should have been grateful for the luck of having been born on these shores. Maybe not so much if you were shipped to the Caribbean of worse luck, Brazil, but that's another story.) Talk about unintended consequences! On second thought, were those consequences perhaps intended? You be the judge.
"Affirmative Action" soon expanded exponentially to include women (not a minority, but hey, that's beside the point) as well as other non-slave-descendant ethnicities and sexual perverts, to the point that now, all those "disadvantaged minorities" compose a large majority of citizens! The only group not given this unfair benefit was, need I say, heterosexual men of European ancestry. You know, the ones who really (sorry, all you descendants-of-slaves seeking to claim this distinction) built this country with the sweat of their brows, backs and brains. We saw a mad scramble to claim "disadvantaged minority status" once it became clear that the road to success was paved for those fortunate enough to gain that status by the success of the so-called "civil rights movement" on behalf of blacks. Next it was females, then the queers, followed by every non-white heterosexual group known to man. Check out any legislatively defined "protected class." Here in The Keystone State, it includes groups defined by "Color, Religious creed, Ancestry, Age (40 and over), Sex, National origin, Familial status (only in housing), Handicap or disability and the use, handling, or training of support or guide animals for disability and Retaliation for filing a complaint, opposing unlawful behavior, or assisting investigations" all of which are precluded from being a basis upon which one may choose to act. N.B., it has never, to my knowledge, been used to punish discrimination against white men or Christians of any color. To make my intended point, however: if you think that a return to "equal opportunity" means a colorblind (and everything else but merit) based society, you are in for a rude awakening. That's where this present imbroglio began, my friend. Words mean only what those using them intend for them to mean, so "equal opportunity" can and will be used to disfavor the same group of people that DEI more openly discriminates against. Ironically, white PIP's use it to maintain their favored position against all comers, including other white people (excluding females and sexual perverts, of course). We have come to the end of the road for our once glorious constitutional republic; we are reduced to the proverbial elemental state so nicely defined by Hobbes: a state of war in which life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” because individuals are in a “war of all against all”. So buckle up, buckaroos, we are in for a bumpy flight from here on out.
There were always too many extremely well qualified Asian and white candidates for admission. They could fill the class with 4.8GPA and 1600 SAT candidates each year. Legacys and big donors got probably 20% of spots. 10% probably were for diversity candidates who did not have similar GPA/SATs/ACTs. You were favored if you went to HS in the northeast or California. Prep schools vs Public. It was quite impossible to select. Therefore personal statements and interviews were critical. Academic coaches gamed the system. 1500/1700 slos per year. About 10-15 years ago things changed with merit less and less important, diversity (other than politics) more critical. If your sob story was profound or if your melanin correct you were elevated to the top of the list, if you were Trans or in transition better. The Tests were abandoned to partially hide the stats. They are appalling. The admitted are generally dumber and more entitled/ arrogant than their professors. Funny how the Asian Community supports the Democratic Party, yet are upset when the “Jim Crow”admission laws they set up for colleges then affect them. Not all Asians are bright..just look at representative Ted Lieu. FJB
Affirmative Action was a great concept but failed because it was engineered by our federal government who never had to make it work.
It was a common practice in the '60s and '70s to use validated testing to measure an individual's basic abilities. If the scores were good, it was a good bet the applicant could be hired and do well on the job. These were similar to the tests the US Army used to quickly place recruited solders to the correct job during wartimes. However, when these tests began showing large numbers of minorities couldn't attain minimal scores, they came down hard on companies that used them.
Thus was born the notion that it was not the fault of the applicant's lack of intrinsic ability. It was the company's fault for being discriminatory in their hiring. Company's needed to figure out how to employ unskilled and incapable people into skilled positions.
Sounds a little like the workers at Boeing or the air traffic controllers hired today.
The Feds write hundreds of "noble" laws that sound great, but it falls to the courts to define what the laws mean and how they are applied. Until some company gets sued by a job applicant who didn't get hired, the courts may NEVER provide these operational definitions.
The Feds make up rules they don't have to figure out how to apply to make them workable but boy-o-boy they are noble ideas. Equal outcome can't be legislated.
Today Don had me reading a New Yorker article, an event less frequent than a total solar eclipse. I will say that a "sidebar" in a bench trial is more rare than floods in Dubai and may literally be unique.
Going to rock things a bit here and say I don’t see DEI dying at all. It’s just changing names and tactics and going stealthy. It isn’t going to die because without racism, the left has nothing to scream about or raise money on today. DEI is going to radically damage or end many college’s and universities. That’s because parents will eventually “just say no” and stop sending their kids there. As with most things, changes in where the money goes are what matters. Just ask Sears Roebuck. Harvard and others like it are about to face the grim reaper and they are clueless and largely defenseless because elitists no longer understand what makes America “America”.
Good column. DEI, alas, has done a good job of fracturing America. The Progressive movement is behind that of course. It is refreshing to see the pendulum move back towards the center where it belongs.
