Update (5:44 p.m.): Closing arguments! (Thanks, Hube.)
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Fight! Fight!
As someone who loathes government-mandated race preferences, I look forward to years of laugh-riot fun as preference-loving blacks and hispanics duel it out, fighting each other over government goodies.
Through Discriminations, one of my daily reads, I learned about a case involving a black cop named Kenneth A. Boyd in Wilmington, Delaware, who claims he was passed over for promotion because he’s black.
Boyd “alleges” that police chief Michael J. Szczerba promoted an undeserving hispanic instead. Oh, why does this sound familiar? According to the article, Szczerba “fostered a diverse police force,” which is code for skin color preferences. Only in this case, the Negro wasn’t the “preferred minority.”
A preferred minority group is one that is ostensibly underrepresented in certain jobs, schools, etc. Asians also are a minority group underrepresented in certain areas, but they are not “preferred.” Any guesses why?
Blacks have always been THE preferred minority group, but those days are coming to an end. Cases like Boyd’s are only the beginning. (Whites are becoming a minority group. Will they one day become a preferred minority? Stop laughing. I’m serious.)
With illegal aliens working on the cheap and meek, look for more stories about blacks crying, “Hispanic racist!” If for no other reason than hispanics are supplanting them as “preferred,” blacks should be speaking out against amnesty-for-illegal-aliens the loudest.
Here’s some advice: Jump off the preference bandwagon now and start supporting hiring and promoting based on merit, seniority — anything but race. By the way, being against race preferences for college admissions doesn’t mean you can’t support admissions based on legacies, athletics, or any other quality. Racial discrimination, above any other kind, has its own unique place in our history. This country has fought a long and hard battle to make amends for enslaving blacks and sending them to the back of the bus and making them walk through back doors.
Our race is part of who we are, something as immutable as death and taxes. No country calling itself free and a respecter of individual rights should be mandating that one race of people receive preference over the other. No government should condone admissions and hiring based on the color of one’s skin.
Government-mandated discrimination and preferences based on race were supposed to have been dismantled. That is what civil rights are about; these rights don’t, can’t, and shouldn’t guarantee that blacks or any other “minority” will be represented in any job or school in proportion to their percentage of the population.
The modern civil rights movement, the struggle for full citizenship status, has been corrupted. And the same people who support this corrupted form of “civil rights,” which is nothing more than government skin trade, will reap what they sow.
But all that preaching is for naught. Chasing and pointing at a phantom white racist is much more profitable and satisfying than standing up for race-neutral policies. Perhaps after dozens more lawsuits in which blacks allege that hispanics were hired or admitted at their expense, blacks who now support skin color preferences will finally understand that to sink or swim based on what you can do instead of on your membership in a preferred minority group is not such a bad idea after all.
Hispanic, black, white, oriental….. Who sits in a darkened cubicle writing down the various features that allow a person to be placed in the correct pigeonhole? Does that person use calipers on skulls, as Dr, Mengele did, to make some determination? Is there a skin shade/tone/color chart that we need to post in employment offices? How much weight do we give to the person’s last name? Does a dark skinned Rodriguez get preference over a light skinned Washington, or is it the other way around?
We need to stop pretending that race can be, or should be, assigned in such ways, and just start tossing dice to see who gets the governmentally-decreed goodies. That makes about as much sense as anything else.
Comment by RedBeard — 10.04.06 @ 7:35 am
You know white people should complain at the lack of opportunities to become a NFL wide receiver, running back, or Cornerback or a player in the NBA as well. Huummm it seems to me that sports is truly a level playing field (no pun intended) where job performance is the measuring tool. The Packers just released CB Ahmad Carroll b/c of his poor showing against Philly Monday night. He was a black man but there was silence from the usual suspects about that though. Well if it can work in pro sports it can work anywhere else. If a black person gets a perfect score on the SAT, ACT GRE MCAT they will not have any problems getting into top schools. If he/she gets a lower score they can get into college as well. Looks like us black folk are going to have to ante up and perform like the rest of society.
Comment by Warrior Nurse — 10.04.06 @ 8:02 am
It’s my favorite nurse! Thanks for stopping by, WN.
Comment by La Shawn — 10.04.06 @ 8:19 am
#2 Warrior Nurse:
Contrary to popular belief, there is an unwritten “affirmative action” rule in black dominated professional sports. Here is a good article on the topic and an excerpt:
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0007,hsiao,12566,3.html
Lenny Wilkens, then coaching Seattle, said, “The unwritten rule is that there should be a minimum of three white players on each team.”
