SEGREGATION IS GOOD FOR BLACKS -- APPARENTLY

Ernie Chambers is Nebraska's only African-American state senator, a man who has fought for causes including the abolition of capital punishment and the end of apartheid in South Africa. A magazine writer once described him as the "angriest black man in Nebraska." Ernie Chambers, the only African-American in the Nebraska Legislature, was a major force behind a law enacted this week that calls for dividing the Omaha school district into three districts defined largely by race. He was also a driving force behind a measure passed by the Legislature on Thursday and signed into law by the governor that calls for dividing the Omaha public schools into three racially identifiable districts, one largely black, one white and one mostly Hispanic.

The law, which opponents are calling state-sponsored segregation, has thrown Nebraska into an uproar, prompting fierce debate about the value of integration versus what Mr. Chambers calls a desire by blacks to control a school district in which their children are a majority. Civil rights scholars call the legislation the most blatant recent effort in the nation to create segregated school systems or, as in Omaha, to resegregate districts that had been integrated by court order. Omaha ran a mandatory busing program from 1976 to 1999. "These efforts to resegregate schools by race keep popping up in various parts of the country," said Gary Orfield, director of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard, adding that such programs skate near or across the line of what is constitutionally permissible. "I hear about something like this every few months, but usually when districts hear the legal realities from civil rights lawyers, they tend to back off their plans."

Nebraska's attorney general, Jon Bruning, said in a letter to a state senator that preliminary scrutiny had led him to believe that the law could violate the federal Constitution's equal protection clause, and that he expected legal challenges.

The debate here began when the Omaha district, which educates most of the state's minority students, moved last June to absorb a string of largely white schools that were within the Omaha city limits but were controlled by suburban or independent districts. "Multiple school districts in Omaha stratify our community," John J. Mackiel, the Omaha schools superintendent, said last year. "They create inequity, and they compromise the opportunity for a genuine sense of community."

Omaha school authorities and business leaders marketed the expansion under the slogan, "One City, One School District." The plan, the district said, would create a more equitable tax base and foster integration through magnet programs to be set up in largely white schools on Omaha's western edge that would attract minority students. The district had no plans to renew busing, but some suburban parents feared that it might. The suburban districts rebelled, and the unicameral Legislature drew up a measure to blunt the district's expansion. The bill contained provisions creating a "learning community" to include 11 school districts in the Omaha area operating with a common tax levy while maintaining current borders. It required districts to work together to promote voluntary integration.

But the legislation changed radically with a two-page amendment by Mr. Chambers that carved the Omaha schools into racially identifiable districts, a move he told his colleagues would allow black educators to control schools in black areas. Nebraska's 49-member, nonpartisan Legislature approved the measure by a vote of 31 to 16, with Mr. Chambers's support and with the votes of 30 conservative lawmakers from affluent white suburbs and ranching counties with a visceral dislike of the Omaha school bureaucracy. Gov. Dave Heineman, a Republican facing a tough primary fight, said he did not consider the measure segregationist and immediately signed it.

Dr. Mackiel, the Omaha superintendent, said the school board was "committed to protecting young people's constitutional rights." "If that includes litigation, then that certainly is a consideration," Dr. Mackiel said. Some of Nebraska's richest and most powerful residents have also questioned the legislation, including the billionaire investor Warren Buffett as well as David Sokol, the chief executive of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company, which employs thousands in Nebraska and Iowa. "This is going to make our state a laughingstock, and it's going to increase racial tensions and segregation," Mr. Sokol said in an interview.

The Omaha district has 46,700 students, 44 percent of them white, 32 percent black, 21 percent Hispanic and 3 percent Asian or Native American. The suburban systems that surround it range in size from the Millard Public School District, with about 20,000 students, 9 percent of whom are members of minorities, to the Bennington district, with 704 students, 4 percent of whom are members of minorities.

More here







U.K.: Students to get marks not worked for

Keele University has privately admitted that scores of students could graduate this summer with degree classifications that they do not deserve under plans to beat the assessment boycott, writes Phil Baty. In a set of contingency plans designed to counter the assessment boycott by the Association of University Teachers, Keele's senate last week agreed to allow final-year students to graduate as long as they had completed about two thirds of their final year.

The senate will invoke an obscure part of the constitution that allows students to graduate under exceptional circumstances if they have obtained at least 75 of the 120 final-year credits they would normally be expected to achieve. This is the equivalent of obtaining a degree despite dropping up to three final-year exam papers.

