The lily-white liberals in Boulder, Colorado, support the idea of skin color diversity as long as they don’t actually have to live around coloreds or send their kids to school with them.
Did you ever notice that utopian experiments in skin color harmony dissolve once liberals have a mortgage to pay and kids to raise? The single and childless (urban dwellers, especially) can afford to play such “tolerant” games, but when it comes to their precious progeny, it’s a different story altogether. They still preach diversity, of course. For you and your family.
The neighborhood around Columbine Elementary School is 87 percent Anglo. But enrollment numbers indicate that many neighborhood kids are going elsewhere. This year, the school in northeast Boulder is 82 percent Hispanic. (Source)
Oh, the humanity!
Sarcasm off. Actually, I don’t blame lily-white liberals for sending their kids as far away from Spanish-speaking illegal aliens (who drag down a school’s academic standing) as possible. According to Colorado state law, citizens have a right to send their kids to the school of their choice.
Choice is powerful, isn’t it? Don’t be surprised if the state rescinds the law to force whites to send their kids back to government schools overrun with illegal aliens. Or…the state will do what it always does in cases like this: erect unconstitutional and futile skin color preference policies:
Garcia says the district can’t do anything about the state’s open enrollment law, but a citizen task force in June suggested several strategies to disperse the district’s students more equitably.
That could include enrollment targets for minorities and economically disadvantaged students at Boulder schools. The targets would be achieved through enrollment caps and preferences.
So, 50 years beyond government-mandated segregation, we’ve come full circle. The government is still in the illegal business of categorizing citizens by race and coercing people to conform to their hare-brained scheme of racial balance, an empty and scandalous policy that will cause resentment among all races and force whites (and other groups) to send their kids to private or parochial schools.
Good luck with all that.
Related posts:
- “White Flight” Declared Illegal in Texas School District
- Nebraska Considers Coerced Integration
- Good Schools For Me But Not For Thee
Update: New find - Deport Aliens
Breakfast 12-22-2005
Interesting posts I found while perusing my blogroll
Trackback by basil's blog — 12.22.05 @ 7:36 am
Wouldn’t this particular case have more to do with the slaughter that took place some years ago?
Long-time residents would likely become nauseous at the thought of sending their kids to THAT school.
Newly-arrived immigrants, legal or otherwise, may not be familiar with the school’s history.
Comment by El Conquistadore — 12.22.05 @ 8:29 am
There is a book out on this subject. I can’t remember the exact title but the I think the subtitle is “Do as I say and not as I do.”
An example from my memory: A Federal judge in Minnesota was enthusiastic about forced busing affecting middle-class neighborhoods. Then it turned out that he lived in an exclusive area on a lake that did not allow the public access required by law for all Minnesota lakes.
Comment by Evon — 12.22.05 @ 8:45 am
Can’t we all just get in line?
The People’s Republic of Boulder, like the rest of Colorado, has open enrollment in its public schools, and apparently it’s preventing the materialization of a perfectly-integrated multiracial utopia: School segregation…
Trackback by dustbury.com — 12.22.05 @ 9:20 am
Actually, I don’t blame lily-white liberals for sending their kids as far away from Spanish-speaking illegal aliens as possible. - LSB
LaShawn is certainly entertaining and provocative. While I find her views wrong-headed and misguided, her style keeps me coming back for more, and provides a good jumping-off point for discussion.
The excerpt demonstrates the scape goating and soft headed thinking that the America hating radical right wing relies on. Many Conservatives consistently bash American government, American freedoms, and American ideals. They hate America, and all Americans that don’t look or think like them. Matter of fact, all our problems would go away if everybody that disagreed with them were to disappear, right? Maybe they should go off and found their own country, where no dissent is tolerated. Thank God for giving the vision of freedom and liberty to our Founding Fathers, and guiding them to found this great nation.
Boulder is a decidedly liberal town; a shining city on a hill. But, did you notice how Boulder conservatives were given a pass for the same behavior for which Boulder liberals are criticized? This sort of muddled moral relativism based on political affiliation rather than principle is a hallmark of too many Republican activists.
