As you probably know, last week the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on two cases that challenge the doctrine of affirmative action in university admissions, Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v.
What a tour de force. My Substack is called Unintended Consequences because the story of our Era is that good intentions invariably lead to unforeseen but obvious consequences. The question we never ask the identity politics crowd is this: IF we had no racism, would you support capitalist systems that are based on merit and equality of opportunity? We all know that identity is a red herring. The real driver is a rejection of meritocracy.
The Great Society initiatives of Johnson in the 60's hurt blacks more than they helped, and the informed folks know this. Newsmax , in the October issue, mentioned a book by Jason Riley, " Please Stop Helping us: How Liberals Make it Harder For Blacks to Succeed". I ignored the matter throughout my life, ( bending of the rules based on race was very obvious in the military) and I think I ended up better off than the people who received the bonus help
Agreed. Justice Clarence Thomas could not find a corporate or law firm position after Yale Law School, because he was viewed as an affirmative action admit, and as such deemed unqualified. Some viewed him as being extremely quiet/shy over the years, but his grades and test scores were within the range for YLS via race-blind admissions standards. I do not know what the answer is, or I’m not willing to publicly state what Condoleezza Rice recommended regarding the cycle of failure for those that come from disadvantaged backgrounds, but anything other than a meritocracy is a recipe for disaster.
I have a " conundrum" for lack of a better word. I swim most days for about an hour at the community pool here at our gated community by Disney. Yesterday morning I was there , 10 a.m. and layed out my large auqua blue towel across a chair, covering my prescription glasses and car key fob. There was a family of 4, husband, wife, two toddlers diagonal from meat the junior olympic pool. The only other person was a distictive looking ( very tall, skinny, holding a ball) young man aimlessly walking about the inner perimeter. He stopped at the hot-tub, I swam. About 10:25 a,m,, I realized my towel and glasses and keys were no longer there. I asked in the gift shop, and the woman said that the tall guy brought in my keys and claimed he found them. I checked all trash cans in and outside the clubhouse complex. This is a gated community, cameras everywhere, the place was built in the year 2000 to cater to independant VRBO style owner-operators, which is how I got involved . The camera watching the line of chairs where my property was had a dark shadow across much of the view, making the camera view worthless. Now I know where not to place my stuff. I called the sheriff, three deputies come out quickly, and tell me that I have no grounds to suspect this man. The fact that he was the one last known to be holding my property since he handed the keys to the gift shop clerk meant nothing. When I saw this guy initially, I knew he did not fit into the typical tourist picture. He is black, I felt that it was wrong for me to view him with suspician based on that and his behavior, but all I know is he took my keys and handed them to the gift shop lady while I was swimming right there. He saw me when I arrived and placed my stuff on the chair, so why claim they were just sitting there. Why not steal my car or the wallet in my car? Why take a beat-up towel and prescription glasses? That set me back $100 minimum. My thought is that he grabbed everything, then thought about the fact there are cameras , which neither he and I knew at the time were useless, or maybe was interrupted by another clubhouse visitor, and decided to pretend he was doing a good deed, and my towel and glasses are ditched somewhere. The shame of it is that there are three entities at the pool , me , him, and the family who were as far away as can be from my stuff, one guy steals from the other in clear daylight with cameras all around, and nothing can be proved or at least clearly determined who did what. Very very strange situation. If anyone has any theory on what the motivation of all this was, I am all ears, as Ross Perot once said.
Call me a cynic, but what drives affirmative action in education is at least partially about financializing higher education and goosing the rents that banks extract from US citizens via the federally subsidized student loan cartel. This is the same shenanigans that happened during Bush II when we eased mortgage lending requirements to supposedly improve minority home ownership. The only beneficiary of that program was the banks.
I don't know what type of shit college you went to if you think class discussions are bullshit and students don't learn anything from their peers. At my college we debated political theory after hours, and since we weren't all taking the same classes, we shared what we learned in our different classes. The purpose of the discussions was for people to learn to defend their point of view. It's true that some students couldn't do this, but the problem there was that the college wasn't selective enough.