If the dispute allows for final exams to take place, and if marks are returned after a student has graduated, subsequent reclassification of a degree "will only be done to the advantage of the student", in other words, the classification cannot be lowered.

Keele insists that its emergency measures will not lower standards. But a document detailing the plans states: "Out of a cohort of 1,400 students to graduate this year, 5 per cent - 70 students - might attain a higher classification of degree than they would have been awarded had they been assessed on the full 120 credits."

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the AUT, said: "Universities would be better off talking to us to resolve the assessment boycott rather than trying to devise half-baked ideas that may make our universities a laughing stock." A Keele spokesman said: "Senate has recognised that the AUT action could disadvantage students and voted heavily in favour of using existing regulations."

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Continuing Sagas in Seminar Socialism

Post lifted from Promethean Antagonist

In my last post I had noted a recent clerical project of the Communist party of China - a sort of banal attempt at reinvigorating fervor and allegiance for the socialist cause in that country. In degrees and styles, such nonsense occurs regularly in America as well. Most colleges today matriculate new students with religious-like sermons on "multiculturalism" and other politically correct chastisements. Certain students are assumed guilty for their backgrounds or the degree of success their parents have attained. Others are glamorized for their victim-hood. Of course the student's actual circumstance is not an issue since the very act of being at a university is hardly the status of one who is "oppressed."

Group categorizations are the standard of good and bad in left-land. So it is that race, skin shade, gender, and even who one directs amorous thoughts toward are measures of who's naughty or nice and who should be rewarded or punished by fiat.

In keeping with the typical mindset of the bureau-socialist, a host of gimmicks, exercises, and "activities" are regularly used in colleges and public education. The comical nature of such wastes of time holds a family likeness to the criticism and "self-criticism" sessions held by communist parties in history when they had managed to seize power over entire countries. So far, the average leftist college professor has little real power over a free society (the main reason they harbor such resentment toward America, business, and the choices made by private citizens in a free market). If they were to attain power there is no doubt in my mind that they would exercise it as leftists have always done once successful in eliminating opposition and freedom of choice. Some relatively benign professors of "Woman's Studies," "Education," "Critical Studies," or even, "Literature" would become tyrants over society at large as they have sought to be among their captive audiences in America's stockades of political correctness (its universities and public schools).

I've pasted below a typical "education exercise" that one may find in some school or university classrooms - it's in the classic Marxist style. I had read of this particular exercise before. It's one that's often used in the new "White Studies" classes that have sprung up on some college campuses recently (often under the guidance and promotion of - ironically - privileged, and often white, academics). The particular example below is taken from the "diversity" website of Melissa Bailey at Michigan State University but can be found at a host of websites (do a search for, "White Privilege Exercise").

The whole "exercise" is a classic example of the bureau-left's phony world view and their guile-laden attempts to con young minds into believing that the real world is a place where "classes" and "races" battle their lives out using such contrived fantasies as "privilege." To this mindset, any fortune or misfortune in circumstance can only be due to one's membership among a host of "privileged" or "oppressed" people. In this worldview, no one simply makes right or wrong choices that advance or diminish their circumstance - no one is an individual freely choosing sound conduct or passive victim hood. No one rises above their birth condition or falls from fortune. They are all cogs in the Marxist fantasy image of free society, a society that must be "transformed" or overcome by "revolution" (e.g. professors, "artists," and authoritarian leftist / statists must be put in a position to "plan" society - for its own good).

When closely evaluating the statements in the "exercise" one finds them to be quite arbitrary. They actually gauge nothing but are stated as if they are some sort of scientific method of finding true guilt or innocence - whether one is a victim worthy of sympathy and praise or a privileged person who has attained too high a degree of comfort or satisfaction from life ("unfairly").

I've added my own responses to this stupid exercise's statements in the hope of addressing their blatant absurdity. Humor and sarcasm are intended since such nonsense is most worthy of ridicule.

The leftist clowns who develop such "learning projects" take this stuff very seriously. No doubt some will automatically assume "racism" as my motive for daring challenge this typically ridiculous con game in the halls of "Education." Sorry to disappoint, but my motivation is something more benign and astute - anti-Leftism. Those who continually seek to promote, indoctrinate, and impose the leftist vision are the true culture of privilege.

