As it has for all my life “race” continues to be a hotly debated issue that rises or falls on the social consciousness consistent with the ebbs and flows of events perceived as racially motivated. It seems that the death of George Floyd is making a resurgence in the news. As of yet I have not watched the video nor examined the other evidence. I did write about the issue HERE but am withholding a thorough analysis until at least three months after the event upon which time I may then give my opinion. I prefer not to be rash in my judgments nor do so hastily based upon a subjective report. A criminal trial will certainly provide a better opportunity for an objective assessment than social media postings.
In Grade 1 my favourite classmate was a black boy who undoubtedly came from a lower socio-economic class. I also had a white classmate who clearly was poorer than he. His family was in the bottom quintile for wealth. It never occured to me at the time that any of us had a privilege over another based upon our race. As I now understand the nuances of racial socialization a generalized privilege does exist.
As I grew older the element of race and our socialization set upon me as a force imposed by the adult sector who placed it paramount to the other facets of our lives. It could not be missed that those of us who saw each other as “friends” were being classified by the adults, particularly those of a political bent, as “white” or “black” and thus conditioned us as such. We were different. The them and us groupings were demarcated along a racial divide. The adults told us so.
Thus began a quest to understand why my perceptual senses had failed to become aware of this distinction until school administrators and others clarified that it was ever present. As I observed through the newly discovered lense of racial politics I did see that it was to be found everywhere.
We did have particular class instruction set aside solely for the purpose of examining the accomplishments of black people. Black and white students were sent to schools not proximal to their homes but which were lacking enough students of a particular race to establish a racial balance commensurate to a greater distribution thus achieving a political goal.
Then came the knowledge that all we had been taught about the racial blindness of the law and racial equity had been a farce. Simply because I or my impoverished white classmate from a family of 12 children had been born white we were going to be penalized when it came to hiring practices, college admission or other aptitude based qualifications. We would have to exceed the minimum requirements because of racial discrimination -- racism -- against us.
So came the terms “Affirmative Action”, “Racial Justice”, Institutionalized Racism”, and “Racial Privilege” which were all used to couch the practices of racists in more comfortable terms.
As it was propounded, that because of the prior oppression of particular races and the manner in which institutions functioned to exclude them from ascending to the levels of the elevated racial group, government must now step in and artificially create that elevation. Hence, if long dead skinny people made fun of your fat great grandparents without repercussion then we will now flog some unrelated skinny people to achieve justice.
In theory this rise in status would present opportunities for the oppressed race to grow into the position. It was not intended that black police officers or firefighters go through their careers commiting twice as many errors as their white counterparts. Rather, they were allowed to commit twice as many errors on the qualifications exam so they could get the job and then ascend to the same proficiency level as their white counterparts. But why the expectation that someone who commits double the errors will achieve parity in practice? Is there any evidence that says he who commits double the errors in preparing for a job will reduce those errors by half upon taking the job? And why use life threatening emergency situations as the practice ground?
The racial privilege theory says that, because of one’s race, some people will have greater opportunities during formative years while others will be hindered. As a child I had access to an encyclopedia set in my home. I am confident that my black buddy in Grade 1 didn’t. I didn’t see it in his house.
I lived in an area which was populated by such people whom I knew including a former Chief Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court, other judges and lawyers, medical professionals, college professors, various politicians and the like. I sat in on conversations with a former White House attorney and his political or business contemporaries. I worked for these people and conversed with them. I had an inside line to the Eli Lilly company, the courts, Indianapolis politics and about any other white collar domain I wanted to explore. So the argument for racial privilege says that because all of those people were white and I am a white associate of theirs while my black buddy was not then I can easily find repose in one of those fields while he will not.
But privilege in opportunity does not correspond to advantage in outcome. Simply getting the inside track to submit an application does not correspond to getting the position even though you didn’t meet the qualifications over someone who did meet the qualifications.
But I chose to pursue my athletic ambition of cycling which also formed in me during Grade 1. That would be a more difficult pursuit for me. I didn’t become aware that there was any type of cycling league in the United States until I was in high school. This would have been a late start for most of the elite riders in the sport. Paradoxically, it was another black friend who introduced me to that formalization and gave me the licensing application.
There are few black riders in cycling. The reason; the high costs. My entry level racing bike in 1984 cost me over $500. My custom built bike five years later was over $2500. A similar bike would be around $7000 today.
This particular black cycling buddy of mine was older and took me along to numerous races he was attending. In my second year of racing I qualified for the U.S. Nationals and placed well into the top half even though I had a flat tire during the race which did not get properly replaced.
Over the years I saw guys arriving at venues in motorhomes and parking at the racecourse. I once slept under the canopy of the entryway to a grade school in Detroit until the police ran us off at 3:00 a.m. Sometimes we drove through the night because we couldn’t afford a motel room. But we kept trying. We put forth the extra effort that wealthier cyclists weren’t required to do.
My senior year in high school I was invited to the U.S. Olympic Training Center [USOTC] in Colorado Springs. While there, blood was drawn, we were pushed to exhaustion on a treadmill, had our fat measured and whatever else would be done during a routine alien abduction examination. The news was simple and blunt. You don’t have good blood, are too fat, too tall, too weak, too timid or whatever. However, there was also encouragement in that cycling has a wide range of events which can accommodate about any physique.
My olympic gold medalist buddy raced for 200 meters. I was good at 1000+ times that distance. I was horrible at his event and he was horrible at mine. We each did not possess the physique for our opposing events.
