It is an article of faith among the supporters of affirmative action for university entrants that having more people of color than people of pallor among the student body will ensure quality of education. Racial diversity in classes is a compelling interest for universities as it stands for the educational values. Does it? How? By providing more “lively discussion” in class - with people of color bringing their “lived experience” to bear? How does one’s lived experience contribute to Quantum Mechanics? And if standards are lowered to admit people of color to major in “Black Studies” where there are disproportionately fewer people of pallor, there will hardly be a single dissenting voice (if such “voices” are allowed into the class in the first place) to stimulate “lively discussion”. If every member of the class represents “underrepresented minorities” the pressure to voice minority views will overcome individuality. Group-think will dominate. The more “diversity”, the poorer the education.
The linked article on the oral arguments in the Supreme Court in the Harvard University affirmative action case suggests that - at long last - this pernicious article of faith that “diversity” should be a goal in itself as a proxy for a superior education is being questioned by the Justices.
“On the matter of racial preferences, the country has held on to a more principled and more empirically sound understanding of merit than the educational establishment. If the Supreme Court reverses its embarrassingly incoherent “diversity” jurisprudence, it may not induce colleges to forego their racial obsessions. But it will return the law of the land to a measure of fidelity to the nation’s founding ideals, too long ignored in practice.”
Read all of Heather Mac Donald’s important article on Harvard’s racist admissions policy here:
This racist will tell you what happened when my high school integrated when I was in 11th grade. And…it happened to students of both races and I know because we talked about what was happening.
Everything got worse for both races. Socially, educationally, emotionally. Academics spiraled downward, discipline became slack, social behavior morphed into something worse than black or white culture…something morally bankrupt. Both white and black teachers were afraid to say “boo” to any student of different skin color than they.
We didn’t understand why everything changed about school that both races had been used to in their separate schools. We saw it happen in one year. Everybody witnessed it…and it got worse year after year. I did not have the education that my older brother had. My sister did not have the education that I had. My children did not have the education that she had, and our eldest, middle and youngest child saw the difference even between the 3 years that they differed in age. What they see now with their kids makes them want to pull out of public schools.
I was at a special meeting of parents and teachers/administrators, and Virgil and I were the only other white people there except for the Superintendent. It was a meeting that was called to address discipline…or the lack thereof. The auditorium was filled. One mother said, “a child is a child is a child” and demanded that all children follow rules about behavior. Near the end of the meeting, a black man stood up and said what many of us knew; that it seemed to him that the problem began when our schools integrated. Brave man. He was shouted down and I didn’t support him. I should have and I should have told my story.
And, they won. They have ruined our schools. They have ruined our students. They have diminished education for all kids, but especially for black kids.
Jeanne, thank you for your frankness and courage in exposing this. You might expand and testify on your experience if you’re comfortable with doing so. It makes sense to me. So many things have gone wrong in the name of “diversity”, “multiculturalism” even integration, etc. Much of it probably by design.
No courage or I would have stood up and supported the man. It was during Virgil’s third county election campaign, when he won as a Democrat. Our eldest was in 4th grade. It would have been dangerous to his election chances, and maybe dangerous because we were white parents in a room full of black parents. It is one of the things I regret in my life.
I have discussed this period of time only on web forums. What good would it do to do so publicly in this time period?
Absolutely not. That time has long passed. Nothing would occur except distress to me and my family. Most people that lived through those times know what happened. The parents that cared about discipline when our children were in school were apparently only black parents.
Nobody cared then. Nobody cares now. Telling this story would do nothing to alter the lack of discipline or the dearth of academics or the diminished principles of expectant behavior. It is together, as several cultures, that our public schools are saved or abandoned. Talking about that time would only divide those that seek change.
