And They Call It Equity
In the world of the woke, where all shoes are clown shoes, a little pushback:
A teacher in Minnesota who had complained about racial quotas in school discipline has been awarded over half a million dollars in a settlement. Aaron Benner, who’s black, alleged retaliation by the St Paul Public Schools in the form of four “personnel investigations” following his criticism of discipline policies… Benner said, “We are crippling black students with racial equity plans that do a disservice. We should not be telling minority students they will not be disciplined the same as other students when their behaviour is unacceptable and sometimes even violent.”
Those ‘progressive’ discipline quotas – essentially, a racial ‘free hits’ policy – have of course been mentioned here before, along with their predictable and horrifying consequences.
As I noted at the time,
What’s remarkable here isn’t that young thugs and budding sociopaths will quickly exploit immunity from punishment based solely on their race, but the fact that grown adults, supposed professionals, many of whom will be parents, either didn’t see this coming or realised what would happen and went ahead anyway, thereby screwing everyone else.
Such that seven different experiments, in seven different cities, resulted in seven dramatic surges in classroom violence, up to and including actual riots. While white teachers who found themselves being punched in the face, resulting in trips to hospital and permanent injury, were subsequently lectured on their “unconscious biases” and “white privilege,” and told to take comfort in free emergency whistles.
This, then, is “racial equity,” according to our betters. See how it shines.
Update, via the comments:
Here’s one of the brains behind the policy in question. Watch as she attempts to explain how teachers – including, presumably, those being bullied and assaulted – should adapt and embrace the “diversity” of this “new learning environment.” Parents who find that their children are stuck sitting next to violent morons – violent morons now exempt from normal consequences – will doubtless recognise the situation as, and I quote, “a great opportunity.”
As Thomas Sowell once put it,
The greatest dangers to the liberal vision are facts about the consequences of liberalism itself and the laws, policies, and ways of life that the left has spawned… The vision of the left, full of envy and resentment, takes its worst toll on those at the bottom — whether black or white — who find in that paranoid vision an excuse for counterproductive and ultimately self-destructive attitudes and behaviour.
Which reminded me of Cal State educator and self-styled “truth-teller” Professor Melina Abdullah, who insisted that calling the police is a racist and privileged act if the criminal in question happens to be black. Whereas, being granted a license to commit crime with impunity and no fear of police involvement, on account of being black, is in no way racist or a sign of privilege. Apparently, those so indulged will flourish into responsible citizens. Another example that comes to mind is when Salon’s Scott Eric Kaufman told his readers, emphatically, that young black males “shouldn’t have to” comply with lawful instructions from the police. Mr Kaufman, who is white, dismissed any cooperation with the police as being “servile,” presumably on grounds that being combative and physical will improve the situation no end.
And let’s not forget Harvard-educated sociology professor Crystal Fleming, who championed the looting of fashionable trainers while the looters’ law-abiding neighbours were distracted by an oncoming hurricane.
Among the woke, for whom a kind of moral dementedness is a badge of status, such perverse and potentially life-ruining advice is commonplace, practically a default. And so again, an old question – if you wanted to degrade the life-chances of minorities, or anyone sufficiently credulous, what would you do differently?
This mea culpa is related and quite good:
While white teachers who found themselves being punched in the face, resulting in trips to hospital and permanent injury, were subsequently lectured on their “unconscious biases” and “white privilege,” and told to take comfort in free emergency whistles.
At first I thought they were really stupid but now I think they might just be evil.
This mea culpa is related and quite good
You may want to check the link, which is buggered. Also, when quoting paragraphs, blockquote is easier to read than italics.
Also, the spam filter is being uppity again, so by all means email me if you’re having trouble with comments not appearing.
At first I thought they were really stupid but now I think they might just be evil.
I suppose it could be both. A kind of dumb malevolence.
As noted not too long ago, “equity,” like “social justice,” is a term favoured by leftist educators and campus activists, and is defined, if at all, only in the woolliest and most evasive ways. And which, when used by those same educators and activists, seems to mean something like “equality of outcome regardless of inputs.” Inputs including diligence and punctuality. And whether you go around punching teachers in the face and setting students’ hair on fire.
I mean, given the results of these “equity” projects, given their predictability, and given the spiteful harassment and smearing of those who demur, it’s hard to believe that the motives in play are benign.
“… and is defined, if at all, only in the woolliest and most evasive ways…”
– Humpty Dumpty syndrome, methinks:
“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.” And which is to be master? – why, they are; just ask them.
‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean…’
One of the brains behind the policy. Apparently, parents and teachers, including those being bullied with impunity and brutally assaulted, should embrace the “diversity” of this “new learning environment.”
This isn’t new. It has trickled down to lower grades in public schools. Many, many years ago, my brother was knocked unconscious by another student at the University of Michigan during an argument. When he complained to the Admin about it, he was advised to seek anger management counseling. Nothing was done to the aggressor. Apparently, being attacked implies wrongdoing by the victim which justifies the attack.
Thus, Trump should be impeached because he defends himself against it.
Thus, Trump should be impeached because he defends himself against it.
– In other words, “kafkatrapping” once more. For those students of absurdity in the audience who don’t recall the details, there are two kinds of people guilty of thoughtcrime:
1) those who admit to being guilty of thoughtcrime, and
2) those who will not admit to being guilty of thoughtcrime.
Many, many years ago, my brother was knocked unconscious by another student at the University of Michigan during an argument. When he complained to the Admin about it, he was advised to seek anger management counseling.
Was the aggressor dark-skinned? In other words, did the administration have no interest in punishing the aggressor because he was black or because the administration didn’t want to “make waves” or establish a paper record of crimes occurring on campus? Both motives exist.
At first I thought they were really stupid but now I think they might just be evil.
There is an old aphorism that “the right things the left are mistaken while the left things the right are evil.” The left has successfully persuaded me that they are indeed evil.
As for stupidity, yes, there is a lot of that, but when we look at failed policies and think the left must be stupid we should remember that the purported goals of the policies–better education, poverty reduction, etc–need not be the left’s true goals, and the left’s unfailing dedication to policies that produce harmful results is very good evidence of evil intent.
I can not understand this reaction. If he was assaulted, and being knocked unconscious certainly meets my definition whether on not it meets the law’s, why did he not go to the local police and press charges? Have universities been given some sort of embassy\tribal reservation status that exempts them from local law enforcement of which I’m unaware?
Similarly if campus ‘rape’ is so prevalent, why aren’t the court dockets in and\or near university towns loaded with rape cases?
I’m completely bewildered by a university’s ability to say, “Nope, nothing to see here.”, in what should be felony cases and get away with it.
You may want to check the link
Found Bloke In North Dorsett’s article here:
https://quillette.com/2019/09/17/i-basically-just-made-it-up-confessions-of-a-social-constructionist/
Of which I found this an amusing confession. Not surprising to me, though. My bolding…
Apparently, being attacked implies wrongdoing by the victim which justifies the attack
Yep. Experienced similar in school, elementary and college, on a couple of occasions. Also many years later, and without much effort, got a psychologists to say essentially that same thing. This is part of the bullying culture. We have socialized many of the most vulnerable students, along with many not so vulnerable, to not fight back. Yet in today’s anti-bully BS that the media and schools and Teh Narrative drone on and on about, the mere suggestion that the victim has the right, let alone the responsibility, to fight back makes the one making the suggestion out to be the bully. It’s kafkatrapping on steroids. Hell, I don’t think that Kafka ever put such absurdity in the context of children. With him it was an adult-world/government thing. But it’s an uncomfortable subject so best not to make a big deal about it. Better to use that time to talk about how society cares so much about the children.
being knocked unconscious certainly meets my definition whether on not it meets the law’s, why did he not go to the local police and press charges?
OK, overposting here but wth…In my specific case in college, a couple of Puerto Rican students in a BMW came upon me one night while I was riding by bicycle back from a party. They slowed down and started BS’ing with me about stuff that made no damn sense to me. I just smiled and kept on peddling. Then at some point they got it in their head (or the short guy in the passenger seat got it in his head) that I called them “dirty Jews” or something about Jews anyway. The driver then started swerving at me with the car trying to knock me off my bike. I started riding on the sidewalk but every intersection we came to the guy swerved at me. Finally did knock me off my bike. The two of them get out and the driver was a heavy burly guy. Now I wasn’t going to take on two guys but I did have a friend riding behind me, who unfortunately and unknown to me had stopped way back up the road to do “taking care of drunk roommate” duty and didn’t see any of this. The burly guy took a couple swings which I blocked, then tried to kick me in the cajones, which I also blocked. Finally some people came out of a nearby dorm and it scared them off. When my friend (6′ 2″, about 220…at the time I was 6′ 3″ but only about 185)…and my drunk useless roommate finally showed up I just wanted to go home. But they encouraged me to report it. So we stood around for another 30-45 minutes waiting for campus cops to show up. Reported it. Weeks go by but I’m guessing it took them a while to put 2 and 2 together from my description of the car (I think I got a partial on the license plate…don’t recall exactly) and I get a letter that I must appear at the dean’s office at such and such time or I’ll be thrown out of school. I show up at the appointed time and there’s my two Puerto Rican “friends”. Long story short, they made up a bunch of BS but the very absurdity that two guys in a car somehow had to get into an altercation with a guy on a bike such that there was a fight, that absurdity was somehow not relevant. All that mattered was that we got in a fight and that there was to be no fighting on campus. I protested that I never threw a punch, all I did was block burly-guys’ punches and kicks. Didn’t matter. I got a semester of probation. Anything further that put me in this guy’s office and I’d be thrown out of school. Lately I wonder if that might not have been a good thing in the long run. Who knows.
