I'm used to hearing stuff like this from California, where several lawsuits have taken place and all (and I still remember Saint Bill Clinton of the Dems once saying that if not for race-based quotas, UC campus populations would be mostly Asian ... as if that would be a bad thing, Bubba, based on pure merit by test scores and such), but this new story is from New York City where the NAACP is involved in a flap over Stuyvesant High School. The claim is that the entrance exam is "racist" (whatever that means right now according to whomever is using it to their advantage), but the practical goal seems to be taking places from Asian students and redistributing them to black and Latino students.
You know, when I was young and ignorant and filled with more pie-eyed idealism than facts, I had a vague thought that affirmative action was a good thing. Then I grew up and realized that it screws over people who are qualified in order to give their places to people who aren't, and that instituting quotas turns human beings into mere numbers, that setting up two sets of criteria is innately unjust, and that the whole thing had become corrupted by identity politics and race-baiters. The whole point to education, as I see it, is to push yourself to excellence as a way to get ahead in life, and I see this as especially applicable to children of immigrants (like myself). Many of these families aren't rich. Mine wasn't. Education is the first, best way to improve yourself and your prospects in life. The intrusion of identity politics into this is a travesty matched only by the Gramscian corruption of public education.
4 comments:
How did these cases turn out in Cali? I guess I may need to look into CA case law on standardized testing for public school extrance exams.
To be accurate, Stuy isn't the only NYC school affected by the NAACP complaint. The other 2 famed specialized public HSs, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech, plus 5 later-added public HSs also use the SHSAT. Stuy just happens to be their main target as the crown jewel of the NYC public school system, the sacred cow to slay, and my alma mater.
I am upset that Asian advocacy groups and politicians purporting to represent the Asian community in the case have given their blessing to the NAACP. I don't know who's left to advocate for the Asian families that have their hopes pinned on testing into Stuy and the other specialized schools.
The Cali lawsuits were mainly about college admissions, but you get the point.
Anyway, how much of this Stuy flap is also about people (especially politicians) not wanting to oppose the NAACP and risk accusations of racism?
I have little doubt the advocacy groups and pols are looking out for their political position viz their relationship with the NAACP and the rest of the race-based coalition. The Asian endorsements clearly are meant to provide political cover for the anti-Asian effect of the complaint. All cynical stuff. Unless the Asian community rallies to defend its interests independently of the sold-out advocacy groups and politicians, that political cover for the NAACP et al could be enough.
Cali precedent: Lowell High School in San Fransisco.
Post a Comment