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Politically Correct Failures
A few days ago Fannie Flono, one of the editorial writers for the Charlotte Observer, wrote about another conference to be held concerning racial issues. This one was about how young black men are victims of violent crime and, by the way, are perpetrators of the same. One sees this type column fairly regularly, as the wishful thinking of the politically correct crowd is that there is no difference between black, white, Asian, Hispanic, male or female. (I am so glad they’re wrong about the difference between men and women.)
Studies are regularly cited that show that one racial group does better or worse than some other racial group, and the reader is supposed to believe society, some government program, or something other than race is the reason. Well that’s easy enough. Race is not the reason. It is not the determining factor. And if the people that worry about race being the factor would stop putting the little boxes that request your race on every piece of paper that has your name on it, then no one would know what race people are. Then they could address the issue. This is simple enough to understand, but the politically correct can’t do it because examining the issue involves the truth.
Ms. Flono is concerned about the excess number of black men found in emergency rooms as victims of violent crime. What is the reason for this? First off, if we didn’t know their race, we could address the issue of why so many men are found in emergency rooms and address the issue of why this type crime is occurring. But that does not seem to be Ms. Flono’s purpose. She seems to want an equal number of white people in the emergency room. Notice how this works. We are all supposed to be equal. But, what if we’re not? Then we must do something to make everything equal. Something must be done! Ah-ha! Another conference, where a lot of talking will occur but addressing the truth won’t.
As Ms. Flono is hardly alone in this position, now comes Arne Duncan, the Education Secretary of the Obama administration. He is concerned about the inequality of expulsions in public schools. It turns out – you guessed it – that 46% of those expelled are black but they are just 18% of those enrolled. One can guess he’d be happy if more white students were expelled; but as they’re not, he alludes to the “fundamental unfairness” of expelling more children of one race than another. Perhaps there is something to be learned here, but it is not what Ms. Flono and Mr. Duncan would prefer.
In 1994, Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray published a book that was the antithesis of the PC crowd. The Bell Curve was not well received because it showed there is a difference between races. Differences in degree, not in kind, were the general conclusions, but to show any difference was unacceptable to the PC crowd. They want us all to be exactly alike.
The results of more black students being expelled from school, or an excess number of black men found in emergency rooms as victims of violent crime, have only two possible inputs. Either the teachers and disciplinarians are racist and those who injure each other enough to send the victims to the emergency room are racists, or there is a difference in behavior that causes such results.
The PC crowd cannot, will not, accept the idea of any difference and will chastise anyone who dare imply there is one. But if there is, and it seems probably that there is, then their ideas of how to fix the problem will not help and they’ll be having wringing-hand conferences forever. In the meantime, for no good reason, but because the truth can’t be faced, more young black men will be expelled and way too many will end up in the emergency room.
I suggest the three are related.
Because expulsion is public school’s final avenue of discipline, one conclusion is that the methods of discipline in public school are not working for those who are expelled. Since one of the purposes of public school is to teach behavior, then it is obvious by expulsion rates that behavior is not being learned; and so something is wrong with the previously used methods of teaching. The children are not learning to behave, but are learning to misbehave to the point they get expelled. But the ones who are expelled are the ones most in need of schooling. There is almost a circular logic to the lack of discipline in the schools.
Instead of faulting the schools, people point to dysfunctional homes and absentee fathers as the reasons for the problem. Perhaps they are related, but the fact is these are the children who are in the schools and excuses are a waste of time. The children who are there must learn to behave. But if every avenue of behavior modification is off the table except mild verbal chastisement and expulsion, then the children will learn that nothing happens when they act up. Having learned that acting up is acceptable, they get worse and at the acting-out age of the teens, find themselves expelled, which is where too many of them want to be anyway.
My fourth-grade teacher, Ms. Fannie Smith, rapped us on the knuckles and shook us by the shoulders. I was spanked in first grade for throwing a napkin across the dining room. In middle school ‘licks’ were for those who were still recalcitrant and in high school the teachers would break up fights by jerking the boys away from each other. The teachers were in control of the classroom and the school. No ‘safety’ officer, no armed guard was necessary. Why, because the politically correct crowd had yet to find the lawyers to take control of the school away from the teachers and give it to the children.
Notice. It was the PC Crowd that went to the lawyers and the courts to take the ability to punish students away from the teachers and the schools. Why, because they didn’t want little Johnny to be embarrassed or bruised. So now the teachers can’t even touch the children and they end up in the emergency room, in jail or dead, and the PC crowd wonders why. They say ‘What can we do?’ I suggest they’ve already done it and are afraid to face the facts of their own actions.
So the PC crowd, in concert with the tort lawyers (see John Edwards), stopped the schools from using discipline that works, which leads to expulsion and to associated behaviors. One can only wonder why the PC crowd doesn’t talk about their success.