The costs of services provided to illegal immigrants is threatening many of our institutions with insolvency. But, do you notice how the 82% Hispanic students are stereotyped as “Spanish Speaking illegal aliens?”, despite the fact that most Hispanics in America are here legally? This is a favorite tool of the Radical Right. Take a negative characteristic of a minority percentage of a group, and use it to villify the entire group. Ugly tactics.
You’re a great blogger, LaShawn. Stay pointed.
Comment by Bleacher Dave — 12.22.05 @ 9:22 am
I’m allowing your comment, “Bleacher Dave,” which will be your last on this blog, just so readers will have a point of reference for my response.
Conservatives, unlike liberals, don’t worship skin color diversity for its own sake (The perverted obssession liberals seem to have with it is a matter left to shrinks.), so there is nothing hypocritical about conservatives fleeing failing and “diverse” communities and schools. They don’t need a pass.
But when liberals lecture others about the value of embracing others with varying shades of skin color because it’s the “right” thing to do, yet don’t practice it themselves, that is the definition of hypocrite, and the point I was trying to make.
I see where you were going with your response, but it didn’t quite hit the mark. Too much self-righteous snarkiness, too little insight and careless reading of the post.
Comment by La Shawn — 12.22.05 @ 9:27 am
I grew up in a liberal community that still practices what it preaches (not perfectly, but at least more than Boulder). The schools are still diverse and the community has a nice vibe (except for the gangs). What’s interesting is that some of the people who were products of the schools are living far away from the community or any other type of diverse community.
Comment by mj — 12.22.05 @ 9:51 am
El Conquistadore: You’re thinking of Columbine High School, which is not in Boulder, it’s in Jefferson County (its mailing address says “Littleton”), a good hour’s drive to the south. Both it and the elementary school described in the article, of course, are named after the state flower, the blue columbine.
Comment by Erbo — 12.22.05 @ 11:18 am
I live in Boulder County. Although Boulder is truly the biggest Granola bowl you’ve ever seen (every fruit, nut and flake is represented) it’s also a very friendly place. I would call it more libertarian than liberal, though that’s not the reputation. I like Boulder a lot.
In my county, taking kids out of public schools isn’t because of racism or language or Hispanics. (Mine are in a charter school.) We take them out because the government school system is broken. Kids are taught “whole language” and “investigations math” instead of phonics and math facts. You can learn 2X2 in Spanish or English, but only if a teacher stands up and actually teaches. At Boulder High School, kids graduate who are completely illiterate, but they know how to make signs and protest the WTO.
Racism is a smoke screen. Blaming the parents is another one. (Racist parents! A two-fer!) The actual source of the problem is nothing more or less than the school system which does not teach.
Comment by Bonnie — 12.22.05 @ 11:31 am
King of the World
Today’s dose of NIF - News, Interesting & Funny … Wed+Thurs combi-post
Trackback by NIF — 12.22.05 @ 11:33 am
La Shawn
If your readers would like additional documentation of the hypocrisy you parody in this post, I recommend they read “Do as I say (Not as I do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy” by Peter Schweizer.
Those of us who have been invited into the private lives of public liberals know that it is all too often a disillusioning and disheartening experience….
Comment by anthony — 12.22.05 @ 11:46 am
Wow. This sounds so much like the liberals in the Boston area it’s scary.
Comment by Ol' BC — 12.22.05 @ 12:18 pm
As a resident of Jefferson County, near Boulder, let me lend a hearty AMEN to what Bonnie said. The real issue is a completely broken (disfunctional) educational system.
Comment by Guy — 12.22.05 @ 1:01 pm
Poor Boulder. I lived in Boulder in the early 1970s when it was the Haight-Ashbury of middle America. Nobody realized the 60’s was over at that time. But it looks like the hippies of the Woodstock Nation became their parents. Good post LaShawn. And don’t ban Bleacher Dave. He didn’t cross the line into disrespect. (Dave: send me that twenty)
Glad you like the post, but please don’t tell me how to run my blog. I think I can handle it. - Admin
Comment by Norris McDonald — 12.22.05 @ 2:40 pm
I agree with Guy, this isn’t racism nor the liberal reaction to Hispanics in their school, it is the reaction of parents who see that their kids aren’t learning anything.
It is hypocracy however, when Colorado liberals have voted against school choice vouchers about three times now.