The "exercise" and my responses are below

["] Privilege Exercise ["]


Purpose: To provide participants with an opportunity to understand the intricacies of privilege.
Time: 1 « hours
Materials: none needed
Facilitator Notes:
This is a powerful exercise and should be thoroughly processed. [typical neo-Comm-speak]

1. Participants should be led to the exercise site silently, hand in
hand, in a line. [Note the usual almost religious wording used in such nonsensical projects]

2. At the site, participants, can release their hands, but should be
Instructed to stand shoulder to shoulder in a straight line without
speaking. ["speaking" would no doubt upset the holy nature of this exercise in spiritual understanding]

3. Participants should be instructed to listen carefully to each sentence,
and take the step required if the sentence applies to them. They
should be told there is a prize at the front of the site that everyone is
competing for. [remember, success in life is, "a prize."]


Sentences:

If your ["] ancestors ["] were forced to come to the USA not by choice [200 or 300 years ago], take one step back.

What if your "ancestors" were slaves of the Aztecs, Arabs, or Sudanese?


If your primary ethnic identity is American, take one step forward.

Guilty of good fortune - to the rice fields for reeducation.


If you were ever called names because of your race, class, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation, take one
step back.

.Why? How about if you were called names like, "fascist" for believing in free and open society, Christianity, or self-interest?


If there were people of color who worked in your household as servants, gardeners, etc., take one step forward.

If these paid employees were white, don't step forward?


If you were ever ashamed or embarrassed of your clothes, house, car, etc. take one step back.

I hated that used car my dad drove with the broken muffler -- but then again, a lot of people had used cars and bad mufflers in our neighborhood. I was obviously very "oppressed." Give me some money and free stuff.


If your parents were professionals: doctors, lawyers, etc. take one step forward.

God forbid your parents were successful. Do you get to step back a half step if they worked themselves through college or, as doctors, saved human lives?


If you were raised in an area where there was prostitution, drug activity, etc., take one stop back.

How about alcoholism or spouse-swapping?


If you ever tried to change your appearance, mannerisms, or behavior to avoid being judged or ridiculed, take one step back.

.No, no one's ever done that.


If you studied the culture of your ancestors in elementary school, take one step forward.

There's that bogus obsession with folks from long ago who you never met. Also, why should an American grade school teach Lebanese culture when they barely teach math, reading, and writing?


If you went to school speaking a language other than English, take one step back.

What if it was German, Swedish, or French?

Give me twenty pushups lowly class enemy!


If there were more than 50 books in your house when you grew up, take one step forward.

If they were porn - OOH-HOO! (If your parents didn't like to read, you can't be part of the world socialist club!).


If you ever had to skip a meal or were hungry because there was not enough money to buy food when you were growing up, take one step back.

...then step forward again if there were churches, private organizations, or local, state, and federal government agencies to give you handouts.


If you were taken to art galleries or plays by your parents, take one step forward.

If your family liked sports and camping, you're oppressed and should get more free stuff from the omnipotent state and its taxpayers.


If one of your parents was unemployed or laid off, not by choice, take one step back.

If it was for longer than a year, chastise your parents for being incompetent and not applying to the millions of jobs available each year.


If you attended private school or summer camp, take one step forward.

If you went to a public school, sorry you can't read this.


If your family ever had to move because they could not afford the rent, take one step back.

If they were living beyond their means and had to move back to something they could afford, make a circle, touch your nose, and sing an old Beatle's song.


If you were told that you were beautiful, smart and capable by your parents, take one step forward.

Step back if they were lying.


If you were ever discouraged from academics or jobs because of race, class, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, take one step back.

Step back further if you couldn't get a class or job because you were light skinned or male.


If you were encouraged to attend college by your parents, take one step forward.

If you were a "victim" of everything your parents said or didn't say to you, you're an idiot - get a life.


If you were raised in a single parent household, take one step back.

If that parent was rich and a member of a chosen minority group, just stand there and look confused. There will be no parents when the revolution comes. It "takes a village" and a totalitarian communal state to raise the lumpen proletariat.


If your family owned the house where you grew up, take one step forward.

If they rented a townhouse in Paris or New York laugh at the meaningless nature of this statement.


If you saw members of your race, ethnic group, gender or sexual orientation portrayed on television in degrading roles, take one step back.

If they were depicted as evil, ignorant, greedy, or fascist ask the "facilitator" why its okay to depict that phony image.


