Yep… that’s him! Every time I see him I want to grab every little Black kid I know and sit them in front of the TV.
athelas… what is the basis for your assertions, exactly? Both you and Shalmanese appear to be speaking from some experience, would you care to explain it? I couldn’t even begin to generalize about 15 million Black Americans; I’m wondering how you can make such statements about an even larger population of White people.
Regarding your “college advantage” point, this has got to be one of the most hackneyed half-truths about college admissions going. First, selective colleges in this point in time are concerned about completion rates. They want every student they admit to complete a degree in a reasonable amount of time for several reasons. It’s not in their interest to admit academically underprepared students of any race. It doesn’t help their bottom line in the slightest. So virtually everyone they admit appears to be capable of earning a degree there.
Second, there are all kinds of “bonuses” (bonii?) allocated in an entering class. Regional bonus: kids from Alaska are advantaged over kids from California. Legacy bonus: if your dad went here and occasionally floats a check our way, you’re going to get a bump. Talent bonus: if you play tuba, and we don’t have a lot of tubas in our band - bump. If you play lacrosse and we need to shore up our team, bump. Those are a few of the big ones. Read Jacques Steinberg’s excellent and readable The Gatekeepers for more insight. I also research college admissions, and for a time worked in admissions at a Very Well-Known Highly Selective College Near Boston. I know what I’m talking about here.
I’m not in favor of discounting any of these bumps students get, because 1) by the time we get to this point, the students are all “qualified,” as far as it actually has a definition; 2) having students with these attributes contributes to a robust and vibrant campus community; and 3) people with money and privilege game the system in so many ways, that when a kid has the aforementioned attributes acquired naturally (IOW, kid is from Alaska because mom and dad are from there, not because mom and dad moved there last year to get Precious into Selective College), the sacrifice made can be rewarded.
The idea that Asian kids are disadvantaged is also inaccurate. Any college could likely fill its class with kids from one state, one race, one type of high school. But that would obviously be stupid. It should not come as a surprise that there are highly concentrated of upper middle class Asian American families in the Bay Area and New York City, for example. A significant number of these students are applying to a concentrated number of selective schools. An Asian American kid from Arkansas is probably the student who was selected for admission over the Asian American kid from San Francisco, not a Black or Latino kid. In Steinberg’s book there is a story of an Asian American woman who has fine scores and grades, but in reality does little to distinguish herself from her classmates at her school, and is thusly rejected. Turns out the thing that makes her unique and special - writing letters to death row inmates - is something she fails to mention in her application, which might have given her a bump of sorts. Colleges are interested in whole people, not simply “brains on a stick,” as one prof once told me.
The “black people are more insular” comment? I’ve seen this phenomena in high school and college cafeterias. Here’s what’s going on. First, in a school where Blacks are in the minority, those kids often feel that they stand out. And they do, just as I stood out in a degree program that was 70% female. I enjoyed being around my classmates but I did seek out others who were like me: men, people from Texas, urban educators. Ever wonder why Americans can always find each other in Paris or in Prague? Same phenomena. In an unfamiliar setting, it’s reassuring and helpful to seek out people with similar experiences to yours. One student once told me that the cafeteria was the one place he felt he could “take off the mask.”
Second, how often do you see White people moving into Black neighborhoods, or approaching a table full of Black kids? There should be just as much responsibility on people in the majority - hell, if not more - to be less insular. There are fewer reasons why being insular as a majority person makes sense. If a White student walks over to the Black kids’ table and is rejected (for any reason), he or she can probably blend in with other White kids. What happens to a Black kid who does the same thing?
Let’s not pretend that any in-group, regardless of its composition racially, ethnically, religiously, gender-wise, or socioeconomically, is easy to join. There is an evaluation process that dictates whether Johnny can sit with the nerds, the jocks, the goths, or the rich White kids. Kids might click and they might not. What I often hear from White students is a story where they watched Eyes On The Prize and decided to befriend more Black people. The Black students, not knowing this kid or what his or her motives are, are standoffish or even hostile. White student walks away, missing the point about treating the students like an anthropological project instead of people, and describes them as insular or closed. (This example is an amalgam of a story I heard multiple times when I worked as a college administrator.)
I’d wager, though, that the athletic cliques are fairly integrated, because most successful coaches drive home the idea of teamwork. Not that there aren’t cliques there as well, but if I’m doing research and I want to find a multiracial, multiethnic group of students, I usually look at athletes or interest clubs.
One last thing, athelas. Could you expand on this, please?
You do know there is an Asian History Month (May) and here’s a new one: Jewish American Heritage Month. (They happen to both be May.)
Actually, you know what? I don’t know what you are getting at, so I’ll wait for your reply.
Cartooniverse - I think you are doing a fine job as dad. Don’t underestimate the impact of vocalizing your disapproval of racism. Trust me, your kids won’t forget it.
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). Believe it or not, they really do hand you a baby, and a diaper bag and say, " Sign here please". It’s like accepting the ultimate FedEx delivery.