What a tour de force. My Substack is called Unintended Consequences because the story of our Era is that good intentions invariably lead to unforeseen but obvious consequences. The question we never ask the identity politics crowd is this: IF we had no racism, would you support capitalist systems that are based on merit and equality of opportunity? We all know that identity is a red herring. The real driver is a rejection of meritocracy.
You went far too easy on higher education. It isn't diversity trumps excellence; it is diversity trumps the merest hint of academic competence.
Very true.
The Great Society initiatives of Johnson in the 60's hurt blacks more than they helped, and the informed folks know this. Newsmax , in the October issue, mentioned a book by Jason Riley, " Please Stop Helping us: How Liberals Make it Harder For Blacks to Succeed". I ignored the matter throughout my life, ( bending of the rules based on race was very obvious in the military) and I think I ended up better off than the people who received the bonus help
Agreed. Justice Clarence Thomas could not find a corporate or law firm position after Yale Law School, because he was viewed as an affirmative action admit, and as such deemed unqualified. Some viewed him as being extremely quiet/shy over the years, but his grades and test scores were within the range for YLS via race-blind admissions standards. I do not know what the answer is, or I’m not willing to publicly state what Condoleezza Rice recommended regarding the cycle of failure for those that come from disadvantaged backgrounds, but anything other than a meritocracy is a recipe for disaster.
Excellent essay!!
Thank you so much for working on this!
I have a " conundrum" for lack of a better word. I swim most days for about an hour at the community pool here at our gated community by Disney. Yesterday morning I was there , 10 a.m. and layed out my large auqua blue towel across a chair, covering my prescription glasses and car key fob. There was a family of 4, husband, wife, two toddlers diagonal from meat the junior olympic pool. The only other person was a distictive looking ( very tall, skinny, holding a ball) young man aimlessly walking about the inner perimeter. He stopped at the hot-tub, I swam. About 10:25 a,m,, I realized my towel and glasses and keys were no longer there. I asked in the gift shop, and the woman said that the tall guy brought in my keys and claimed he found them. I checked all trash cans in and outside the clubhouse complex. This is a gated community, cameras everywhere, the place was built in the year 2000 to cater to independant VRBO style owner-operators, which is how I got involved . The camera watching the line of chairs where my property was had a dark shadow across much of the view, making the camera view worthless. Now I know where not to place my stuff. I called the sheriff, three deputies come out quickly, and tell me that I have no grounds to suspect this man. The fact that he was the one last known to be holding my property since he handed the keys to the gift shop clerk meant nothing. When I saw this guy initially, I knew he did not fit into the typical tourist picture. He is black, I felt that it was wrong for me to view him with suspician based on that and his behavior, but all I know is he took my keys and handed them to the gift shop lady while I was swimming right there. He saw me when I arrived and placed my stuff on the chair, so why claim they were just sitting there. Why not steal my car or the wallet in my car? Why take a beat-up towel and prescription glasses? That set me back $100 minimum. My thought is that he grabbed everything, then thought about the fact there are cameras , which neither he and I knew at the time were useless, or maybe was interrupted by another clubhouse visitor, and decided to pretend he was doing a good deed, and my towel and glasses are ditched somewhere. The shame of it is that there are three entities at the pool , me , him, and the family who were as far away as can be from my stuff, one guy steals from the other in clear daylight with cameras all around, and nothing can be proved or at least clearly determined who did what. Very very strange situation. If anyone has any theory on what the motivation of all this was, I am all ears, as Ross Perot once said.
Call me a cynic, but what drives affirmative action in education is at least partially about financializing higher education and goosing the rents that banks extract from US citizens via the federally subsidized student loan cartel. This is the same shenanigans that happened during Bush II when we eased mortgage lending requirements to supposedly improve minority home ownership. The only beneficiary of that program was the banks.
Oh, and next you will say that the college text book racket is a racket?
I don't know what type of shit college you went to if you think class discussions are bullshit and students don't learn anything from their peers. At my college we debated political theory after hours, and since we weren't all taking the same classes, we shared what we learned in our different classes. The purpose of the discussions was for people to learn to defend their point of view. It's true that some students couldn't do this, but the problem there was that the college wasn't selective enough.