Children need discipline and it should suit the student and the situation. Black or white is not the question: teacher, behavior and student is! Personally I prefer a sound spanking. It seems obvious the PC Crowd prefers expulsion, the emergency room, and jail. Getting them to say so is difficult, but they’re NOT the ones whose lives are lost; they’re just talking about it.
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I commented on Fannie’s story at the time and said that as a white person, I was offended by her comments.
Not long after, the title of the story changed and the black/white comparison was removed.
Breaking the silence on black/white crime disparity <<<<<— Original title…
Sorry, I don't buy the rhetoric.
If the facts are correct, there is no "disparity".
“Most of the time, it’s very stupid stuff. Somebody took somebody’s lunch or something,” he said. Or, as alleged in a shooting that injured three bystanders at an apartment complex two days ago, a fight over a card game.
That statement pretty much sums it up, so again, what disparity? Do you wish there was no crime or lower Black crime and higher White crime to "equal things out"?
In the end you call this a "health disparity" and say we should "get our heads out of the sand"?
No Fannie, the Black community needs to get THEIR heads out of the sand and face the facts. Face facts not only about crime affecting the Black community but the sad state of education among Black children and stop blaming everyone else for your lot in life when you have no one to blame but yourselves.
As a White person, I find your comparison offensive.I ran across this post on a blog from back in 2009 at asilee.com, a 24 year old married, atheist Black woman who owns the blog:
10 Problems Facing Blacks
Lack of opportunity and safety. There has been a loss of industrial jobs and a failure to control crime in northern cities by liberal mayors for most of the last 40 years.
Breakdown of the family. Until recently, welfare was a constitutional right (Goldberg v. Kelly) that makes government dependency more attractive than husbands. Illegitimacy increased from 23.6% in 1963 to nearly 70% of all black children today. This persistent problem was predicted by the Moynihan and Glazier more than 30 years ago and by FDR’s Secretary of Labor Francis Perkins who insisted that aid not go to unwed mothers. Policy makers and politicians did not listen until 1996. Some still don’t see how welfare reduces the value of black men.
Black anti-intellectualism. Accusations of “acting white” in the classroom, as detailed by John McWhorter, undermine education as a vehicle for advancement. Instead, black leaders expend enormous resources to advance affirmative action at a small number of elite universities, unmindful of the pernicious effects it has had on talented young blacks.
Failure of urban K-12 schools. Teachers unions and the education establishment have been more interested in pay-raises and grants than student achievement, testing, and competition from Catholic schools. Not to mention the costs of replacing the more effective Basic Instruction with the
Self-Esteem pedagogy.The failure of urban schools is not attributable to a lack of funding. There has been a 300% real increase in per pupil spending since 1970. This increase has been only modestly offset by increases in special need students from 8.3% to 11.8% of the student body – of which the percentage of seriously challenged children actually declined. The limits of throwing money at the problem were seen in Kansas City’s $1.2 billion debacle.
High incarceration rate of black men. The Democratic Party is a co-conspirator in the “War on Drugs” to garner suburban votes. Instead it should fight to decriminalize drugs and reduce the jail time served by family members of its most loyal voters.
Reduced respect for human life. Black women have nearly 30% of the all abortions, resulting in the death of 350,000 fetuses a year or one every 90 seconds. Beyond the tragic loss of life itself, this much death reduces the civility with which people treat each other.
Licensing requirements. Government imposes barriers to labor-intensive entrepreneurial opportunities. (Hair braiding/cosmetology degrees and taxi medallions). Licenses are a de-facto re-creation of Jim Crow laws. They are passed in the name of health and safety but serve to protect, in reality, current cartel providers and union jobs. Moreover, continual increases in the minimum wage make it more attractive to invest in capital equipment than hire unskilled black workers in entry level training positions.
Victimolgy. The speeches and ideologies of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and leaders in the reparation movement undermine the initiative of many African Americans. Moreover, there is a lack of honest debate among black leaders because of the fear of being called an “Uncle Tom” for not supporting the grievance agenda.
Radical relativism. Black leaders and liberal academics do not criticize even the most obscene behavior of people like Puff Daddy, OJ Simpson, and Dennis Rodman. They fail to see the effects on youth of Hip-Hop culture. Instead they applaud the legitimacy it receives from people like Harvard University Professor Dr. Cornel West. (Larry Summers was right).
Excessive race-consciousness. The Left is insincere in acknowledging the advancement in race relations since the early 1960′s. 75% of blacks have joined the middle class. If they lived in an independent country, they would be citizens of the 10th richest nation in the world.
Race matters but not very much. Race-consciousness diminishes the importance of addressing the more important issues listed above.
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