# Obama administration undermines classroom order in pursuit of phantom racism. **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 11, 2012, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-administration-undermines-classroom-order-in-pursuit-of-phantom-racism/631178 "2012-08-11T07:31:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chen019](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f19dbf/32.png) [@Chen019](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chen019)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-administration-undermines-classroom-order-in-pursuit-of-phantom-racism/631178/1 "2012-08-11T07:31:36Z")
Do unequal number of suspensions by race = racial discrimination? Seems Arne Duncan & co are making some [flawed assumptions](http://www.city-journal.org/2012/22_3_school-discipline.html) and unfairly maligning teachers. > [@](#): > > The Department of Education has launched investigations of at least five school systems because of their disparate black-white discipline rates. The Department of Justice has already put the Barnwell, South Carolina, school district under a costly consent decree, complete with a pricey outside consultant, and is seeking similar control of other districts. The theory behind this school discipline push is what Obama officials and civil rights advocates call the “school-to-prison pipeline.” According to this conceit, harsh discipline practices—above all, suspensions—strip minority students of classroom time, causing them to learn less, drop out of school, and eventually land in prison. > … > > Aaron Benner, a fifth-grade teacher in St. Paul, Minnesota, scoffs at the notion that minority students are being unfairly targeted for discipline. “Anyone in his right mind knows that these [disciplined] students are extremely disruptive,” he says. Like districts across the county, the St. Paul public school system has been on a mission to lower the black suspension rate, following complaints by local activists and black parents. A highly regarded principal lost his job because his school had “too many” suspensions of black second- and fourth-graders. The school system has sent its staff to $350,000 worth of “cultural-proficiency” training, where they learned to “examine the presence and role of ‘Whiteness.’ ” The district spent another $2 million or so to implement an anti-suspension behavioral-modification program embraced by the Obama administration. > > Benner sees the consequences of this anti-discipline push nearly every day in the worsening behavior of students. He overheard a fifth-grade boy tell a girl: “Bitch, I’ll fuck you and suck you.” (“I wanted to throw him against the locker,” Benner recalls.) The boy’s teacher told Benner that she felt powerless to punish the misbehavior. “This will be one of my black men who ends up in prison after raping a woman,” observes Benner. Racist? Many would so characterize the comment. But Benner is black himself—and fed up with the excuses for black misbehavior. He attended one of the district’s cultural-proficiency sessions, where an Asian teacher asked: “How do I help the student who blurts out answers and disrupts the class?” The black facilitator reminded her: “That’s what black culture is”—an answer that echoes the Obama administration’s admonitions to teachers. “I should have said: ‘How many of you shouted out in college?’ ” Benner remarks. “They’re trying to pull one over on us. Black folks are drinking the Kool-Aid; this ‘let-them-clown’ philosophy could have been devised by the KKK.” ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-administration-undermines-classroom-order-in-pursuit-of-phantom-racism/631178/2 "2012-08-11T07:55:03Z")
Connect the dots for me here. What does this have to do with the topic of elections? ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-administration-undermines-classroom-order-in-pursuit-of-phantom-racism/631178/3 "2012-08-11T11:21:48Z")
Forget it, Onomatopoeia. It’s Chen019-atown. Speaking of which, does the OP actually want to make an argument or is he just here to post large swaths of copyrighted material plus a link? ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-administration-undermines-classroom-order-in-pursuit-of-phantom-racism/631178/4 "2012-08-11T13:34:12Z")
Not to mention the fact that disparate impacts have a long history of being actionable. ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-administration-undermines-classroom-order-in-pursuit-of-phantom-racism/631178/5 "2012-08-11T15:50:51Z")
Board’s most tireless promoter of racialism claims racialism is largely nonexistent. In other news, NAMBLA claims that pedophilia is just a figment of people’s imagination. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-administration-undermines-classroom-order-in-pursuit-of-phantom-racism/631178/6 "2012-08-11T16:33:15Z")
This might not be the correct forum, but this idea from Obama is textbook leftist well-intentioned pablum that will hurt things, not help. It tries to imply things will be fixed because we’ll have equal outcomes. This might be the single dumbest thing Obama has promoted. Seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-administration-undermines-classroom-order-in-pursuit-of-phantom-racism/631178/7 "2012-08-11T17:16:03Z")