I had poor blood. Genetically, I had a lower ratio of oxygen carrying red blood cells than did Lance Armstrong and some of the other guys that I was with at USOTC.
I raced one more season as an amateur then got my U.S. Pro license. I didn’t have the blood to keep my muscles from fatiguing earlier than those other guys. Thus, I had to rely upon strategy to keep me near the front when it counts -- the end of the race. No one handed more red blood cells to me. That is actually barred by rule [fn1]. Nor was I given a head start because of my genetic lineage which gave me a lower red blood cell count. Sometimes those who were born with the privilege of a higher red blood cell count were still beaten by me.
All was to no avail. In the Spring of that year I was hit by a truck and killed but managed to live through it and functionally recovered 20 years later. It was around the time of that collision that I posed the question to Yolanda King -- daughter of Martin Luther King -- regarding racial preferences. “Wouldn’t it be better for black people if all people were held to the same standard regardless of race because the extra effort blacks would have to put forth would make them more accomplished in other aspects of life?” I got a response that disappointed me. She said not at all. That giving blacks opportunities regardless of merit allows them to get the schooling or jobs that can give them more benefits in life. She basically converted it to a financial matter rather than a personal development issue.
To this day people marvel at my fortitude and exhaustive efforts I put into the various projects in which I endeavor to achieve. But to me it seems natural. No one gave me a pill to increase my red blood cell count so I would have parity with Lance Armstrong. I rode 500 miles a week and got cortisone pumped into my knees instead. Enduring the pain and exerting more effort to achieve the same athletic results, I feel, has paid off significantly throughout my life. During my life I have seen others put forth less effort and get greater immediate rewards but I have not been disuaded. I just put forth greater effort and feel satisfaction in knowing that I earned my rewards. It’s a point which I stand by and still think Yolanda King erred in her assessment.
If I have failed in relaying my judgment as to countering racial privilege through social practices then I will make it clear and succinct for you now. I strongly feel that it is an injustice to use racial disrimination to counter the benefits that one may derive from being the member of a particular racial group.
I do not dispute that there are entrenched systems which give favourtism to members of a racial group over others. This is acknowledged through the disparity in achievement standards based upon race where the bar is set higher for the elevated race and lower for the “oppressed” or “marginalized” race. The rationalization for this is to overcome the systemic inequality created by the discriminatory and oppressive acts of the superior race over the inferior.
The U.S. Department of Justice [DOJ] seems to agree with me. On 13 August 2020 it released a statement indicating that Yale University engages in illegal admission practices because “race is the determinative factor in hundreds of admissions decisions each year,” in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
It has been 66 years since federal troops were used to escort students into a school after being denied admission based on race. At Yale University it apparently hasn’t changed. The DOJ found that Asian American and White students are one-tenth to one-fourth as likely to be admitted to the university as Black students with comparable academic resumes.
Eric Dreiband, assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, said in the press release. “There is no such thing as a nice form of race discrimination. Unlawfully dividing Americans into racial and ethnic blocs fosters stereotypes, bitterness, and division. It is past time for American institutions to recognize that all people should be treated with decency and respect and without unlawful regard to the color of their skin.”
Karen Peart, a spokeswoman for the university, vowed to continue the racist practices. She countered in a statement to CNBC, “We are proud of Yale’s admissions practices, and we will not change them on the basis of such a meritless, hasty accusation.”
What really raises my ire is that blacks and whites are mired in a trap in which they were pitted against each other by the apt vociferous racists Southeast Asians. These cunning, sly Asians have managed, without detection, to create an institutional framework in the United States that imbues them with advantages based solely upon their race. The very act of being a descendent of southeast Asian ancestry gives one an automatic path to high profile careers in the medical, academic, engineering, and financial fields as well as great entrepreneurial success.
More appalling is that they have psychologically manipulated other racial groups into thinking that they were an oppressed minority. They pretended to be virtual slaves building the railway system in the mid-19th century. They obviously imposed harsh opiate drug laws upon themselves not as a scheme perpetrated by racist whites but, rather, as a means to cull the slovenly from their ranks. This master race has dominated and oppressed other races while giving themselves the tools to glide into Easy Street. We know this is true by applying the racial privilege theory to the practices of Harvard University.
Following that theory, which postulates that admission standards are adjusted to compensate for racial privilege created by a superior race oppressing the lower races, Harvard University, as testified by a dean[2], has set this SAT score scale for admissions;
Asian Women 1350 - Asian Men 1380
Whites 1310
Blacks, Native American, and Hispanic 1100
It is time for whites including hispanics and blacks to unite and take down our common oppressor which has used its power and position throughout the course of the United States’ existence to create a framework that gives them a racial privilege.
However, I suppose that there is another viable option. That would be to quit imposing adults’ racist practices on children who had nothing to do with prior injustices and simply let all people strive for and achieve based upon their merit.
Footnotes
[1] “Blood-doping” involves drawing blood from an athlete, separating the red blood cells through a centrifugal process and then returning the red blood cells to the athletes circulatory system. This increases the ratio of oxygen carrying red blood cells to blood plasma which allows the muscles to function more efficiently. It has been banned in the Olympics and by most athletic governing bodies.
[2] NY Post Harvard’s gatekeeper reveals SAT cutoff scores based on race
- 2018-10-07
https://nypost.com/2018/10/17/harvards-gatekeeper-reveals-sat-cutoff-scores-based-on-race/
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