“equity,” like “social justice,” is a term favoured by leftist educators and campus activists, and is defined, if at all, only in the woolliest and most evasive ways
Back in the 1990s, the NDP in Ontario wasn’t getting much traction on their push for equal pay legislation, due to the annoying (to them) fact that data showed that pay between the sexes was being shown to be about equal.
And so “employment equity” became the cause de jour. “Equal pay for equal work” was passe, the new slogan was “Equal pay for work of equal value“. It’s wasn’t fair to pay based on the actual work, they said, it was the value to the company that mattered. The secretary in the heated office was just as important to the mining company as the miner and the steam shovel operators who were working in -20 degrees, so she should be paid the same.
And who would decide what work was of equal value? The government, of course.
And so secretaries voted for it en masse, salivating over their anticipated 20% raise.
Surprisingly, if only to people who’ve never run a business, companies didn’t respond by casually giving monstrous raises to everyone in the office. Instead, they lowered their minimum pay rates for everyone, and then instituted bonus pay schemes that saw productivity increase, and field workers actually earn more. Of course, the office workers couldn’t qualify for these bonuses, but hey, they were equal, they were welcome to transfer out into the field for them.
…which looked at the connection between men and barbecuing in Canada in the 1940s and 1950s…
From the archive of Guardian Classic Sentences: “The mythology of meat is well marbled with machismo.”
And power was, and remains, a kind of magical word in academia—especially to a graduate student first reading Michel Foucault.
https://www.takimag.com/article/the-whip-hand/
From the archive of Guardian Classic Sentences
Heh. Still rather pleased with that one.
What? Oh, bite me.
Honestly, screw the unions, and screw the union teachers who give money only to Democrats, stump only for Democrats, and get raises from Democrat governors. After 10,000 teachers are murdered, maybe something will change. Until then, they are supporting the people who want them dead and I have no sympathy, or any desire to help them. Perhaps there is a single person in clown quarter school today, who will wake up and say to themselves “you know what, I do not have to be a teacher”. When socialism is killing the people who keep voting for, I will not raise a single complaint. It would actually be rather amusing to watch a million people died from the bubonic plague in ShitFransisco, or LA… and then watch them vote in another Democrat anyway…
‘Social justice’ is nothing more than nostalgie de la boue with an enforcement wing.
“Related”
https://babylonbee.com/news/liberals-clarify-their-racism-is-actually-democratic-racism
At first I thought they were really stupid but now I think they might just be evil.
I don’t think it’s stupidity as much as the innate racism that tells them the black folk cannot be expected to act like “normal” people like them. That allowances must be made.
Remember the scene in the movie The Miracle Worker where Annie Sullivan lights into Hellen Keller’s parents that their pity for their “incompetent” daughter, letting her get away with bad behavior, is what has kept her a semi-savage that rules the house.
I don’t think it’s stupidity as much as the innate racism that tells them the black folk cannot be expected to act like “normal” people like them. That allowances must be made.
As Thomas Sowell once put it.
So who benefits from as race war? Rather, who thinks they benefit?
Or is it yet another example of unreasonably high time preference for the left’s preferred policies? IE, they don’t think shit through.
The greatest dangers to the liberal vision are facts about the consequences of liberalism itself and the laws, policies, and ways of life that the left has spawned.
Somewhat related.
Another example that comes to mind is when self-styled “truth-teller” Professor Melina Abdullah insisted that calling the police is a racist and privileged act if the criminal in question happens to be black. Whereas, being granted a license to commit crime with impunity and no fear of police involvement, on account of being black, is in no way racist or a sign of privilege. Apparently, those so indulged will flourish into responsible citizens.
