-Caveat Lector-
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Fred On Everything
Remedial Condescension
Are We Sure This Is What We Want?
An obvious truth that one dare not utter: White America, and in
particular the media, academia, and government, holds blacks in
utter contempt. This becomes clear the moment one looks at
behavior instead of asseveration. It is especially true of those people
who imagine themselves to be liberal.
Let me back up.
Decades ago, I decided that blacks should be judged on their
individual merits, just as everyone else should be, without regard to
race, creed, color, or national origin. For this I was called a liberal
and sometimes a commy.*
Since then, my views have evolved. Today I think that blacks
should be judged on their individual merits, as everyone else should
be, without regard to race, creed, color, or national origin. I am
fascinated to find that in the intervening years I have become a
racist and a Nazi.
It's wonderful. A racist is one who believes that people should
be judged without regard to race.
This is not a lunge at rhetorical cleverness, but literally true.
Suppose I suggested (as I do suggest) that admission to college
should depend entirely on scholastic qualifications. Suppose that, to
ensure racial impartiality, I further suggested that an applicant's race
be concealed from the admissions committees until after it had
made its decision. I would assuredly be denounced as a racist.
Why?
Because the universities believe that blacks cannot compete
intellectually with whites-that is, that blacks are either stupid, lazy,
or disinclined to study. They must therefore be given what others
are expected to earn. The implied contempt is clear enough.
"Affirmative action," the evasive phrase for this disguised
scorn, presupposes inferiority. To state it clearly, if you are good
enough, you don't need it. If you need it, you aren't good enough.
It's that simple. Yet affirmative action pervades racial policy. It
is racial policy.
Note that I'm not describing my attitude (which is that people
should be judged without regard to race) but the self-evident attitude
of nearly every institution in the country.
The theory behind affirmative action originally was that blacks,
handicapped by past etceteras, should be hired despite being
slightly less qualified than others. The expectation was that they
would work hard, catch up, and progress thereafter on their merits.
This was governmentally perilous: It began the tribalization of
America. It carried a risk that people once accustomed to
unearned advancement would come to expect it. Yet if it had
worked, it would now be regarded as wise and good.
It didn't work. It has turned into permanent entitlement, in which
badly unqualified blacks are advanced and advanced again, without
ever being expected to compete equally. If you think this isn't true,
name one instance in which a date has been set to end affirmative
action. Only the permanently crippled need permanent crutches.
The deleterious effects of an oppressive apartheid were said to
justify special help. Fair enough. If I had grown up in a
sharecropper's family in the Mississippi Delta in 1945, I'd have done
less well academically than I did as a mathematician's son.
However, if racially narcissistic whites really believed this,
would they not press for rigorous schooling for blacks? Would they
not reason that twelve years of genuine schooling would eliminate
any need for affirmative action? Wouldn't they recommend for black
children (as I do) more homework, more required reading, more-
serious courses?
But they don't, do they? Try to remember the last time the
media seriously urged that academic performance be demanded of
black kids. The only possible reasons for this, er, oversight are (1)
they don't care or (2) they don't believe blacks capable of a high-
school education. Take your pick.
That's respect?
I have read that 47% of Detroit is functionally illiterate;
subtracting residual whites, the figure for blacks must be well in
excess of half. The figures are catastrophic, but not new. Yet the
racially virtuous take them in stride. Why, if not unconcern or
contempt?
The whole business is revoltingly patronizing. "There, there, we
know you can't behave at a white standard. It's all just too hard, isn't
it? Let Mommy Government hug you and feel good about herself." It
would be more honest to wear shirts saying, "You Can Call Me
Bwana."
It is hard not to conclude that a lot of racial policy is aimed less
at helping blacks than at sating twisted inner needs of whites.
Liberals in particular seem more concerned about feeling superior to
conservatives, whom they hate, than about helping blacks, who
don't interest them. The results often are disastrous for blacks.
Consider the cascade effect in universities. A black kid who
would be among equals at Georgetown gets recruited by Yale,
where he is badly outgunned and fails. A kid qualified for George
Washington University gets recruited by Georgetown where, being
outgunned, he and fails. A university that cared about its studentry
would accept only those applicants fully able to do the work, instead
of desperately seeking to bag trophy blacks. I'm surprised they
don't stuff them and put them over mantelpieces.
Institutional contempt breeds individual suspicion. For example,
I will not take my children to a black doctor. The reason is not that I
hate blacks. Rather it is affirmative action. I know that black
students are not held to the same standards as white students-that
they are admitted to university with lower qualifications than whites,
given grades they didn't earn, passed because one doesn't fail
blacks, admitted to medical school on grounds of pigmentation, and
so on.
If I knew that black doctors were held to the same standards as
whites, I wouldn't hesitate to go to them. I want competence, not
color. Yes, there are competent black doctors. But how does one
recognize them?
I wonder what being eternally patronized does to the psychic
world of blacks. They cannot help but notice the low expectations,
which must infuriate those who did the work and advanced on their
merits. If you were raised in a country which by inescapable
implication treated you as hopeless, while earnestly insisting that it
was doing no such thing, how would you respond?
Two courses come to mind. First, you might think, "You
sumbitches think I can't do it? Stick around." Then you would study
like a demon to beat them at their own game. Second, you might
think, "These suckers want to give me everything free. I'll just take it.
Beats working." You especially might choose the second course if
you had come to believe the low opinion held of you by the
government, the media, and the schools.
*The Color Of Education
©Fred Reed 2002
------- End of forwarded message -------
--
Outgoing mail is certified virus free
Scanned by Norton AntiVirus
--
Outgoing mail is certified virus free
Scanned by Norton AntiVirus
Best wishes
...conservatives should thank Bill Clinton for demonstrating in real
life the kind of shameless, petty abuses of power that before we
could
only describe. Never again will mainstream Americans be able to
say, "No
president would ever do THAT!" Think about it: Can you think of
anything, literally anything, that this president would not do for the
sake of his own political success?
I have written, in print and for broad publication, that if it would
help him achieve his political ends, Bill Clinton would announce
tomorrow that he is a lesbian.
I further maintain that 43 percent of the American voting public
would
believe him.
In the past, I might have written columns warning of a president's
theoretical use of the FBI and the IRS to pursue his enemies; or a
parody of a president so desperate for campaign funds that he
invited
agents of Communist China over for tea; or a tribute to George
Orwell
suggesting that some politicians might not be sure of the definition
of
the word "is."
Before President Clinton, all this would have been comedy. Today, it
is
history...
- Michael Graham, talk show host in Charleston, SC
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