Starts with a suspicion something may be amiss racially in South Carolina, and dismantles this possiblity with some anecdotal evidence from a teacher in _St. Paul, Minnesota?_ ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-administration-undermines-classroom-order-in-pursuit-of-phantom-racism/631178/8 "2012-08-11T20:09:42Z")
This is driven by Obama’s administration? Enlighten me on how the administration drives the DOE in this type of case? ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-administration-undermines-classroom-order-in-pursuit-of-phantom-racism/631178/9 "2012-08-11T20:41:02Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > This is driven by Obama’s administration? Enlighten me on how the administration drives the DOE in this type of case? [Obama issued an ExecutiveOrder.](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-meyers/obamas-hbcu-executive-order_b_1726291.html) ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-administration-undermines-classroom-order-in-pursuit-of-phantom-racism/631178/10 "2012-08-11T21:00:00Z")
> [@Truman\_Burbank](#): > > Starts with a suspicion something may be amiss racially in South Carolina, and dismantles this possiblity with some anecdotal evidence from a teacher in > _St. Paul, Minnesota?_ I also think this looks fishy, in reality there is no evidence presented in the article that the DOE did not check before hand if those districts are doing something else besides just plain discipline, unless the district in St. Paul is also being investigated this looks like a regular hit piece from this magazine of the Manhattan Institute. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-administration-undermines-classroom-order-in-pursuit-of-phantom-racism/631178/11 "2012-08-11T23:36:31Z")
I, for one, think it’s deplorable that Obama’s administration is stopping those good Christian folk in South Carolina from teaching the darkies their place in society. How in the world are those poor niggers gonna function in society without they get taught to respect their proper role? We should bring back voter tests too, after all white people had to take them too so how could that possibly be racist? ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-administration-undermines-classroom-order-in-pursuit-of-phantom-racism/631178/12 "2012-08-11T23:59:48Z")
Phantom racism, is that like when ghosts only haunt white people? Yeah I hate that too ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-administration-undermines-classroom-order-in-pursuit-of-phantom-racism/631178/13 "2012-08-12T20:43:28Z")
[Is he talking about Mississippi?](http://articles.cnn.com/2012-08-10/us/us_mississippi-juvenile-justice_1_juvenile-detention-detention-center-civil-rights) ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-administration-undermines-classroom-order-in-pursuit-of-phantom-racism/631178/14 "2012-08-13T01:16:25Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > [Obama issued an ExecutiveOrder.](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-meyers/obamas-hbcu-executive-order_b_1726291.html) thanks ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-administration-undermines-classroom-order-in-pursuit-of-phantom-racism/631178/15 "2012-08-13T02:19:21Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > Not to mention the fact that disparate impacts have a long history of being actionable. And the OP shows why disparate impact jurisprudence is ridiculously wrong. If you have a racially neutral policy that just happens to affect minority groups more then that’s just tough shit. If black kids in a school district break the rules at a higher rate that other students, then black kids should have punishments at a higher rate than other students. Unless it can be shown that the rules target black students, then all is fair. Should we reform the criminal justice system so that the same percentages of each race are imprisoned? ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-administration-undermines-classroom-order-in-pursuit-of-phantom-racism/631178/16 "2012-08-13T02:31:47Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > Should we reform the criminal justice system so that the same percentages of each race are imprisoned? If they have the same crime rate too, yes. Even if not, it’s an issue that needs to be addressed in some form - if not legally, then socially. If any elementary school kids are getting suspended in a regular basis, there is a huge problem regardless of the racial issues. I’d have to say that I’d need to look at the order closely to say if it’s the best option, but the disparity is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-administration-undermines-classroom-order-in-pursuit-of-phantom-racism/631178/17 "2012-08-13T03:52:23Z")
The quote in the OP says the Dept of Education has launched investigations, yet the thread title implies conclusions have already been reached. **Chen019** , is this a fair conclusion to draw from the link? I’ve only quickly scanned it as I’ve got to go to bed and can’t read the article now. I want to return to this tomorrow but thought I’d throw the question out there.