Soft Bigotry

In the course of an interesting article about how to promote college success among disadvantaged New York high school students, Tina Rosenberg of the normally hyper-sensitive NY Times presents this (my emphasis):

The second way that Posse is subversive is that it shows that academic chops do not completely determine college success. It demonstrates other important factors: whether a student has social support, a sense of belonging and a network that can offer advice. People from a dominant culture take these things for granted, but minority students have to build them. Posse helps. Every Posse member I talked to said having the group is crucial.

Groan.  Are Asians no longer a majority?  Do the famed 'dragon moms' really take their kids effort and selection of friends for granted?

And even amongst the dreaded dominant whites, do all kids simply coast along on a strong network of friends and family?  Do parents really just "take for granted" that they have worked hard in order to move to a safe neighborhod and put their children in good schools?  Please - otherwise talented white kids who lack social skills or come from difficult domestic situations are left to drift to wherever they drift without anyone outside their immediate circle fretting about their lack of opportunity and achievment.  Certainly we aren't seeing charities and NY Times article focusing on the problems of the under-achieving offspring of one-percenters.

Social support is important for everyone; some families and communities are successful at providing it, and some need help.  No one takes it for granted.  Grr.

Comments

[Clarice]

Double Grr.
Reminds me of that great SNL skit where the black guy
imagines whites getting everything--loans at the snap of a finger,, etc. What does it profit the NYT to feed these delusions. Is this really the way the upper west side of Manhattan views this country? Or --perish the thought--do the elite imagine their kids will fare better in competition for life's goodies against minorities rather than poor whites who they continue to ignore if not despite?

[Porchlight]

From the article (sorry, can't link):

Most Posse Scholars would not have qualified for their colleges by the normal criteria.

And they wonder why retention is an issue. How about, just for comparison purposes, schools admit a couple of hundred white students a year who "would not have qualified by the normal criteria" and see how well they're able to handle it?

My alma mater adopted the Posse system several years ago. My understanding is that retention has not materially improved, but the administration touts it anyway, because it sounds good. It's also (surprise) expensive.

[Porchlight]

Posse also exacerbates self-segregation on campuses, as minority students tend to want to hang out only with their posse. This has long been prevalent but has increased in recent years with the proliferation of segregated student groups (all with the blessing of the school, of course). Ah, the diversity industry, hard at work.

[bgates]

Are Asians no longer a majority?

By "dominant culture", Rosenberg means Jews.

[Captain Hate]

My alma mater adopted the Posse system several years ago. My understanding is that retention has not materially improved, but the administration touts it anyway, because it sounds good. It's also (surprise) expensive.

No wonder college and university presidents support El JEFe; he runs things as poorly as they do.

[Rob Crawford]

I swear you'd hear a million shrieks of horror if white kids formed a "posse".

[Clarice]

Otoh, despite the way the article is written I do contribute to posse at my alma mater, because if the university is going to admit on the basis of AA I believe it's better to do what they do at my university--seek out promising minority students in high schools and give them college prep training and support so they can actually graduate. The first kid we helped was sikh, a child of Indian immigrants who ended up doing very well in his undergraduate classes.He might not have been admitted or successful had he only his rotten HS prep .

[A Casual Observation]

@ 8:21 - That is your interpretation.

[Threadkiller]

"State courts have generally upheld the one-drop rule, but some have limited the definition to one thirty-second or one-sixteenth or one-eighth black ancestry, or made other limited exceptions for persons with both Indian and black ancestry. Most Americans seem unaware that this definition of blacks is extremely unusual in other countries, perhaps even unique to the United States, and that Americans define no other minority group in a similar way. . . ."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/mixed/onedrop.html

[Jack is Back!]

Its because of stupid stuff like this by the NY Times I would probably be willing to vote for Romney.

Gail Collins = credentialed moron.

[Thomas Collins]

I wouldn't call it soft bigotry. What progs have done to the education system for poor kids involves both hardened racial and class based bigotry. If progs were really interested in educating childern from poor families, they would pay attention to Thomas Sowell's description of schools that provide an excellent education for such children. See LUN.

[Danube of Thought]

Minus 12 at Raz today.

[BumperStickerist]

given the modern connotation of "posse", I'd've preferred the program use the term "Cohort"

But that's me. Yo.

