Race and Academics, cont...

Excellent essay on the false solace of 'diversity, and the real reason for the academic gap between races. The key passage:

In the end, we like policies like affirmative action not so much because they solve the problem of racism but because they tell us that racism is the problem we need to solve. And the reason we like the problem of racism is that solving it just requires us to give up our prejudices, whereas solving the problem of economic inequality might require something more -- it might require us to give up our money....When student and faculty activists struggle for cultural diversity, they are in large part battling over what skin color the rich kids should have...

I mentioned before in a previous post that there is no reason to think blacks and Hispanics were less capable of being good students than white or Asians, yet the gap in standardized test scores is large and indisputable. Anyone who analyzes the situation with a critical eye and half a brain can see that the problem is economic, not prejudicial. Fact: black and Hispanic families are significantly poorer on average than white families. Fact: black and Hispanic students lag behind whites significantly in test scores despite having inherently the same intellectual capabilities. Is it so hard to connect the dots?

Yet, many black activist groups continue to claim the problems facing minorities are because of "racism". Why? Because crying 'racism' is (1) easier and (2) puts the problem entirely on other people. (Blacks can't be racist by definition, you see, so if the problem is racism then it's someone else's responsibility, and thus the black community doesn't have to change or accept any of the responsibility themselves)

This isn't to say the economic issues are easy to overcome--the gap between the rich and the poor in society has been a constant staple of human civilization (4th Nephi aside) since the beginning of time. (And it's not a matter of poor people needing to 'work harder'...) But if people can't even admit what the problem is, nor cast any kind of critical eye on their own schools and communities, how in the world can we expect to make any kind of improvement at all?