Or when Salon’s Scott Eric Kaufman, told his readers, emphatically, that young black males “shouldn’t have to” comply with lawful instructions from the police. Mr Kaufman, who is white, dismissed any cooperation with the police as being “servile,” presumably on grounds that being combative and physically resisting detainment or arrest will improve the situation no end.
And let’s not forget Harvard-educated sociology professor Crystal Fleming, who championed the looting of trainers while the looters’ law-abiding neighbours were distracted by an oncoming hurricane.
Among the woke, for whom a kind of moral dementedness is a badge of status, such perverse and potentially life-ruining advice is commonplace, practically a default. And so again an old question – if you wanted to degrade the life-chances of minorities, or anyone sufficiently credulous, what would you do differently?
So who benefits from as race war? Rather, who thinks they benefit?
The Left.
The more they can make people give up any idea of individual sovereignty and make them retreat into identity-based tribes, the better for the ruling class. The Left lives from crisis to crisis and their Emmanuel Goldstein isn’t an individual, but the “out group” du jour.
Today it’s “white supremacists” <---any non-left white person. And "climate deniers" <---any person who questions St. Greta
oops… forgot. “White supremacists” are any non-left person. To be non-left is to be white. Ask Candice Owens or Michelle Malkin.
Oh dear God.
Oh dear God.
See my post above at September 25, 2019 at 13:06, specifically the bolded part ” But then, for the rest, I basically just made it up.”
I’m guessing that article belongs in a similar category.
Not entirely unrelated, Heather Mac Donald on intersectional lies:
Our betters seem more interested in dishing out excuses and immunity from consequences according to how brown the aggressor is – in the name of fairness, no less. And in pretending to reduce disruption and violence in the classroom by punishing it less when arbitrary racial quotas have been reached. With the results illustrated above.
Oh dear God.
In entirely unrelated news, Toys R Us closed its doors in part because their highest-performing section was Babies R Us, and upper middle class women aren’t having any babies. Mattel chasing this market is yet another example of how social justice ideology only seeps in to market segments that are shrinking and panicking.
I’m confused. I was reliably informed that there is no such thing as race.
I’m confused. I was reliably informed that there is no such thing as race.
Free the Indianapolis 500!!!!
Evidently, Portland has money to burn.
Apparently, being attacked implies wrongdoing by the victim which justifies the attack
And likewise, if you object to racial exemptions in school discipline, and object to training materials titled What’s Wrong With White Teachers?, and object to a policy that insists that all white educators are inherently racist and responsible for racial disparities in behaviour and educational achievement (there being no other conceivable possibilities, you see), and if you object to being told to stand up holding a score of your own purported “unconscious racism” – if you find all this absurd and grotesque – then you will be smeared, harassed and accused of racism.
By dogmatic, lying pinheads.
The banning of urinals (and making loos unisex) will lead to queues. Men don’t like and aren’t used to queuing for that so they’ll piss in alleyways and bushes instead. Then we’ll get more froth about “toxic masculinity” and probably laws to ‘prevent’ it happening.
The great Christopher Snowdon mentioned this bit from Adam Smith a few days ago:
I don’t think the left is as calculating as some on here suppose. They’re more often short-termist and utterly incapable of understanding that people don’t share their logic.
Did you catch the public shaming and self-criticism circle during the Big Brother finale? Contestants accused others of bullying, misogyny and racism which was “unforgivable”. The accused had to apologize profusely and denounce themselves. One guy, accused of racism, said he did not recall the instance but apologized if he caused offense. The accuser said “It would be forgivable if you knew what you are apologizing for”.
Along the same lines, a 24 year old who raised $1 million for a charity was “canceled” when a local newspaper rooted through his old social media posts and found “problematic” posts from when he was 16. The charity took his money, but denounced him because as a teen he was not sufficiently sensitive by 2019 standards.
Brave new world that has such people in it.
The banning of urinals (and making loos unisex) will lead to queues. Men don’t like and aren’t used to queuing for that so they’ll piss in alleyways and bushes instead. Then we’ll get more froth about “toxic masculinity” and probably laws to ‘prevent’ it happening.
No, I think the bigger and more likely outcome is to drag the “you left the seat up” argument, along with the related yet somewhat opposite “piss on the seat” argument from the home into the much more fun and victim wannabe world of litigious society.
Did you catch the public shaming and self-criticism circle during the Big Brother finale?
