Get Real!

Get real!

       Today’s blog will undoubtedly piss off some readers. Tough nuggies! Today, I actually read a Michelle Malkin column with which I had some agreement on some points! I know, after all this time and all the bashings I have administered. The column was, as usual a shotgun approach to an issue, full of invective and “Left shaming” which we’ve come to expect from Malkin.

        Having said that as preface, the column was an attack on the current Mayor of New York and the educational system in general. Her issue is with the push, with the concurrence and apparent support of Mayor Bill DeBlasio, to lower standards of admission to the city’s elite high schools, principally those emphasizing science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The justification, however   ranges all over the place, depending upon whose point of view is on display. These schools have admissions testing and standardized test score eligibility windows. It seems that a disproportionally large number of students of Asian ethnicity are “clogging up” the system, garnering all the top spots. No one has (yet) complained that Caucasian students are underrepresented as a percentage of the student pool compared to Asian students. 

       What is troubling is that, in an extreme point of view which diminishes those making it, probably unwittingly, is the rationale offered by some, that Black students are also underrepresented by percentage because of “white privilege”. If equally competitive students were being chosen based on ethnicity, that would be a valid point, but those making the claim simply contend that the ability to solve complex math and science concepts is (in a leap of illogic beyond my comprehension) also evidence of “white privilege.”  It would, of course, be crass of me to point out that most of the Asians garnering the top spots in the NYC admissions derby are also persons of color. Looking around the tech landscape, this assertion becomes even more ludicrous.

                When Sir Isaaac Newton (co)invented the calculus to enable specific expression of his observations, he didn’t create racial mathematics, neither did Pythagoras or the Egyptians (persons of color, by the way), the greatest architects of their millennium. In like manner, the Indians who performed and quantified extremely precise calculational procedures while Europe was still in the Medieval period were all dark skinned as well.

        What Newton did do, however, was to posit that “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”   There have certainly been areas of American life where the application of the concept of “White privilege” is apparent and repulsive. It is certainly true, or has been true in sentencing in criminal cases, voting rights, housing, and the sad list goes on. That said, math is math. How, or if, one is motivated to approach it is a variable. How much significance is attached to it may even be culturally influenced, but a² + b² = c² is ethnically neutral. Perhaps Newton should have added that, “For every action there may occasionally be an unequal, unjustified and opposite everreaction.”

       As an additional experiential aside, this also insults the living hell out of many of my Black former students who worked hard, did well in College and are successful doctors, lawyers, Network administrators and the list goes on. Claiming “White privilege” in this specific case demeans all those who for years have crusaded for equal opportunity and fair treatment of all our citizens. It insults those who have fought against stereotyping and spurious claims of intellectual inferiority.