Monday, July 06, 2015

White Privilege? Oh Please...

Been thinking lately about teachers and cops. Both are besieged by left-wing, multiculturalists and results are disastrous for schools, cities, and everywhere else. The left needs a public perception of pervasive white racism and it’s stoking the fires whenever it can. Reality has little to do with the campaign, and our mainstream media is assisting whenever they can. Former Attorney General Eric Holder saw this effort as his primary responsibility. According to an article in National Review Online:

“When Department of Justice officials arrived in Ferguson, Mo., one day after the death of Michael Brown, it wasn’t just to conduct an investigation on potential civil-rights violations. In fact, officials from one Justice Department office were conducting meetings with Ferguson residents to educate them on subjects such as ‘white privilege.’”

First Holder put out the notion that a higher percentage of black men in prison as opposed to white men was in and of itself proof of racial discrimination by cops and courts, ignoring the overwhelming evidence that black men commit many more serious crimes than whites. Then he and President Obama accused white teachers and principals in public schools for creating a “pathway to prison” by suspending a higher percentage of black teenagers than whites. Again, both ignored overwhelming evidence that black students misbehave much more than white students. It’s racial discrimination, they insisted, ordering schools to reduce black suspensions.
Leftist educators feeling guilty for being white ordered staff indoctrination in “white privilege,” the trendy notion that white people are unconsciously racist and need to acknowledge, then shed their “privilege.” Completely ignored are fifty years of Affirmative Action during which blacks have been given privilege over whites in hiring, granting of public contracts, and college admissions.
The St. Paul, Minnesota school district spent over $3 million to educate white teachers and principals about their “privilege.” EAGnews (Education Action Group) had to file Freedom of Information requests to learn the amount the district spent over a five year period. The money went to an organization called Pacific Educational Group founded in 1992 which offers conferences around the country at which caucasian teachers can flagellate themselves for their “White Privilege” and their sins of unconsciously propagating “Systemic Racism.”
According to a New York Post article by Paul Sperry: “[Pacific Education Group does] the racial-sensitivity training of teachers as part of professional teacher training workshops, reprogramming them to think that THEY are the problem, not the misbehaving kids, that their ‘whiteness’ and ‘cultural insensitivity’ is the reason African-American students tend to be, on average, more disruptive and violent than other students and tend to underperform academically.”

“Some of the teachers come out of the workshops sobbing,” wrote Sperry. “It’s classic brainwashing.”

St. Paul’s school behavioral policies were modified to make sure the number of suspensions for black students was the same as that of white students based on the percentage of each in the student population. That is, there were racial quotas for suspensions. Once the quota for black suspensions was reached, no more could be suspended until the white quota went up too. Meanwhile, misbehaving black students were given “time outs” instead, as recommended by the all-knowing and all-wise Pacific Education Group.

And how is that working? It’s a disaster. According to City Pages:

“At John A. Johnson Elementary on the East Side, several teachers, who asked to remain anonymous, describe anything but a learning environment. Students run up and down the hallways, slamming lockers and tearing posters off the walls. They hit and swear at each other, upend garbage cans under teachers’ noses. Nine teachers at Ramsey Middle School have quit since the beginning of this school year. Some left for other districts. Others couldn’t withstand the escalating anarchy.”
On another level, cops face a similar quandary. President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, and countless mainstream media outlets fabricate the narrative that “racist,” white cops are to blame for the crimes of young black men. When they’re told to stand down in the face of looting and arson in Baltimore, to use only one example, chaos reigns. “No,” insisted Baltimore’s black police chief Anthony Batts, according the New York Daily News. Cops were not told to stand down. Rather, they were instructed: “Do not engage,” as if there were any difference.
Anthony Batts

Teachers are demoralized when told they are the reason for disruptive behavior by black students. They back off and chaos takes over. Cops are demoralized when they are blamed for the crimes of young black men. They back off and crime skyrockets. Chaos reigns in cities across the country.
Just a few of the killer gang members in Chicago

Even in rural Maine where I live, cops are demoralized. They go into law enforcement thinking of themselves as the good guys who are there to protect people from bad guys. They take their “To Serve and Protect” motto seriously. The Obama Administration and mainstream media assault on the character and integrity of all police has enormous effect on morale. That 95% of “racist” incidents are fabricated or exaggerated is the worst part. It’s all so unnecessary.
How will it all end? Not well, I’m afraid. We still have another year and a half before it can even begin to get better.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I went to school for four years and racked up tens of thousands in debt. During this time I held two jobs and barely lived pay check to pay check. The government has taken more of my money than I care to about during those times.

Never once did I take a penny from them.

After college I got a full time job. It didn't pay well at first, but after a year or so it finally got up there so I feel comfortable, but I still have to count the pennies I have left after each paycheck. I'm a white, straight male and I can't help but feel I missed out on all that privilege.