Well to be fair, the general idea is right there in the title of the show. Gotta give them credits for honesty. Not that some people didn’t see this coming 15 years ago when the idea for this idiotic franchise originated. The funny thing to me is how something so obvious can so easily be overlooked in a world where this nonsense is going on out in public in the very cancel culture you reference.
I don’t think the left is as calculating as some on here suppose. They’re more often short-termist and utterly incapable of understanding that people don’t share their logic.
The rank and file left – absolutely. The political leadership (from the local level all the way to Jean Paul Juncker types) are very calculating and very good at maintaining power.
An…interesting…development in the past decade has been more of the corporate and political leadership taken up by True Believers. The power and money grabbers are still cynically using the ideologically retarded for personal gain, but now a lot of these assholes really believe this crap, so course correction without civil strife looks less likely by the year.
Darleen, don’t you mean that they have money to piss away?
when a local newspaper rooted through his old social media posts and found “problematic” posts from when he was 16
The reporter who did the digging was found to have “problematic” posts of his own and was subsequently fired.
Today’s word is karma.
Among the woke, for whom a kind of moral dementedness is a badge of status, such perverse and potentially life-ruining advice is commonplace,
Related… ‘California Shocked To Find Bill Decriminalizing Retail Theft Resulted In… More Retail Theft’
https://hotair.com/archives/jazz-shaw/2019/09/26/california-shocked-find-bill-decriminalizing-retail-theft-resulted-retail-theft/
‘California Shocked To Find Bill Decriminalizing Retail Theft Resulted In… More Retail Theft’
Ah, these must be the enlightened people we hear so much about. Mostly from themselves.
Ah, these must be the enlightened people we hear so much about.
Yes the same ones who cling to the belief that humans wlll change their behaviour to make a theory true. You know, the one’s who tell us real socialism hasn’t been tried yet.
Well it’s a damn good thing we have hard statistical evidence to back up this concern and not that sloppy empiricism and anecdotes and slippery slope logic. I’m sure our betters can fix this problem now.
Stupid, stupid world.
The reporter who did the digging was found to have “problematic” posts of his own and was subsequently fired.
The senior editor at that newspaper is now defending the exposure of the charitable giver’s youthful tweets:
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/from-the-editor/2019/09/26/carson-king-tweet-editor-response-investigation-iowa-childrens-hospital-donations/3780741002/
via: https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2019/09/26/wimps-iowa-newspaper-refuses-apologize-trying-ruin-carson-king
via: https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/343414/
The senior editor at that newspaper is now defending the exposure of the charitable giver’s youthful tweets
And they wonder why their industry is increasingly viewed with contempt.
…Watch as she attempts to explain how teachers – including, presumably, those being bullied and assaulted – should adapt and embrace the “diversity” of this “new learning environment.” Parents who find that their children are stuck sitting next to violent morons…
Also the “wonderful opportunity” when bright children are stuck next to nonviolent morons: It is iron dogma in the education Left that tracking (advanced classes for bright children) is deeply unjust and probably racist. Instead, bright kids are to be kept in the same classes as stupid kids, and the bright kids are to be expected to help the stupid kids learn. The fact that this will not actually help the stupid kids but will indeed significantly harm the smart kids does not matter: The left simultaneously insists that this fact is a “myth” and that it is unimportant compared to “social justice”.
I first heard this garbage from a psychology professor who advanced it as a useful way to eliminate or compensate for racial IQ differences.
The early version of this was when they started discouraging moving kids ahead a grade because they feared for the child’s ability to socialize. As if putting kids a year or two ahead was that big of a deal. I couldn’t understand this when I was younger and under some consideration for advancing a year. Hell, I played with all those older kids after school anyway. WTF was the big deal? So I sat in class, board, looking out the windows, finding ways to entertain myself and basically learning how to goof off. I truly think the basis of much of this is, the longer you hold the brighter kids in school, the more time you have, the more opportunity to infuse them with your dogma. There was a time when what I just said would have sounded ridiculous to me but I am increasingly unable to discern stupidity from malice. I think they prety much work together.
I truly think the basis of much of this is, the longer you hold the brighter kids in school, the more time you have, the more opportunity to infuse them with your dogma.
That seems very plausible, but I think a stronger motive is their hostility to the fact that some kids are naturally smarter and that other kids are much better prepared because they come from superior home environments/cultures. Equality Uber Alles, enforced by Diana Moon Glampers.
I am increasingly unable to discern stupidity from malice
Me too.