Comment by Mr Bob — 12.22.05 @ 4:01 pm
Here’s a bit on “white flight” from California schools that have a large percentage of high-performing Asian students:
http://www.madminerva.blog-city.com/nerd_news_asian_american_achievement_public_schools_and_whit.htm
See too James Chen’s article, “The New Separate But Equal”:
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5055
Comment by Mad Minerva — 12.22.05 @ 7:24 pm
LaShawn, I was not telling you how to run your blog. I was asking mercy for a critic. I hope you’re not overly sensitive. I was also kidding around. Didn’t you see where I asked to be paid for the mercy. Relax.
Comment by Norris McDonald — 12.22.05 @ 8:19 pm
#8 erbo–
d’oh!
Thanks for the correction. That’s what I get for skimming.
Comment by El Conquistadore — 12.22.05 @ 10:39 pm
Bonnie: You think BOULDER is filled with nice people? Gee, I hate to think where you were before.
And yeah, if they are Hispanics in Boulder, they probably *are* recent arrivals from South of the Border, since up until very recently Boulder was almost exclusively the domain of white leftists (and a few Soldier of Fortune-type right-wingers). If one wishes to find multi-generational American Hispanics, go to North-west Denver (since they ran all of the Italians off to Wheat Ridge in the 1940s and 50s).
MORAL: The public (government) schools are a nest of leftist social-experimentation in many ways, in Boulder or anywhere else. Kill the beast and private school or homeschool!
Comment by Mark Slater — 12.22.05 @ 10:58 pm
in our area of southeast Denver, we have allot of people from India, they are hard working, keep their places well, and are very friendly and nice. Good nieghbors they are.
Comment by Pamela — 12.23.05 @ 12:08 am
Note how you don’t hear about or see Indian gangbangers tearing up neighborhoods–there are none.
Comment by mj — 12.23.05 @ 9:21 am
Bleacher Dave is limited in his knowledge of Republicans and Hispanics. We Republicans know that most Hispanics are here legally and that many of them vote Republican. It is so typical of Liberal Democrats to claim that they are the party for minorities when they know so little about them–and as is the case in Boulder, flee close contact when they can. By the way Al Gore met his highschool sweetheart Tipper at the exclusive St. Albans’s school.
Comment by Evon — 12.23.05 @ 10:11 am
Mark, I believe you’re an example of what we computer types call GIGO — Garbage In, Garbage Out. You believe Boulder is a nasty place and your attitude makes it so. When you are snarling, people don’t smile at you.
Try going to Pearl Street Mall sometime, and head over to High Crimes Bookstore for a dose of good mystery. No nasty liberals there, just a few portraits of Edgar Allan Poe and Sherlock Holmes. Try the Peppercorn store, where you can buy any kitchen gadget you can imagine. Stop for coffee at the Boulder Bookstore and you’ll see lots of students studying. Some are surely leftist, most will adjust to reality about the time they get a job and file taxes. Your waiters and clerks will be a mix of every race and color, and if you smile at them they’ll smile back. Say thank you and tip them nicely, and you might get a genuine grin.
This story about Boulder racism is simply wrong. Boulder residents are (on the whole) not hypocrites. They want good schooling for their kids because it’s crucial to do so. Hispanic students have nothing to do with it. The school system is simply seeking another scapegoat for their inadequacies. I’m calling them what they are: Liars. Incompetent liars.
Comment by Bonnie — 12.23.05 @ 10:50 am
Diversity is great! I have a large number of smart, interesting colleagues from all parts of the world, with about every possible skin tone and every possible background. My friends are decent, honest people from various backgrounds, with various skin colors and of various faiths and none.
To have the friendship of such a varied and interesting group of people is truly a blessing.
Somehow, though, when “diversity” is used in certain quarters, that’s not what it means. “Diversity” somehow seems to mean that I am expected to put up with bad behavior and poor standards because “some people haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had” or “you have to make allowances” or “it’s not his fault”.
Comment by Sam — 12.23.05 @ 11:21 am
Sam, Good point on how supporters of “diversity” use it as a club to intimidate those of us who support standards of behavior.
Comment by Evon — 12.23.05 @ 3:46 pm
Bonnie: WHOA! Hold it! I maintain that the people of Boulder aren’t very friendly or nice, and I do know of which I speak. If you would prefer I break down what I mean, I will by happy to oblige.
