Far-left race hustler

Black/Hispanic failure in public schools is not racial bias

"Study Finds Racial Bias in Public Schools" screams the New York Times.(March 1, 2000) To quote, "Black students in public schools across the country are far more likely than whites to be suspended or expelled, and far less likely to be in gifted or advanced placement classes, according to a study of 12 large public school districts released yesterday by the Applied Research Center, a left-wing policy group in Oakland, Calif." The districts studied: Austin, Tex., Boston, Chicago, Denver, Durham, N.C., Los Angeles, Miami, Columbia, S.C., San Francisco, Missoula, Mont., and Providence, R.I. As usual, the idea is to claim racism to bolster a political agenda, just like the New York Times does.

In most of the school systems "black students were suspended or expelled at a higher rate than their white peers. In Los Angeles, for example, black students made up 14 percent of the student body, but 30 percent of those suspended or expelled." They didn't make any comment on Hispanic students, but with the LA school system only 10% white, that means we have 76% Hispanic.

According to the article, this expulsion issue came about because in the Fall of 1999 six black students in Decatur, Ill., were expelled following a brawl in the bleachers at a high school football game, and the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson's Rainbow/Operation PUSH Coalition filed a civil-rights lawsuit." The lawsuit was tossed and the expulsions upheld, (they never disputed the thugs were guilty), but the "testimony" revealed 80% of the district expulsions were black while making up less than half the student body. They never addresses the fact the culprits didn't commit the acts, but only the fact blacks were expelled was racist in itself regardless of guilt. This is an utter disconnect from reason.

This "racial skew" also found white students were disproportionately represented in advanced placement and gifted programs, and minority students underrepresented. But these are schools controlled by liberals. To quote, "In San Francisco, the study found that blacks and Latinos make up 42 percent of the student body, but only 14 percent of those in advanced placement and gifted programs. And in Durham, N.C., where blacks and Latinos make up 62 percent of the students, they represent only 27 percent of the students in academically advanced classes."

The study ignored Asians in the same schools, but "the Asian-American students in most districts were overrepresented in advanced classes and underrepresented among those who were disciplined." The study claimed "a deep pattern of institutional racism." Education experts denied this noting "the well-documented racial gap on test scores, do not necessarily add up to institutional racism." In fact the Asian test scores debunk that racism claim in itself.

But Robert B. Schwartz, president of Achieve (a so called school reform group made up of governors and corporate executives) laments, "Unfortunately, we have a lot of history and evidence that schools tend to reproduce the economic and social disparities of the larger society. We look to schooling to be this great equalizing engine, but history hasn't been terrific on that score. Can one deny that racism persists? Of course not. But I think it's more complicated than racism alone. Obviously, class plays into this, and other factors." Achieve is a so called school reform group made up of governors and corporate executives.

What confuses Schwartz and other socialists in general is that economic success in America is a product of hard work, education, and staying away from crime, vice, and unwed motherhood. The same destructive behavior blacks and Hispanics follow results in the same failure when whites do it. Come here to Appalachia and see for yourself.

How about using public schools to teach academics subjects like reading and math, not to operate an "equalizing engine" to achieve left-wing political goals. Schwartz mumbles on, "class plays into this, and other factors." How about the students being lazy? How about black and Hispanic culture the multiculturalists work so hard to preserve?

Can one deny that racism persists? Yes Mr. Robert B. Schwartz, they can deny racism here because the evidence proves it wasn't racism. Unless we have some mass conspiracy in far-left schools systems such as San Francisco or the 90% non-white school system of Los Angeles, they have to face the truth that black/Hispanics have themselves to blame. It's either race or culture, I prefer to believe culture.

The study examined 10 indicators, including the dropout rate, graduation rate, suspensions and expulsion, advanced and gifted classes, college admissions and the racial demographics of the teachers compared with those of the students. In all the districts, the percentage of white teachers was higher than the percentage of white students, often by a huge margin. In Denver, more than three-quarters of the teachers, but less than one-quarter of the students, were white. And in Los Angeles and Chicago, about half the teachers, but only about one in 10 students, were white.