[Threadkiller]

Civil-rights czars are down wit it:

"As I told the soldiers: “There is a posse of people in the federal government making sure that the remarkable sacrifice that you make on behalf of our country is a sacrifice that is matched by our commitment to help you in so many different [civil rights] areas.”"

http://m.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/10/06/civil-rights-protections-service-members-and-their-families

[Captain Hate]

our commitment to help you in so many different [civil rights] areas.

Like making sure their votes are counted?

[MarkJ]

Change a few words in the above quote from Tina Rosenberg's piece and you'd think you were reading a 1938 article in "Der Stuermer."

[Ignatz]

I'm trying hard to think of anybody I know who has succeeded because of their "posse" and am drawing a blank.
Every successful person I know has succeeded because of talent and internal drive which was instilled early on by family, so I guess a "posse" defined as early family support is important in childhood development.
That you could conjure one up after someone is in high school and make succeed someone who would otherwise fail sounds like one of the brilliant, specious ideas like Headstart which assuages its boosters' consciences (and not coincidentally eventually creates a bureaucracy, interest group and new mouth at the Federal teat) and does little to nothing for the recipients.

[A Casual Observation]

Jack @ 9:05

If that is all that it will take to give you an incentive to probably vote for Romney, perhaps it will put you steadfastly in his camp and get you to stop equivocating if I tell you that his mother is fat?

[Jane]

I've never heard of a posse

[Danube of Thought]

Me neither, Jane.

[Captain Hate]

Is there anything Jamie Gorelick can't ruin? http://www.fnno.com/story/news-corner/331-amazon-sells-premarket-following-morgan-stanley-downgrade-amzn-handwritten

[A Casual Observation]

It is also called networking. If social skills are nurtured and developed properly in children, networking comes quite naturally, even extending to other groups outside of one's own group. Social skills go to the crux of networking. That is a no-brainer.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

I've never heard of a posse

One chased Granddaddy out of the Choctaw Nation.

[MarkO]

I rode in that posse. Sorry, Charlie.

[Old Lurker]

After the Med School admissions data posted by Clarice the other day, who is not going to think twice when meeting a new doctor for the first time?

[Jack is Back!]

As Mark Steyn asks, "Where do Broken Hearts go to Die?"

A cave in Afghanistan.

[Mark Folkestad]

Off topic, but I can't resist. Rep. Fred Upton (squish-MI), who is largely responsible for dooming Edison's light bulb, appeared on Fox News this morning, and the hosts brought up the fact that his niece is on the cover of the new Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. How long before one of our usual suspects links to pictures of Miss Upton or others in the issue?

[Threadkiller]

Asians used to get shout outs:

http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2010/10/the-american-dream-and-the-content-of-their-character.html

[Ranger]

Instapundit has a good post up about a new graph the RSC is sending around:

The title of the graph is Where are the Jobs?

Its a very powerful image.

[MarkO]

"How long before one of our usual suspects links to pictures of Miss Upton or others in the issue?"

I'm waiting. The news is just too grim. Pictures, please.

[Janet]

Feds Settle With Illegal Aliens In CT – Giving Them $350k Plus Amnesty

We're pretty much done as a sovereign nation. :(

[Jane]

Someone reminded me today that we are completely ignoring what the left hand is doing. Obama is about to give all the people who didn't pay their mortgages a wad of cash while not giving those of us who pay everyone month anything. So we are paying for deadbeats. Why on earth I pay my bills is beyond me.

[Danube of Thought]

How long before one of our usual suspects links to pictures of Miss Upton or others in the issue?

Not long.

[MarkO]

This assumes, of course, that Karzai was not the Taliban.

From Lucianne (and on Fox)

US, Afghanistan and Taliban in Talks
Senior military officials confirm to Fox News that the United States,
the Karzai government and the Taliban are engaged in three-way talks.

[Mark Folkestad]

Old Lurker, back in the Seventies, I had to withdraw my application to med school to take care of my cancer-stricken mother. When the tough old bird finally passed, I tried to re-apply to the University of Minnesota, which had three different medical schools. I was told that, in my mid-twenties, I was too old for med school, because the admission committee needed to maximize the expected number of years of service from the future doctors. However, the year that I would have entered, had I been accepted, there was huge fanfare over the U of M having a new female med student who was over 70. And that woman had not been passed over in her youth. She just had a whim late in life. I really should do some research to find out if that very senior student made it through med school, and, if so, how many years of service the state's investment yielded. Oddly enough, the University of Washington had no qualms about accepting me into its medical school, but I could find no way of paying for the out-of-state tuition.