Had a hard time choosing between “Tiger Moms” and “doing their homework”, because, in large part it’s the Moms who enforce the homework doing.
But I went with “doing their homework” because, in the end, that’s what gets anyone anywhere, affording the most equal of opportunities for all who do likewise.
I lost a bet with myself. I thought Don would be commenting about this: In a 2-1 ruling Tuesday, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Becky Pepper-Jackson, 13, a transgender girl who argued that the law prevented her from running on the girls’ cross-country and track teams at her middle school.
“Offering B.P.J. a ‘choice’ between not participating in sports and participating only on boys teams is no real choice at all,” Judge Toby Heytens wrote, using the plaintiff’s initials. “The defendants cannot expect that B.P.J. will countermand her social transition, her medical treatment, and all the work she has done with her schools, teachers, and coaches for nearly half her life by introducing herself to teammates, coaches, and even opponents as a boy.”
Let's pump the brakes, here - let's remember that today's DEI is simply the "natural" result of what is recognized as government-mandated equal opportunity, courtesy of the CRA of 1964.
The fourteenth amendement had been clear re: equal opportunity, and all that follows from it, for nearly a hundred years before the introduction of Affirmative Action, race and gender quotas because enforcing the constitution was too much bother.
Who ever would have thought that a return to the 70s would be yearned for in the twenty-first century?
Americans of Asian descent are so much smarter than any of their peers because of Tiger Moms.
Always room for cello goes with doing not just the assigned homework problems but all of them in the text chapter. There was once a time when, upon the first class meeting for math or physics courses, you looked around and saw a bunch of Asian faces, you'd think about dropping the course because the grading curve would be insurmountable.
While you disagree, I'm all in favor of separate spaces for the lgbtqiaxyz crowd. I really, Really, REALLY don't want to have my grand children exposed to two guys making out in the restaurant, or the backless leather pants they seem to think are cool
Am I the only one who is way beyond tired of hearing ‘an Obama Appointee’ attached to every ‘F’ up in America today?
I didn’t think so…
"Equal opportunity." Has such a nice ring to it, doesn't it? It did when it first came into vogue, as well, back in Thee Olden Tymes of the '60's. When well meaning white PIP's (People In Power) decided that all 'Merica needed to do in order to rectify all those years of evil racism was put black people at the head of every line in which they stood because their great-great-grandparents might have been brough here as slaves. (To digress, to be brought to North America from Africa as a slave was a distinct level up from such person's lot in life back in The Dark Continent, and their progeny should have been grateful for the luck of having been born on these shores. Maybe not so much if you were shipped to the Caribbean of worse luck, Brazil, but that's another story.) Talk about unintended consequences! On second thought, were those consequences perhaps intended? You be the judge.
"Affirmative Action" soon expanded exponentially to include women (not a minority, but hey, that's beside the point) as well as other non-slave-descendant ethnicities and sexual perverts, to the point that now, all those "disadvantaged minorities" compose a large majority of citizens! The only group not given this unfair benefit was, need I say, heterosexual men of European ancestry. You know, the ones who really (sorry, all you descendants-of-slaves seeking to claim this distinction) built this country with the sweat of their brows, backs and brains. We saw a mad scramble to claim "disadvantaged minority status" once it became clear that the road to success was paved for those fortunate enough to gain that status by the success of the so-called "civil rights movement" on behalf of blacks. Next it was females, then the queers, followed by every non-white heterosexual group known to man. Check out any legislatively defined "protected class." Here in The Keystone State, it includes groups defined by "Color, Religious creed, Ancestry, Age (40 and over), Sex, National origin, Familial status (only in housing), Handicap or disability and the use, handling, or training of support or guide animals for disability and Retaliation for filing a complaint, opposing unlawful behavior, or assisting investigations" all of which are precluded from being a basis upon which one may choose to act. N.B., it has never, to my knowledge, been used to punish discrimination against white men or Christians of any color. To make my intended point, however: if you think that a return to "equal opportunity" means a colorblind (and everything else but merit) based society, you are in for a rude awakening. That's where this present imbroglio began, my friend. Words mean only what those using them intend for them to mean, so "equal opportunity" can and will be used to disfavor the same group of people that DEI more openly discriminates against. Ironically, white PIP's use it to maintain their favored position against all comers, including other white people (excluding females and sexual perverts, of course). We have come to the end of the road for our once glorious constitutional republic; we are reduced to the proverbial elemental state so nicely defined by Hobbes: a state of war in which life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” because individuals are in a “war of all against all”. So buckle up, buckaroos, we are in for a bumpy flight from here on out.
Asian Americans are smart because their tiger moms make them do their homework. And then take cello lessons.