Firstly, I have been, on occaision, to those places of which you refer (not those exact ones, mind you, but of the type you mentioned). Yes, the young, avant garde types are interesting in their way, and most will be glad to have a chat on an array of topics, and are outgoing to a degree.
But the Boulder I refer to is those leftist-yuppie types, now aging, are every bit as elitist and stand-offish as Miss Barber and the folks here have assumed. It is, therefore, no surprise to me that they would not sully themselves with having to put up with Mexicans in their midst (or even normal white people), even though they praise them with their lips.
They are also the ones who wear those ridiculous Flash Gordon outfits when they bicycle, while the outgoing youngsters will more probably just bike in their regular hippie attire.
Boulder is a fascinating place to visit in many ways, but I’ll return to Wheat Ridge at night, thank you.
Comment by Mark Slater — 12.23.05 @ 10:44 pm
Iago, Morgan Freeman and Racism
An hallucinatory Shakespearean parallel.
Trackback by bardseyeview — 12.24.05 @ 8:51 am
Morgan Freeman is exactly right about the need to dispense with the entire vocabulary of race, but our local governments are holding us back from that.
Comment by Jeremy — 12.24.05 @ 8:53 am
A friend who is marooned in the LeftieLand of San Francisco (poor guy) sent me a copy of the book Anthony mentioned, Do as I say (Not as I do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy. It’s a great read. Punctures the leftie balloon rather well.
Apparently it’s having an effect. I hear that Al Franken is filing suit. Tellingly, he’s not disputing the facts, but has his shorts in a wad over the publication of the facts. LOL
Comment by RedBeard — 12.24.05 @ 9:22 am
It would be nice if people didn’t use race in America in their decision making.
It would also be nice if there was world peace, no hunger, and love everywhere.
That’s not reality, however.
–Cobra
Comment by Cobra — 12.24.05 @ 10:51 am
Cobra, a good start toward your utopia might be for you to stop using race in your decision making. It would be wonderful if you could regard me as just a man, without the need to add the adjective white in a pejorative manner, either out loud or in your private thoughts.
Comment by RedBeard — 12.24.05 @ 11:25 am
Happy Holidays, Redbeard!
See? No prejoratives.
–Cobra
Comment by Cobra — 12.24.05 @ 10:46 pm
Comment by RedBeard — 12.25.05 @ 8:29 am
I live in Boulder County and my four oldest children attend a charter school.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/responses.html?article_id=110007558
We home schooled for a time as it was obvious the school was much more interested in pushing liberal ideology than teaching the children how to read and do math.
An anecdote:
A friend who lived in a predominently hispanic neighborhood and school, who is white, had a young daughter test in the 90th percentile and qualify for the gifted and talented program. She was bumped for a hispanic child who received a 30% grade on the same test and was accepted all in the name of diversity. She pulled her daughter out and homeschooled and then moved so she could attend a school where her ethnicity would not be held against her. The liberals in our community call this “white flight”.
I love Boulder, it has been home for 14 years. I love my liberal friends, but I hate the eductional policies that promote illiteracy, which is rampent - whole language is God - http://www.compleatmother.com/articles2/birthin_readin_jh.htm
and with “new” math, the dumbing down of everything, and all focus all the time on diversity - it is no wonder parents are saying no thanks.
I was involved with a school board election a few years back. The woman I wanted to be voted in had an education degree from Stanford. She understood the whole language farce and was willing to fight for Phonics. She campaigned solely on the reading issue, and worked hard to educate voters on the facts. But Liberal Boulder voted in a house painter who was ethinically diverse and everyone felt so touchy feely good about our new school board member who knew absolutely nothing about how to teach children to read properly, but man, he had the long hippie hair and used all the PC language.
One more story for the road: My daughter played a basketball game recently. The students on the other team hardly spoke english and were extremely rude and menacing in their behavior. No sportsmanship, and a general feeling of intimidation was being expressed during the game towards our charter schools team. I really could not believe the level of rude behavior that was being tolerated by the coaches and families of the girls from the other team.
Boulder is a place that welcomes illegals with open arms. But perhaps Peggy Noonan had it right in a recent piece when she asked the question: Does the first lawbreaking act upon arrival in America set the tone?, and does it have a profound effect on the behavior that follows?
