Wednesday, March 10, 2010

The racial bean counters are "back in business"

If a school suspends a disproportionate number of black students in relation to their percentage of population at the school, is that prima facie evidence of racism? According to President Obama's Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, the answer is apparently in the affirmative.

Recently, SecEd Duncan announced that the Civil Rights Office within the Department of Education would begin increased enforcement of what the Wall Street Journal calls, "alleged disparities in the disciplining of white and black students."

An underling of SecEd Duncan puts it this way:
"We are back in business," said Russlynn Ali, who heads the Education Department's civil-rights bureau. "Across all of the statutes under our jurisdiction, we will vigorously enforce civil-rights laws."
Oh joy. That's exactly what ails our public schools: secretly racist teachers and administrators who have it out for black students. Rather than invite scorn by suggesting that social pathologies such as an out-of-wedlock birthrate of near 70% that continues to plague black America, these bureaucratic racial bean counters take the easy way out and drag out the tired old race card.

Perhaps the "disparities" in the suspension rates reflect the overall disparities in general criminal offenses in this country.

According to the FBI's Uniform Crimes Statistics for 2008 (the most recent year for which numbers are available), blacks constituted 51.5% of the arrests for murder in the United States, even though they make up only about 13% of our population. The arrest rate for whites and hispanics (the FBI does not differentiate the two) was 46.2%, even though, collectively, the two groups make up over 90% of the remaining population.

In the name of fixing disparities in these arrest rates, do we need to start arresting more whites/Hispanics for murder and/or arresting fewer blacks for murder, even if it means that guilty black murder suspects will go free?

How about gender disparities? I don't have time right now to look up the numbers, but I will bet dollars to donuts that more male students of all races are suspended than female students in our nation's schools. Are we going to have to begin adjusting rates of suspension to match the percentage of the sexes at every school?

I get so sick of this specious argument that finds racism wherever percentages in any given group do not match the percentages of race in a general population. If we really wanted to go down that road, we would need to fire a bunch of black people from the NBA and a bunch of white people in the NHL.

In the meantime, I would be satisfied if we just fire that blooming idiot named Arne Duncan, and in 2012, his boss, Barack Obama. Oh, and while I'm on a roll, throw in Russlynn Ali while you're at it.

Good Day to You, Sir

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

"The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this that will cause the opposition to react to your advantage.”

From Rules for Radicals

Anonymous said...

Google "Black Culture Beyond Hip-Hop"

Frankly, most of my black students, and their families, are their own worst enemy.

George

Anonymous said...

Basic message of Russlyn Ali: "Teachers are holding students of color back from achievement."

W.R. Chandler said...

3rd Anonymous,
Do you think Russlynn Ali is correct?

Either way, what do you mean by "students of color"? I'm kind of pinkish-beige; is that a color?

clipper said...

No problem, every time a sweet, blond, white, girl drops a pencil in class suspend her. After all it's a class disruption. That will make a space for the minority student who pulls a knife on, or cusses out, their teacher.
School administrations will do all they can to dismiss disruptive behavior by all students, especially minorities. They don't want a paper trail that will reflect poorly on the school and district. They bury everything they can so the district looks good.
Unfortunately, the classroom teachers and good students suffer the consequences. There is a reason why half of all new teachers quit in the first five years.