If you were ever offered a good job because of your association with a friend or family member, take one step forward.

If you were from another planet where this never happens, become a sociologist and take a college lit course then, move two spaces and collect trust fund check from rich socialist parents.


If you were ever denied employment because of your race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, take one step back.

And ask yourself why you didn't' complain to the million and one government offices or lawyers who would have sued the employer and showered you with cash (disregard question if your ethnicity or gender is white or male)


If you were paid less, treated unfairly because of race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, take one step back.

See last response.


If you were ever accused of cheating or lying because of your race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation, take one step back.

If you were ever accused of cheating or lying because you cheated or lied, look puzzled and continue to protest the conditions of life on planet Earth.

If you ever inherited money or property, take one step forward.

If the government took huge sums of your money through coercion to finance social programs and college classes in Marxist Studies, just shut up and keep on paying.


If you had to rely primarily on public transportation, take one step back.

Especially if it was an airplane in first class.


If you were ever stopped or questioned by the police because of your race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, take one step back.

If you happend to be speeding, stealing, or murdering at the time, call a Woman's Studies professor, Gay rights advocate, or Al Sharpton for one free pass.


If you were ever afraid of violence because of your race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, take one step back.

If you were actually a victim of violence merely because someone wanted to harm you or take your property, no big deal. (Remember, this project is only designed to direct concern for skin color, gender, sexual orientation, and how much money people are paid for working...or not working).


If you were generally able to avoid places that were dangerous, take one step forward.

.off the edge of a bridge into a flaming pit of molten lead.


If you were ever uncomfortable about a joke related to your race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation but felt unsafe to confront the situation, take one step back.

Also, try to forget about the jokes you told or laughed about involving other people or groups. (If you're black, and sing rap lyrics advocating the death of homosexuals -- one free pass. If you're Muslim and behead infidels -- two free passes and immediately go to the front of the classroom).


If you were ever the victim of violence related to your race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, take one step back.

If it was because you were light skinned or non Middle-Eastern, too bad.


If your parents did not grow up in the United States, take one step back.

If they grew up in a French Chateau - cool. If your parents were Asian and worked hard and made sacrifices to put you through school, cringe in self-loathing. If you don't want to live in the U.S. at all - leave. (There are lots of countries that are already fully socialist or half way there. You should be with them).


If your parents told you that you could be anything you wanted to be, take one step forward.

If they told you that you'd have to settle for what you're actually capable of, cry because they were realistic.


Processing: [there's a great word familiar to anyone who has encountered a leftist bureau-minded control freak]

Ask participants to remain in their positions and to look at their position at the site and the positions of the other participants.

Ask participants to consider who among them would probably win the prize.
Suggested questions for processing are:

1) What happened? [I had a divine revelation. I will now save the rainforest, give more money to the state, lick the shoes of middle-class college instructors, and give away my bourgeoisie CD collection.]

2) How did this exercise make you feel? [Classic Socialist Ed School Bureau-lesson question -- but, for the record, the "exercise" made me sick.]

3) What were your thoughts as you did this exercise? [Like.wow! Like, this is sooo stupid]

4) What have you learned from this experience? [Answer; Not what you could have learned in a real class.]

5) What can you do with this information in the future? [Whine more about injustice and ask for more free stuff].


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Remember, decades ago the time taken to "perform" this pathetic soap-box ritual would have been used to actually learn something academic

When a teacher or professor can be paid -- often with taxpayer money -- to use such "lessons" to promote their personal radical political ideology, the question as to who in society is "privileged' becomes clearer.

Remember; If you're ugly and diseased, have lost a loved one, if someone close to you has committed suicide, or you have retarded children.and you're light skinned, male, or financially well -off, you're "privileged." If you're relatively happy, have good relationships and a decent job and home but are a "minority," you're oppressed and can get free stuff and sympathy from middle class white kinds majoring in "critical studies."

Poor, ugly, unemployed, divorced, paraplegic white men with cancer "have all the power."

...it's been a privilege.

(see my "glossary of Ed-euphemisms" for further insights into the bizarre worldview of Ed-world)

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

The NEA and similar unions worldwide believe that children should be thoroughly indoctrinated with Green/Left, feminist/homosexual ideology but the "3 R's" are something that kids should just be allowed to "discover"

Comments? Email me here. For times when blogger.com is playing up, there is a mirror of this site (viewable even in China!) here. My home page is here

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