I believe it does and completely support the efforts to uphold the rule of law in regards to our borders.
Just to note, I have observed a general leaning to the right of many liberal friends over the years. The most politically life changing thing that a person can do is have a baby. As my liberal friends have grown and matured I have witnessed the truism that if your not a liberal under 30 you have no heart and if your not a conservative after 30 you have no brain.
Jenny
Comment by Jenny Hatch — 12.25.05 @ 9:56 am
Liberals also want gun control and gun bans yet still want their armed body guards they whine about those who drive SUVs then ride to their fancy awards shows in the gas guzzling limos they appear in SAVE THE EARTH ads then go about here and there in the private leer jets and like in homes made of wood and read off their paper scrips and get filmed using celulous and they do ads for PETA while wearing the leather shoes,boots and belts they do ads about starvation then stuff their faces in fancy restruants they are indeed hypotcrits just read the book DO AS I SAY
Comment by BIRDZILLA — 12.26.05 @ 2:45 pm
Jenny writes:
>>>”The most politically life changing thing that a person can do is have a baby. As my liberal friends have grown and matured I have witnessed the truism that if your not a liberal under 30 you have no heart and if your not a conservative after 30 you have no brain.”
I don’t know about that. I’ve seen many a liberal butterfly emerge from a conservative cocoon when other “politically life changing events” happen…such as–
When their high paying tech jobs were outsourced to India…
When their HMO doesn’t completely cover needed surgery…
When their pensions are renegged after decades of service to a corporation…
When they’re under investigation, arrest or on trial for darn near ANYTHING…
When a natural disaster hits THEIR family and property and the insurance company doesn’t want to hear about it…
When they’re turned down for a job, position, promotion, apartment or loan because of race or gender…
Let me tell you, I’ve met a whole lot of born again liberals over the age of 30.
–Cobra
Comment by Cobra — 12.26.05 @ 3:12 pm
Jenny, I can relate to your comments. I was a raging liberal in college. Thought I was the smartest guy in town with all the answers to the world’s problems.
Then I graduated, got a real job, got married, had two kids, and started looking around. It rapidly became apparent that liberalism was not only a poor answer to any problem, but it was actually the cause of many of the problems suffered by the very people who were looking to liberalism as a lifeline.
Comment by RedBeard — 12.26.05 @ 6:41 pm
Wow Cobra, I don’t know that I have EVER met someone who was a raging conservative who morphed into liberalism. I have known some people who were raised by Conservative parents who became liberals - but many of them have slowly edged back towards conservatism as they matured.
My mom joked recently that a conservative is someone with a thirteen year old child.
Redbeard,
I don’t know that someone being a liberal while young is a bad thing, especially if they move towards conservatism as they mature, but I do think that young conservatives in high school and college is one of the most exciting developments in recent years. Here is a blog entry I did on our local republicans who confronted Ward Churchill on the CU campus. We have some very cool, very hip GOP’ers here in Boulder.
http://www.naturalfamilyblog.com/archives/000164.html
It’s been weird for me as a conservative to live in Boulder, weird in the sense that as I have run around in natural mothering circles, quite often I was the only conservative, christian, anti-feminist at our park day gatherings etc.
Not once did I ever feel discriminated against from these Boulder mothers. In fact, once I was at a party and we all started talking politics and one gal who was ivy league educated listened to me for a minute as I shared some conservative ideas and she said, “it is so refreshing to hear something ELSE for a change”.
Another time I was quoting Rush Limbaugh (although not sourcing him) and one of my liberal lily white boulder friends said, “I have just NEVER heard it put like that before, that just makes so much sense!”
It has actually been fun for me to live these past years surrounded, outnumbered, and overwhelmed by liberals in Boulder. I love to debate, argue, and talk with “progressives” - it is way more stimulating than chatting with fellow conservatives. And the few conservatives I have met over the years, mostly friends from church, are passionate righties.
I have met very few people who were moderates, or did not follow politics in some way. And really, I personally have much more in common with a woman who is passionate about politics, even if they are left of me, that I ever did with someone who just didn’t care enough to have an opinion one way or another.
jenny
Comment by Jenny Hatch — 12.26.05 @ 9:21 pm