Racist school?

Stuyvesant is an elite public high school in New York which admits students (photo) on the basis of merit, that is, how they do on an entrance exam. Their incoming class numbers 777, but only three students are black. What could be the reason for this imbalance? Why are there not many more black kids? 

Predictable accusations come next. A New York Magazine columnist says that the "idealistic progressives and socialists" who lead the city ought to attack the "shameful, entrenched segregation of New York's public schools."  

"New Yorkers know a hustle when we see one, and the recent news that Stuyvesant offered admission to only three Black students this year is the latest example of a grotesquely obvious hijacking of public benefits, cynically disguised as a fair, merit-based outcome." They're racist. The test is unfair.

But there's a hidden factor in the racial achievement gap. 

from NYMag

(cont'd tomorrow)

Merit 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

If shoplifters are arrested and laws are enforced for one race but not for other races, we've lost justice.  

It seems obvious that justice and medical standards and law schools should be color-blind. It was obvious to all of us until 5 minutes ago. The point of the civil rights movement in the latter half of the last century was that rights and justice should be administered without regard to the race of the individual. That would be fair and just. Now we've gone backward, less fair and less just.

Most Americans are bewildered. A scholar and writer puts it in black and white terms with no confusion in this address to a conference last month. She says, "Disparate impact thinking is destroying our civilization."

"Any racial disparity in any institution is by definition the result of racial discrimination." So bar exams, police arrests, medical degrees, law schools--anywhere that the percentage of black people differs from the 13% of the general population that is black--are all the result of racist discrimination.

Wouldn't it be interesting to know how many people actually believe this nonsense? If you haven't bowed to the wokeness, please speak up. But maybe not at work . . I don't want you to be fired for thinking things through.

from Hillsdale

Merit 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Some medical schools have stopped using the Medical College Achievement Test (MCAT) as a requirement for new students. The National Institutes of Health has broadened their criteria for doctors getting neurology grants to include things like whether they received childhood welfare.

California's state bar association lowered the pass score on its bar exam for attorneys because only 5% of black law school graduates passed the exam the first time, compared to 42% of the Asian law school grads and 52% of white law school grads.

In the area of law enforcement, police officers don't always arrest shoplifters and sometimes district attorneys don't prosecute shoplifting and certain other crimes anymore. Why? 

"Macy’s flagship store in New York City was sued several years ago because most of the people its employees stopped for shoplifting were black. The only allowable explanation for that fact was that Macy’s was racist. It was not permissible to argue that Macy’s arrests mirrored the shoplifting population."

from Hillsdale

(cont'd tomorrow)

Merit 1

Suppose a day comes in your future when you need surgery on your eyes in order to preserve your sight. What sort of surgeon do you want to operate on you: so-so or excellent? You have common sense, so you hope for an excellent surgeon who got through medical school by thoroughly learning the material, not by some other criteria like a famous name or skin color.

photo

Similar question: do you want a so-so pilot or an excellent one next time you fly with a commercial airline? 

Of course you hope for excellent surgeons and pilots who earned their credentials by merit. You want them to deserve those credentials. You don't care what color their eyes or skin are. Up til now, that was simple common sense. A medical degree or pilot's license meant that the student earned it by doing the related work to an excellent standard.

Do they still mean that? In today's world, you might wonder. Because merit doesn't always result in the getting job or the college admission or the promotion. 

from Hillsdale

(cont'd tomorrow)

Carbon prize

(cont'd)

In addition to the Lunar Prize (Tuesday's post), XPrize intends to give $20 million away in competition for the Carbon Prize. "Teams will be scored on how much CO₂  they convert and the net value of their products."

The winning team will be the one that does the best job of capturing carbon dioxide, a gas, and transforming it into something of value. 

Already CO2 is a component  in lots of things, like baking soda, durable plastics (think Legos), cement, concrete. The competing teams are working on fuels, nanotubes, and much more.

"The diversity of products we can make from CO₂ is truly astounding. Imagine a world where one of our greatest liabilities (CO₂) becomes an asset." 

Wait . . I can't agree with XPrize on that last point. The gas that is essential for all green plant life - and thus most of life on earth - just shouldn't be called "one of our greatest liabilities." It is an asset, a life enabler. If it can also be made into additional useful things because of this contest, all the better.

XPrize

(cont'd)

"XPRIZE is a non-profit organization that designs and manages public competitions intended to encourage technological development that could benefit mankind." Lunar X Prize (yesterday's post) is just one of seven that XPrize Foundation is currently trying to give away.

Here's how they describe what they do: "XPRIZE is an innovation engine. A facilitator of exponential change. A catalyst for the benefit of humanity." 

I like what they say they believe in:

• competition
• incentives
• big challenges
• human potential

(cont'd tomorrow)

Moon prize

Someone is going to get a prize of $30 million for going to the moon. It's been more than forty years since we did that, and XPrize wants to inspire someone - not a government - to make it there again.

Thirty teams around the world are hoping to be the successful one. After overcoming every challenge to get there, the spacecraft will have to move 500 meters and then start sending videos and photos back to earth.

The deadline used to be 12.31.15, but with no winner by then it was extended to 12.31.16.



(cont'd tomorrow)

No monopoly

Cell phones replaced dial phones years ago because they worked better for us customers.  You're probably glad the government didn't step in to stop them from competing with the old technology. You and everyone else on the planet prefer the new technology.

It's called "creative destruction" because demand for the old product is destroyed when a better product comes along. Makers and sellers of the old product may fight it. We could be in at least a couple of cycles of creative destruction now, both involving the car industry.

Taxi-cab companies in Chicago lost an attempt last week to get a court decision against their competition, Uber and Lyft. The judge basically said no company has a right to monopoly.

"Our economy depends on constant innovation – and that sort of innovation can’t occur when governments allow themselves to be used by existing businesses to shield themselves from competition."

To love

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

"When I came to America, my lungs filled with the breath of freedom. I didn't know it was happening, but it was." Ismael Hernandez experienced the freedom to change his life, to experience rewards that he had earned through his own merit.

What he was studying at university included the Federalist Papers written by American founders. It explained his own experience to him - and hate turned into love.

Mr. Hernandez received a master's degree in political science, worked for a poverty-fighting organization, then founded the Freedom and Virtue Institute.

He says, "America has taught me that I am an individual person made in the image and likeness of God. I have rationality and will. I am my own man."

Gen Y unhappiness

Standard disclaimer: no, the following does not apply to everyone who is Gen Y!  But as with most theories, it probably applies to some.

This Huff Post article maintains that there is a subgroup of generation Y, the GYPSY, which is "Generation Y Protagonists and Special Yuppies."  They've been brought up to know that they are not just full of potential, but they're Very Special and therefore entitled to success (unlike their parents, who expected that only hard work would earn them rewards).

The author quotes a study "finding that Gen Y has 'unrealistic expectations and a strong resistance toward accepting negative feedback,' and 'an inflated view of oneself.' He says that 'a great source of frustration for people with a strong sense of entitlement is unmet expectations.'" 

If you have observations/opinions, share them.