The United States Supreme Court will soon, maybe as soon as today, decide several cases related to affirmative action. It is my hope that the Supreme Court decides it is finally time to rid our nation of programs of race based programs that judge people by the color of their skin.
One of the misconceptions about affirmative action in higher education is that it exists for the benefit of minority students. Rather, for a very long time now, its only legal justification under Supreme Court precedent is the educational benefit that a diverse student body affords to all students. An anecdote from personal experience illustrates this point.
I attended one of our more prestigious law schools. Although my LSAT score was about average for the incoming class, affirmative action might well have played a part in my admission. During a first-year criminal law class, the professor (a former prosecutor) asserted that innocent people don't plea bargain. I looked around at the other black students and no one was saying anything, so I did. I commented that none of us in that classroom would plea bargain because we all believed in our justice system. If, on the other hand, one had no expectation that it would produce a just result - a black man accused of raping a white woman in the South of the 1930's, for example - one might well leap at any plea that was better than the worst case scenario.
Again, I was the only student who pushed back against this professor's assertion. Although a white student might also have had the insight to do so, I believe that my perspective on the issue was informed by the historical experience of my people in this country. Had there not been enough black students in that particular class to have included me, more than one hundred new lawyers, including both future prosecutors and judges, might well have entered the profession with the unquestioned belief that no one who is innocent will ever entertain a plea bargain.
In sum, the diversity produced by affirmative action involves educational benefit not just for the students admitted to create that diversity, but for all students. Even setting aside the benefit of different perspectives on the educational subject matter, learning how to deal with people from backgrounds other than our own is a good thing to learn in a society as diverse as ours. Educational benefits such as this have been the only legally permissible basis for affirmative action in educational admissions for quite a long time now.
Ireland I think is getting ready to vote on enhanced hate speech criminal laws. Add hate crime laws to the list of leftist-pushed racism tools we have adopted because of our idiotic tendency to be part of the cool kids group.
I was watching the last episode of season #2 of Succession last night with my wife. We discussed the brilliance of that show covering the human flaw for seeking acceptance and validation from others... parents, superiors and others. It is likely genetic and hereditary as we are pack animals like wolves... with the pack members seeking acceptance and validation from the pack leader and to be treated well within the pack.
But we are not really pack animals... we are individuals and also desire our own liberty and freedom to pursue our own self interests.
So these two pull tendencies, pack vs individual, are at conflict with each other and cancel each other out.
But thinking about this... it is a sign of an underdeveloped psychological sense of self when adults continue to seek this tribal/parental/pack validation. When they gravitate toward luxury virtue signaling for ideas that are frankly destructive to the whole of the human condition... one that demands freedom of self-pursuit.
Any have working brain can calculate the long-term destructive consequences of both Affirmative Action (replace merit-based selection with race-based selection) and hate crime laws (punish speech and thus destroy free speech). However, people owning those brains cannot stop signaling their "cool kids" credentials to their pack peers. And due to something in the water or air, the number of these under-developed validation needy people has exploded. They are ruining everything.
Only on the left is it totalitarianism to say the government has no power here.
There will be lamenting and gnashing of teeth on the left. They will cry out to their god, government, and double down on trying to destroy the SCOTUS.
Whenever you get a choice to select a race from a drop-down menu, it always includes, 'Non-white Hispanic.' Back when Trayvon Martin was killed, they listed George Zimmerman as a 'White Hispanic.'That was the first time I'd ever seen or heard that term.
To the Left, those evil White Hispanic folks are some of the 'Rasist Americans Pushing Racism.'
So I guess, if you're Non-White Hispanic, you're an oppressed victim. If you're White Hispanic, you're an oppressor.
"I am afraid that there is a certain class of race-problem solvers who don’t want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public." -- Booker T Washington, 1911
I note the people who shout about ending racism the most are the ones who benefit the most from it's existence. People need to stop giving those folks power by listening to them. You will know them by their fruits. When their words don't match their actions, you will know which side they've chosen.