So it's now the fact they hire white teachers, that in itself must be racist. But half the teachers in Los Angeles and Chicago are not white, so are they in on the plot to ruin the lives of black and Hispanics too? But this was New York Times March 1, 2000, several years later the same paper produced more proof.

In a devastating article, "Most Students in Big Cities Lag Badly in Basic Science" (November 16, 2006), the New York Times made the mistake of placing white achievement rates beside that of black and Hispanic failures in the same schools systems, a PC no-no. The article concerned a study of ten cities that fourth and eight graders to quote, "tested in science failed to demonstrate even a basic understanding of the subject..."

For blacks there was an average 77 percent failure rate, for Hispanics it was 71 percent. But for whites in the very same schools, the success rate was 72 percent. The conclusion is obvious that in the same NEA and minority controlled school systems, with all students in the same schools and classrooms, about three-fourths of blacks and Hispanics fail while almost three-fourths of their white classmates pass. Are we to believe these school systems are conspiring to advance white students over so-called "minority" students? (Asians were not included in that study either, Atlanta didn't even report Hispanics and whites where 81 percent of blacks failed.)

It should be no surprise this mirrors graduation rates for whites in the suburbs as well. Whites in these urban schools did about as well as the graduation rates in suburban schools in the same income bracket. Fact: Over 50 years of integration, special programs, race quotas, etc. hasn't changed the fact that whites and Asians far outperform blacks and Hispanics taking the same classes in the same schools. It has nothing to do with schools and everything to do with the student.

The New York Times also reported (August 27, 2007) that even for what few black and Hispanics even graduate score, score far below whites on same college entrance exams. To quote, "Black students on average scored 433 in critical reading and 429 in math; the averages for Puerto Rican students were 459 and 454; and those for white students were 527 and 534...the overall results really foreshadow what the future will look like..." In other words as more minorities take the exam and get into college, overall average scores are expected to drop. That data also mirrors the data above in that whites far outscore blacks and Hispanics, while Hispanics do a little better than blacks. That answers the problem about finding non-white teachers even when lowering the standards and imposing racial quotas. Let's look at Asians.

When our comrades at the New York Times published "In Elite N.Y. Schools, a Dip in Blacks and Hispanics" (August 18, 2006), they again stirred controversy over race. The City created three advanced high schools and started a separate program to "prepare black and Hispanic students for the mind-bendingly difficult test that determines who gets into New York's three most elite specialized high schools..." In other words the idea to exclude whites and increase the number of "minorities" in these elite schools. Hispanic students are the largest group in the city's schools at 36.7 percent, and black students are next at 34.7 percent, 14.3 percent Asian, and 14.2 percent white.

The only problem was blacks and Hispanics still failed to achieve anything again and their numbers actually dropped instead. Since the schools were created about 10-12 years ago, blacks have plummeted to as low as 2.2 percent, Hispanics dropped as well, but Asians make up almost 61 percent in some of these elite schools. To quote another useful idiot, "The statistics clearly show that black New Yorkers are being shut out." The entrance to the school requires an exam everyone has to take, so Asian immigrants have simply displaced less qualified blacks and Hispanics, while whites moved out.

To quote,

"Debate over the racial composition of the city's specialized schools, and the school's reliance not on interviews or grades but rather on a test alone to determine admissions, has captivated New York for decades. Supporters of the specialized exam, which tests verbal and math skills, say it ensures that admissions are based on merit, while critics argue that elite colleges would never judge applicants on test results alone."

In conclusion, it's time to face the facts and stop playing the race card for political gain. Thomas Sowell attributes black failure to culture, not racism. It time we hold the students and their families responsible for there own self-inflicted problems.


Thomas Sowell, man of reason

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