There were always too many extremely well qualified Asian and white candidates for admission. They could fill the class with 4.8GPA and 1600 SAT candidates each year. Legacys and big donors got probably 20% of spots. 10% probably were for diversity candidates who did not have similar GPA/SATs/ACTs. You were favored if you went to HS in the northeast or California. Prep schools vs Public. It was quite impossible to select. Therefore personal statements and interviews were critical. Academic coaches gamed the system. 1500/1700 slos per year. About 10-15 years ago things changed with merit less and less important, diversity (other than politics) more critical. If your sob story was profound or if your melanin correct you were elevated to the top of the list, if you were Trans or in transition better. The Tests were abandoned to partially hide the stats. They are appalling. The admitted are generally dumber and more entitled/ arrogant than their professors. Funny how the Asian Community supports the Democratic Party, yet are upset when the “Jim Crow”admission laws they set up for colleges then affect them. Not all Asians are bright..just look at representative Ted Lieu. FJB
Affirmative Action was a great concept but failed because it was engineered by our federal government who never had to make it work.
It was a common practice in the '60s and '70s to use validated testing to measure an individual's basic abilities. If the scores were good, it was a good bet the applicant could be hired and do well on the job. These were similar to the tests the US Army used to quickly place recruited solders to the correct job during wartimes. However, when these tests began showing large numbers of minorities couldn't attain minimal scores, they came down hard on companies that used them.
Thus was born the notion that it was not the fault of the applicant's lack of intrinsic ability. It was the company's fault for being discriminatory in their hiring. Company's needed to figure out how to employ unskilled and incapable people into skilled positions.
Sounds a little like the workers at Boeing or the air traffic controllers hired today.
The Feds write hundreds of "noble" laws that sound great, but it falls to the courts to define what the laws mean and how they are applied. Until some company gets sued by a job applicant who didn't get hired, the courts may NEVER provide these operational definitions.
The Feds make up rules they don't have to figure out how to apply to make them workable but boy-o-boy they are noble ideas. Equal outcome can't be legislated.
Today Don had me reading a New Yorker article, an event less frequent than a total solar eclipse. I will say that a "sidebar" in a bench trial is more rare than floods in Dubai and may literally be unique.
Going to rock things a bit here and say I don’t see DEI dying at all. It’s just changing names and tactics and going stealthy. It isn’t going to die because without racism, the left has nothing to scream about or raise money on today. DEI is going to radically damage or end many college’s and universities. That’s because parents will eventually “just say no” and stop sending their kids there. As with most things, changes in where the money goes are what matters. Just ask Sears Roebuck. Harvard and others like it are about to face the grim reaper and they are clueless and largely defenseless because elitists no longer understand what makes America “America”.
Good column. DEI, alas, has done a good job of fracturing America. The Progressive movement is behind that of course. It is refreshing to see the pendulum move back towards the center where it belongs.
Had a hard time choosing between “Tiger Moms” and “doing their homework”, because, in large part it’s the Moms who enforce the homework doing.
But I went with “doing their homework” because, in the end, that’s what gets anyone anywhere, affording the most equal of opportunities for all who do likewise.
I lost a bet with myself. I thought Don would be commenting about this: In a 2-1 ruling Tuesday, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Becky Pepper-Jackson, 13, a transgender girl who argued that the law prevented her from running on the girls’ cross-country and track teams at her middle school.
“Offering B.P.J. a ‘choice’ between not participating in sports and participating only on boys teams is no real choice at all,” Judge Toby Heytens wrote, using the plaintiff’s initials. “The defendants cannot expect that B.P.J. will countermand her social transition, her medical treatment, and all the work she has done with her schools, teachers, and coaches for nearly half her life by introducing herself to teammates, coaches, and even opponents as a boy.”
…50 years ago when Nixon was president and hot pants were in style…
…There were many things wrong about the 1970’s. …
Don, Bubbaleh, I hope you’re not suggesting there was something wrong with Hot Pants. Worn by the right woman, they were… Magical!
"Not bad but where’s the black applicant joke?" Coffee spit :-D
"There were many things wrong about the 1970s.
Equal opportunity was not among them."
Let's pump the brakes, here - let's remember that today's DEI is simply the "natural" result of what is recognized as government-mandated equal opportunity, courtesy of the CRA of 1964.
The fourteenth amendement had been clear re: equal opportunity, and all that follows from it, for nearly a hundred years before the introduction of Affirmative Action, race and gender quotas because enforcing the constitution was too much bother.
Who ever would have thought that a return to the 70s would be yearned for in the twenty-first century?
Americans of Asian descent are so much smarter than any of their peers because of Tiger Moms.
Always room for cello goes with doing not just the assigned homework problems but all of them in the text chapter. There was once a time when, upon the first class meeting for math or physics courses, you looked around and saw a bunch of Asian faces, you'd think about dropping the course because the grading curve would be insurmountable.
Tempted to choose "They're secretly Jewish', but that would be racist.
While you disagree, I'm all in favor of separate spaces for the lgbtqiaxyz crowd. I really, Really, REALLY don't want to have my grand children exposed to two guys making out in the restaurant, or the backless leather pants they seem to think are cool