I started working for the USPS in 1982. They had an Affirmative Action seminar and it was not what you would expect it to be by today’s standards. It showed you had to get other jobs besides sorting and delivering mail. There was a bulletin published that listed local and distant jobs. You could see what qualifications were necessary so you could improve yourself if you wanted that type of job. Do you know how to write a work related resume? Answer questions at the interview?
Like any organization, there were the favorite people who had influential backers to open doors for them and the usual people with their cultural, religious, racial, and background biasses. I did know a number of people who advanced.
I have started making the connection to people that racist=progressive=Democrat. The Democrat party has a long history of racism starting from the defense of slavery through the KKK through Jim Crow laws through the internment of Japanese-American citizens to now. They are looking for a new group of slaves to do the manual labor that they refuse to do while trying to feel morally superior by helping out supposedly then less fortunate.
Ultimately it’s based on the evil of Darwinism where some races are more evolved than others. The reality is there is only one race - the Human Race.
Excellent article again Erick. This racist thing gets worst with the demoflats wanting to create separation among us all the time now.
I have first hand experience with it as I have an adopted black son. He went through the AF Academy in the late 1980's and went into the pilot program after that. I was a USMC pilot, retired even at that time. So I knew his capabilities and he always did excellent work. On his final check ride, a woman Major gave him his check ride and gave him a down. I knew she was wrong and that made me miffed. So I started putting together the facts about her. Her husband was in charge of that last part of training at that base as well so he backed her up. Also I found out that she had busted out of flying 10 black students with Dex. being the last one. With all of that info. I called Gen. Powell's office and told them about this and that they needed to follow up on this. But this was one year later as it took me that long to get the facts. About a week later, Gen Powell called me and told me that he had followed up on all this and found it to be true and had gotten both the LtCol husband and his Maj wife out of the AF. The husband had enough time that he retired him but the wife had 17 years so NO RETIREMENT FOR HER. Praise the Lord for that. He was going to call Dex next and offer him the opportunity to get back into flt training. He called him next and told him. Then Dex called me and told me that he was only going to get five warmup periods and then a test flight. He ask if it was alright to just stay in the "top secret" job he had been training in and now working in the last 13 mo. He even ask me if that would be OK. Of course it is his life and I totally agreed with him and he is now a retired Col. and loved his job that he worked in.
So I have had my own experience with this but today it is so much worse and with people doing such stupid things by beating people today.
This world is a mess right now and it needs to be changed. It will soon as He is coming, and coming SOON.
Semper Fi. I was an oh-three at Camp Geiger back in they day. I spent some time TAD with H&S Co. Every WM I ever encountered was, well, let's just say they weren't people I would want to serve with on a daily basis. I was very happy to get back to the Fleet.
I spent my first 38mo in a Top Secret Squadron and none were with us and I never served with one. But her husband was also just as guilty by approving it.
This type of sophistry is patently false. Roman roads were essential transportation aeries for centuries. Every commercial airport in the country was built with government support.
Private fire departments were phased out because they weren’t efficient.
Brown v. Board of Ed was a seminal decision that forced large parts of the population to re-examine the American experiment.
Government does all kinds of things that are both necessary and beneficial to our society.
You miss the point. Yes, there are some things government is supposed to do. However, government does nothing well. Nothing. Erick's point is that the government that works best is the government that does the least. We as Americans should want to do as much for ourselves as possible and rely on the government for as little in our lives as we can. Sadly, today's populace who are no longer taught civics in High School think government is a piggy bank and a genie granting wishes.
Of course government is necessary and can be very beneficial but the problem is oftentimes what they do is not necessary and harmful rather than beneficial. Our government has got to be reined in and reduced for the good of its citizens that it’s supposed to serve.
You made my point better than I. Almost nothing is digital. Nothing is all good or all bad. Nothing is all right or all wrong. Nothing is all smart or all dumb.
pridemonth
priDEMONth
https://modernmilitary.org/2021/06/pride-profile-major-general-leah-h-lauderback/
And another Air Force Gen.Woke General Admits To Prioritizing LGTBTQ 'Diversity' Over Qualified Officers
These two Generals should be OUT OF ANY MILITARY SERVICE THAT REPRESENTS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
One of the misconceptions about affirmative action in higher education is that it exists for the benefit of minority students. Rather, for a very long time now, its only legal justification under Supreme Court precedent is the educational benefit that a diverse student body affords to all students. An anecdote from personal experience illustrates this point.