[Janet]

Here she is sitting on a tree.

Very natural. That's where I would choose to sit if I went to the beach.

[bgates]

I'm trying hard to think of anybody I know who has succeeded because of their "posse" and am drawing a blank.

I guess it depends on how you define success.

Would a millionaire Nobel prize winning President count?

[MarkO]

DoT, you da man.

[Mark Folkestad]

Thanks, DoT! I knew that I could count on you.

[Janet]

more tree sitting...

you'd think it was a d#*n couch.

[Mark Folkestad]

Janet, obviously you aren't a dirty old man, but your contributions are welcome too.

[A Casual Observation]

Meow!!! Pfftt. Pfftt.

[Danube of Thought]

Look, Obama is going to be re-elected--easily. His opponent is going to be either Romney or Santorum, and this country is not going to elect either of those men president.

We need a new sport.

[bgates]

Ironically, her uncle wants to ban things that get so hot they start glowing.

[sbw]

Harrumph!

[Er. . . Aren't I supposed to harrumph disapprovingly while I oogle? . . . I mean google?]

[Jack is Back!]

Janet,

Shot in the Seychelles, where Mrs. JiB and I spent our honeymoon. Terrific chain of islands and tiki living. Beautiful beaches and crystal clear water. Plus they now have a golf course on Praslin at the Lemuria Resort where we stayed. Highly recommend to anyone looking for an off the chart escape.

[Ignatz]

--Would a millionaire Nobel prize winning President count?--

OK. That's one, although it could be argued his ambition and skills at deceiving dumb clucks was instilled early on by his utterly dysfunctional family not by his later posse of helpful terrorists and communists.

[Old Lurker]

Mark, and it has not gotten any better, trust me. My daughter #2 is in the final stages waiting to hear who might take her in September so we know the stats and the stress. White 1%'s from the DC burbs are at the bottom of the list I fear.

[Ignatz]

--Here she is sitting on a tree.--

I have on occasion wished to be a bicycle seat but, until today, never a tree.

[Danube of Thought]

An Obama lie nicely exposed:

Not everyone was surprised by the depth of the recession.

A table in a little-read section of Obama's first budget — released in May 2009 — shows that the Congressional Budget Office was predicting at the time that the economy would contract by 3% in 2009. That's not far from the actual 3.5% decline. And the CBO was spot on in its 2010 forecast for a 2.9% gain in real GDP. The actual figure was 3%.

Nor were economists wildly off on their unemployment forecasts. The Blue Chip consensus in early 2009 — also listed in Obama's first budget — predicted unemployment for that year would average 8.9%. The actual number was slightly above 9%. It pegged unemployment for 2010 at 9.5%, just below the actual result of 9.6%.

Meanwhile, a memo drafted by Obama's economic team in December 2008 that recently came to light makes it clear that they were fully aware the economy was performing far worse than the official numbers at the time suggested, noting that "forecasts have become decidedly more pessimistic in recent days" and that "further negative revisions seem more likely."

The whole thing is here.

[Janet]

Now some rock sitting...

a little more awkward.

[Old Lurker]

Those pictures of that 19 year old remind me of one of those life-passage moments that remind us about aging.

I always enjoyed the Victoria Secret catalogs until my wife observed that all the models were younger than my daughters.

Talk about cold water.

[maryrose]

DOT:
Iwas surprised to learn my sister and her husband believe Obama will be re-elected. I just don't see it right now. Are we better off than four years ago? The answer for most is NO. Therefore why would we want more of the same for 4 more years?
It will be Obama Unbound ifhe gets a second term. Also the youth vote is gone for him.
All his handouts to mortgage holders and his lies about the relious freedom issue will be exposed. The green companies and the WH connections will also be explained. Once the Repubs get their narrative for the future finalized all Obammy has is negative advertising. We are focussing on the wrong things right now. My hope is that in the future the tide will turn in our favor when Obama is fully exposed. Romney fund-raiser tonight. Will report back my impressions.
Welcome ME and other new gal with the a-name.

[Ignatz]

Serious question for the gals here;
are any of you offended by the cheesecake?
I hope not, because I do enjoy my new found interest in Fibonacci sequences, but if so I'll stop posting them if any of you do.

[Janet]

Sensible seating -

[Clarice]

OL, She'll get admitted and when she does you and Mrs OL must I mean must come to dinner to celebrate.

As for the Seychelles,I'm not going to any beach which lacks comfy lounge chairs. I hate sitting on trees and rocks.