Plus, as a former athlete myself, I have experienced this. Being a hard worker, smart, and dedicated, and having “heart” were criteria that white athletes could commonly make teams under while raw physical talent was always a must for black athletes. Rudy Ruettiger is a classic example of this.
On a side note regarding Asian Americans, when Lee Brown became Houston’s police chief, there had never been an Asian American police officer on the force. He made a specific push to hire them and repeatedly cited the fact that he hired Houston’s first Asian American police officer throughout his campaign for mayor.
Comment by Shade — 10.04.06 @ 9:54 am
Shade, here is the website for you. When we can laugh at ourselves, we’ve made it…
http://cwraa.blogspot.com/
Comment by Dan — 10.04.06 @ 10:24 am
La Shawn,
Ahhh…good ‘ole Wilmington, Del. You should really stop by some day. Even though the race issue always seems to rear its head in City politics, we do have a few good restaurants and a great landfill that smells great at just the right time of day!
Comment by Mike M. — 10.04.06 @ 11:28 am
La Shawn Barber points her microscope on our great city of Wilmington, Del. in a post today discussing the lunacy behind the city police department’s promotion system. Read it. La Shawn’s a conservative I’ve like. I’ve been reading her blog for nearly two years now and she’s always got quite an acute BS detector.
Pingback by Down with Absolutes! — 10.04.06 @ 11:34 am
Thanks for the link Dan, that is a pretty funny blog, but it did start an interesting dialogue among the commenters. Terms like “gutty” “keystone of the offense” “tenacious” “blocking tight end” “sparkplug” “has a motor that won’t quit” etc. are common terms that traditionally been used to describe white players and the argument by the commenters was based on the notion that this implies that black players don’t have these qualities. The thing about it is that these are qualities common in athletes who lack in physical talent regardless of race. Athletes who lack in natural talent tend to try and compensate by being harder workers and more dedicated. This includes the numerous black athletes who lack in physical talent, yet black athletes who depend mostly on work ethic and attitude are traditionally less likely to make sports teams than white athletes who are similarly dependant.
The “possession receiver” is a classic example. This is a guy who is used mostly for short yardage receptions and is generally a receiver who lacks in speed and agility and this role has commonly been reserved for white players.
Comment by Shade — 10.04.06 @ 11:37 am
Why don’t we stop crying over which race is the preferred race and realize if there were a preferred minority it would be the Asian group. It would be their group because they don’t sit around waiting and begging for handouts. They seem to know that when it comes to getting a foothold in the American society it is achieved through hard work, determination and enterprise.
Comment by Tamara — 10.04.06 @ 11:38 am
Goose? Gander? Read.
Pingback by Pieces of a Whole — 10.04.06 @ 12:23 pm
Boy if this post wasn’t right on the money.
Comment by dianne — 10.04.06 @ 4:13 pm
Shade: “White men can’t jump.”
Hooboy. Here we go again.
Comment by RedBeard — 10.04.06 @ 5:01 pm
Shade:
I read through the comments as well and found them illuminating. It’s hard to prove a negative and when blacks are not chosen as “possession receivers” is it because there are none or because of something more sinister? Statistically speaking, for every Matt Jones white guy there should be a Wayne Chrebet (sp?) black guy so it’s hard to say they don’t exist. However, to change sports, let’s look at basketball. We can agree that, on a percentage basis, free throw shooting has degenerated over the last twenty years without needing to look at figures. Can we agree to that? If so, and we look at the corresponding increase in black players in the NBA, can we at least hypothesize that the increase in black players has led to a decrease in overall free throw shooting ability? Of course we can, we can hypothesize anything we want. Now can we also say that ESPN has contributed to a romanticizing of individual playmaking capabilities through Sportscenter? Sure, why not. Can we also say that more black kids learn basketball on playgrounds initially than white kids? Sure. Where are we going? Players with less ability have to complement the skills of their teammates and rely on teamwork in order to be successful more often than those who have more of an individual flair for the game. This is not race based but economic based. Potentially that may be why there are more white benchwarmers than blacks. I have no idea but I thought I would throw it out for comment.
As far as those football commenters, you can see from some of the white players stats, they had/have some wheels. I played basketball and volleyball, holding my own quite well in basketball, the 31-inch vertical leap helping, and I’ll be honest, often quite surprising my black opponents.
Look forward to reading your comments.
Comment by Dan — 10.04.06 @ 5:09 pm
La Shawn! I’m crushed! No word on WHO tipped John at Discriminations to this story???
Comment by Hube — 10.04.06 @ 5:13 pm
I just looked at the stats for my local high school. Black students are now the numerical majority, followed by whites, then hispanics. But the numbers are very, very close–a few students one way or the other. No race has 51% of the total. So who is the minority student? The Asians, Pacific Islanders, Native Americans?