I attended one of our more prestigious law schools. Although my LSAT score was about average for the incoming class, affirmative action might well have played a part in my admission. During a first-year criminal law class, the professor (a former prosecutor) asserted that innocent people don't plea bargain. I looked around at the other black students and no one was saying anything, so I did. I commented that none of us in that classroom would plea bargain because we all believed in our justice system. If, on the other hand, one had no expectation that it would produce a just result - a black man accused of raping a white woman in the South of the 1930's, for example - one might well leap at any plea that was better than the worst case scenario.
Again, I was the only student who pushed back against this professor's assertion. Although a white student might also have had the insight to do so, I believe that my perspective on the issue was informed by the historical experience of my people in this country. Had there not been enough black students in that particular class to have included me, more than one hundred new lawyers, including both future prosecutors and judges, might well have entered the profession with the unquestioned belief that no one who is innocent will ever entertain a plea bargain.
In sum, the diversity produced by affirmative action involves educational benefit not just for the students admitted to create that diversity, but for all students. Even setting aside the benefit of different perspectives on the educational subject matter, learning how to deal with people from backgrounds other than our own is a good thing to learn in a society as diverse as ours. Educational benefits such as this have been the only legally permissible basis for affirmative action in educational admissions for quite a long time now.
Ireland I think is getting ready to vote on enhanced hate speech criminal laws. Add hate crime laws to the list of leftist-pushed racism tools we have adopted because of our idiotic tendency to be part of the cool kids group.
I was watching the last episode of season #2 of Succession last night with my wife. We discussed the brilliance of that show covering the human flaw for seeking acceptance and validation from others... parents, superiors and others. It is likely genetic and hereditary as we are pack animals like wolves... with the pack members seeking acceptance and validation from the pack leader and to be treated well within the pack.
But we are not really pack animals... we are individuals and also desire our own liberty and freedom to pursue our own self interests.
So these two pull tendencies, pack vs individual, are at conflict with each other and cancel each other out.
But thinking about this... it is a sign of an underdeveloped psychological sense of self when adults continue to seek this tribal/parental/pack validation. When they gravitate toward luxury virtue signaling for ideas that are frankly destructive to the whole of the human condition... one that demands freedom of self-pursuit.
Any have working brain can calculate the long-term destructive consequences of both Affirmative Action (replace merit-based selection with race-based selection) and hate crime laws (punish speech and thus destroy free speech). However, people owning those brains cannot stop signaling their "cool kids" credentials to their pack peers. And due to something in the water or air, the number of these under-developed validation needy people has exploded. They are ruining everything.
No rooms available :(
Only on the left is it totalitarianism to say the government has no power here.
There will be lamenting and gnashing of teeth on the left. They will cry out to their god, government, and double down on trying to destroy the SCOTUS.
Whenever you get a choice to select a race from a drop-down menu, it always includes, 'Non-white Hispanic.' Back when Trayvon Martin was killed, they listed George Zimmerman as a 'White Hispanic.'That was the first time I'd ever seen or heard that term.
To the Left, those evil White Hispanic folks are some of the 'Rasist Americans Pushing Racism.'
So I guess, if you're Non-White Hispanic, you're an oppressed victim. If you're White Hispanic, you're an oppressor.
These Lefties make no sense at all.
Let's hope that SCOTUS throws Affirmative Action onto the ash-heap of history.
"I am afraid that there is a certain class of race-problem solvers who don’t want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public." -- Booker T Washington, 1911
I note the people who shout about ending racism the most are the ones who benefit the most from it's existence. People need to stop giving those folks power by listening to them. You will know them by their fruits. When their words don't match their actions, you will know which side they've chosen.
There's a lot of grifting to be done by being a professional victim..
I started working for the USPS in 1982. They had an Affirmative Action seminar and it was not what you would expect it to be by today’s standards. It showed you had to get other jobs besides sorting and delivering mail. There was a bulletin published that listed local and distant jobs. You could see what qualifications were necessary so you could improve yourself if you wanted that type of job. Do you know how to write a work related resume? Answer questions at the interview?