Can your next article be on how to tap in on this privilege because I could sure use some!

Tom McLaughlin said...

Well, you can read Peggy Macintosh's original "White Privilege" essay linked above. She wrote it as a Wellesley "Women's Studies" professor back in the eighties. It's required reading at many colleges, universities, and public agencies. Teacher interns working in my classroom were forced to read it and report on their "privilege." When my wife worked at a mental health clinic before going into private practice, she was forced to read it also. It was distributed every year around Martin Luther King Day, but I believe King would have repudiated it if he lived to read it. Check it out and you can discover how privileged you are. Maybe it will make you feel better but I doubt it.

My first post on this subject was nine years ago. You can read it here:

http://tommclaughlin.blogspot.com/search?q=I+don’t+feel+guilty+being+a+heterosexual+white+guy,+but+evidently+there+are+many+people+who+think+I+should.

Anonymous said...

My big ticket CV is useless.
My big ticket resume, with a verifiable "accomplishments" list evolved into an "other than organized labor" employment guarantee.
Some folks seem to believe the opposite.
How many "anecdotals", and " Out of context..." must I dismiss before I'm allowed to assign "stereotypical"?
Mottos, phrases, and actions are generally a good clue.
I have no recourse but to "judge", and "interact" with folks demanding special consideration based solely on their individual merit.
The dogwhistles of straight, white, hetero, male, privileged, racist, misogynist, rich, etc., etc., all clumped together with consistently debunked and belied "data" (1 in 5?)and other assumptions, let me know the individual speaker is desperately in need of re-education before consideration of "above the stereotype".
Who's to judge?
I am. anything else?
CaptDMO

Tom McLaughlin said...

Posting this with the permission of the author who sent it via email:

Dear Tom,
Yes I am white, I am descended from the founding fathers of this country, one arrived on the Mayflower, others fought in the Revolutionary war, and in the Civil war. My ancestors worked hard, studied well, and prospered without help from the government.They were able to prosper in an environment of Christian conscience and minimal government interference. Few would find the challenges they faced "privilege."

I was raised in the knowledge that this country's laws were subject to constitutional law and that America was worth fighting for and worthy of those who died defending it. I am totally disheartened and disgusted that the voters of this country have allowed it to sink to the level of the special interest political corruption that we now see coming out of Washington. How can educated thinking people allow this to happed? Perhaps there are just too few of them now. Is this the downfall of democracy, where the ideal of voter rights is not accompanied by the requirement that voters have the knowledge to vote responsibly? How do we regain print and broadcast media and colleges that will inform rather than manipulate?

I'm not hopeful for the future of my descendants. There is a growing national acceptance of an anti white prejudice.

Sorry, but sometimes I just have to sound off.....don't get me started on the economy!

Thank you for another good article.
Lin Lamphier

Sami Gay said...

While Tom is not nearly clever enough to write satire and his blog shows him to be for real, George's comment above leaves me scratching my head. Poe's Law in effect, for sure!

Steve said...

Partisanship is an interesting to view from the center, or at least close to it. It’s like hearing two, opposing versions of the same event. One marker of partisanship is the tendency to view and process politics with two sets of rules: a more lenient set for the chosen party and a more rigid set for the other party. What partisans justify, ignore or deemphasize in their party’s actions; they condemn, criticize or inflate in the other party’s actions. Another marker of partisanship is the irresistible allure of victimhood; that they and their beliefs are under constant assault from the front and flanks from the other party and their sympathetic institutions. The flip side of that, inevitably, is the idea that the victimhood claimed by the other side is dismissible and utterly without merit. That’s what we have here. The idea that racism and white privilege don’t exist couldn’t be clearer – to some conservatives. However, the oppression and discrimination Christians face in this country couldn’t be more evident, usually to the same conservatives. Depending on who you talk to, either our elections are being hijacked by rampant voter fraud right down to the race for 8th grade class treasurer or voter-ID laws will guarantee all-white elections for as long as we continue to have elections. A partisan says his party advances principles, while the other party pushes an agenda. The President I voted for sometimes relies on the Constitutional Executive Order, while the President for the other party consolidates power and relies on executive fiat to cram legislation down our throats.
For Obama’s presidency, Partisan Democrats have laid much of the blame for his failures at the feet of Bush, only to have many Partisan Republicans push back. If he has a Republican successor, how much blame do we supposed Republicans will lay at the feet of Obama and how much will Democrats push back? If the next President is a Republican, their rallying cry will be, “It was fine for Obama to blame everything on Bush, but Heaven forbid we blame anything on Obama.” And the Democratic rallying cry will be, “We couldn’t blame anything on the mess created by Bush, but we’re expected to blame everything on Obama.” What makes this absurdity all the more hilarious is that the partisans I know are convinced they’re the most objective.