Several years ago, my local paper did a series about the influx of hispanics moving into traditionally black neighborhoods. Many blacks (who were moving “up” into traditionally white neighborhoods) were moaning about the loss. Their identity was threatened. In fact, they sounded a lot like the whites who lived in “protected” white neighborhoods in the ’60’s.
Comment by March Hare — 10.04.06 @ 6:14 pm
Wilmington In Wonderland: Down The Slippery Slope Of “Diversity†In Delaware
HatTip to Hube for this entirely predictable result of “diversity†from Delaware: WILMINGTON — An attorney for a city police detective suing his employer told a jury Monday that her client was passed over for promotion because he is black….
Trackback by Discriminations — 10.04.06 @ 7:27 pm
We hold these truths to be self-evident: 1) that all men are created equal; 2) that each is endowed by his creator with certain unalienable rights–that chief among these is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; 3) that governments are formed to ensure these rights, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
If these truths are indeed self-evident, then there is no progress beyond that point.
Thus, when elected representatives begin playing games with “preferred minorities,” they are not acting on principle or with the consent of the governed. That way lies tyranny and chaos.
Comment by GawainsGhost — 10.05.06 @ 9:25 am
This reminds me of an article that I read in the 90’s about ethnic politics in Florida. It seems that the black political and civil servant class in Miami/Dade County were steamed about the rise of Cuban-American competitors. After only a generation or so in power, the blacks were being thoroughly eclipsed by another “minority” group that held slightly different values. The kicker was that the usual mechanisms for exerting leverage- affirmative action, cries of discrimination, the politics of victimization, racial guilt-tripping, etc. were completely denied them. In fact, some of the same tactics were being used against them! Talk about double-edged swords.
Comment by Jeff — 10.05.06 @ 3:30 pm
“Terms like “gutty†“keystone of the offense†“tenacious†“blocking tight end†“sparkplug†“has a motor that won’t quit†etc. are common terms that traditionally been used to describe white players and the argument by the commenters was based on the notion that this implies that black players don’t have these qualities. ”
My guess is that if some academic could document this, which is much easier said than done, the networks would force their commentators to change.
I don’t follow football closely enough to know sports commentators by name, but from other sports that I follow, besides giving insights into the rules and strategies, I have found that most of them repeat the same platitudes over and over. Most are retired athletes with enough personality for broadcasting – and I would not be totally surprised if not totally impartial.
I don’t know enough about football to say for sure, but I think some receiver positions, like running down the field 50 yards and losing two defenders requires a different skill set (running fast) than “running†5 yards and catching the ball thrown in a narrow gap (finding a gap) before getting tackled hard. This different skill set might account for the different types of players and different commentary – quarterbacks assumed to require more intelligence than other positions.
Comment by UNK — 10.05.06 @ 4:41 pm
“Does that person use calipers on skulls, as Dr, Mengele did, to make some determination? Is there a skin shade/tone/color chart that we need to post in employment offices? ”
While I agree with the point, I don’t think it’s fair to compare not only to Nazis but to a war criminal “medical doctor.” If it’s not fair for Moveon to compare Pres Bush to Nazis, I don’t think the right should compare the left to Nazis either.
Comment by UNK — 10.05.06 @ 4:44 pm
“Huummm it seems to me that sports is truly a level playing field (no pun intended) where job performance is the measuring tool. ”
Professional sports is “entertainment” and in equal situations, I would not be totally surprised if a white player was hired if the team thought more people would pay to watch a whiter team.
Comment by UNK — 10.05.06 @ 4:46 pm
“White men can’t jump.â€
and black men can’t swim, but proving it has anything to do with genetics is much more difficult.
A few weeks ago there was an article in the Washington Post about how the number of blacks in pro baseball was falling. I think it has more to do with culture than any gentics ability.
Comment by UNK — 10.05.06 @ 4:49 pm
I find it ironic that some African-Americans only want the distinction when it benefits them, and not when it points out a trend. For example, at the school where I teach, African-American males score the lowest on standardized testing, have the lowest GPA’s, and the lowest post-secondary college attendance rate (a sad situation). A colleague pointed that out to some of his students and was accused of racism. So it is not racism when I am preferred and racism when I am called out for failing? Sounds like McWhorter’s thesis is proved again.
Comment by george mimmen — 10.06.06 @ 1:26 am
UNK, I definitely wasn’t comparing the left to Nazis, but only using that demented example of racial pigeonholing to suggest how utterly intellectually vacant such nonsense is.
Comment by RedBeard — 10.06.06 @ 3:40 pm