Like any organization, there were the favorite people who had influential backers to open doors for them and the usual people with their cultural, religious, racial, and background biasses. I did know a number of people who advanced.
I have started making the connection to people that racist=progressive=Democrat. The Democrat party has a long history of racism starting from the defense of slavery through the KKK through Jim Crow laws through the internment of Japanese-American citizens to now. They are looking for a new group of slaves to do the manual labor that they refuse to do while trying to feel morally superior by helping out supposedly then less fortunate.
Ultimately it’s based on the evil of Darwinism where some races are more evolved than others. The reality is there is only one race - the Human Race.
Excellent article again Erick. This racist thing gets worst with the demoflats wanting to create separation among us all the time now.
I have first hand experience with it as I have an adopted black son. He went through the AF Academy in the late 1980's and went into the pilot program after that. I was a USMC pilot, retired even at that time. So I knew his capabilities and he always did excellent work. On his final check ride, a woman Major gave him his check ride and gave him a down. I knew she was wrong and that made me miffed. So I started putting together the facts about her. Her husband was in charge of that last part of training at that base as well so he backed her up. Also I found out that she had busted out of flying 10 black students with Dex. being the last one. With all of that info. I called Gen. Powell's office and told them about this and that they needed to follow up on this. But this was one year later as it took me that long to get the facts. About a week later, Gen Powell called me and told me that he had followed up on all this and found it to be true and had gotten both the LtCol husband and his Maj wife out of the AF. The husband had enough time that he retired him but the wife had 17 years so NO RETIREMENT FOR HER. Praise the Lord for that. He was going to call Dex next and offer him the opportunity to get back into flt training. He called him next and told him. Then Dex called me and told me that he was only going to get five warmup periods and then a test flight. He ask if it was alright to just stay in the "top secret" job he had been training in and now working in the last 13 mo. He even ask me if that would be OK. Of course it is his life and I totally agreed with him and he is now a retired Col. and loved his job that he worked in.
So I have had my own experience with this but today it is so much worse and with people doing such stupid things by beating people today.
This world is a mess right now and it needs to be changed. It will soon as He is coming, and coming SOON.
Blessings to you and your wife Erick
Semper Fi. I was an oh-three at Camp Geiger back in they day. I spent some time TAD with H&S Co. Every WM I ever encountered was, well, let's just say they weren't people I would want to serve with on a daily basis. I was very happy to get back to the Fleet.
That was 1955-1958 time frame.
I was 87-91. Old Corps/New Corps for the time.
I spent my first 38mo in a Top Secret Squadron and none were with us and I never served with one. But her husband was also just as guilty by approving it.
Was this when Gen Powell was Chairman of the JCS?
Yes
People are waking up to the racist ploys of the Democrats and are believing their "lying eyes". Great article and observations Erick.
I’m the government and I’m here to help you. There has never been a more ludicrous statement.
This type of sophistry is patently false. Roman roads were essential transportation aeries for centuries. Every commercial airport in the country was built with government support.
Private fire departments were phased out because they weren’t efficient.
Brown v. Board of Ed was a seminal decision that forced large parts of the population to re-examine the American experiment.
Government does all kinds of things that are both necessary and beneficial to our society.
You miss the point. Yes, there are some things government is supposed to do. However, government does nothing well. Nothing. Erick's point is that the government that works best is the government that does the least. We as Americans should want to do as much for ourselves as possible and rely on the government for as little in our lives as we can. Sadly, today's populace who are no longer taught civics in High School think government is a piggy bank and a genie granting wishes.
Of course government is necessary and can be very beneficial but the problem is oftentimes what they do is not necessary and harmful rather than beneficial. Our government has got to be reined in and reduced for the good of its citizens that it’s supposed to serve.
You made my point better than I. Almost nothing is digital. Nothing is all good or all bad. Nothing is all right or all wrong. Nothing is all smart or all dumb.
And this government of today, is taking it all away.
I guess if you believe that by today's standards, God bless you.