[Ignatz]

--I always enjoyed the Victoria Secret catalogs until my wife observed that all the models were younger than my daughters. Talk about cold water.--

Hmm. Miss Upton is the same age as mine and yet the water still seems fine to me; positively tropical.

[Porchlight]

I'm not offended, Ignatz, but it makes it a little trickier to read at work (I work partly in an open office where everyone can see my screen).

I suppose I should be working instead of reading JOM. ;)

[Old Lurker]

It's a date C.

[Janet]

are any of you offended by the cheesecake?

not me...but that is obvious cause I posted some. The political news is so horrible that seeing a pretty girl is refreshing. The good stuff in life.

[rse]

It's probably not a coincidence that the posse scholar program was recently implicated in the Claremont McKenna SAT cheating scandal. LUN has the story although I think I first read about it in City Journal.

The soft skills, social skills, life skills deficit argument goes back decades. It is always used to shift the emphasis away from academics which is of course inherently unequal in the effects it creates. It will be a sob story about tying shoes or teaching kids need to be prompt or a bullying story. The resulting authorizations though go straight to an ability to manipulate, monitor, and modify students at the affective level. Hopefully with a lifetime of results.

Social and emotional learning are Major components of that invisible serf's collar. Huge part of all this fed spending is to enshrine this with other names. I know for a fact that at least one of those extraconstitutional NCLB waivers issued last week was built around the performance being measured being SEL changes.

Charming stuff. Aspirations of tyrants.

[Old Lurker]

Maryrose, Rush and a caller yesterday, observing that the progs are not even trying to pretend they aren't progs this cycle, are betting the ranch that they have finally bought enough permanent votes from the takers to stay in power indefinitely.

I agree that is their bet, but I pray they are wrong.

[Jane]

are any of you offended by the cheesecake

No. Frankly I'm amazed. I had no idea bikini's were that small these days. Think of the profit the manufacturers are making using so little fabric.

[Clarice]

I'm sure that in bad schools the program sucks. In places where the aim is to help minority kids who are smart but underprepared for college life it's good.

what else is new?

Nothing is better than the people running a program are.

[Janet]

This could work for older SI models -

[Clarice]

That's more like it, Janet!

[Threadkiller]

It seems, judging from extreme close-ups of the photos, Upton has outlawed headlights too.

[Ben Franklin]

Oh, well. Everyone, does it, so s'ok.

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/210931-rep-upton-pushed-for-loan-to-now-bankrupt-solar-company

"Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich), a leading GOP critic of the Obama administration’s loans to Solyndra, pressed the Energy Department in 2009 to back a Michigan solar firm that filed for bankruptcy this week.".

[Mark Folkestad]

More Kate Upton pix at Powerline Blog. Have at it, folks.

[Clarice]

The only thing green about green energy is the big bucks we paid--largely to Obama donors and bundlers--advancing crackpot crackpot notions for $$$..

[(Another) Barbara]

Hey, the right lighting, a good measure of silicone, six-inch heels, a friendly photographer and a jar of depilatory -- could be any of us up there. I'm not at all offended.

[Clarice]

I'd also need a lens covered in vaseline smeared netting..but otherwise..AB

[Clarice]

From Slate--a description of how the Administration is paying the HHS regs. (IMO they could not care less if they are overturned--it was all a political gambit)
On Jan. 22, a young woman in a socially conservative corner of southwestern Ohio received a blast email from Stephanie Cutter, a deputy campaign manager for Barack Obama. Years earlier, the young woman had registered for updates on Obama’s website, completing a form that asked for her email address and ZIP code...

But Cutter’s note was different. She boasted of a new administration rule that would require insurance plans to fully cover contraception as part of the president’s health care reform law, and encouraged her recipients to see the policy as reason to rally around Obama’s re-election. “Think about how different that is from what the candidates on the other side would do,” Cutter wrote. “Our opponents have been waging a war on women’s health—attempting to defund Planned Parenthood, overturn Roe v. Wade, and everything in between.”

It was a message that sat well with the young Ohioan who received it. She was single, liberal, sensitive to medical costs—but she had never told the campaign any of those things, and the one piece of information she had provided, her ZIP code...

This year’s looming innovations in campaign mechanics will be imperceptible to the electorate, and the engineers at Obama’s Chicago headquarters racing to complete Narwhal in time for the fall election season may be at work at one of the most important. If successful, Narwhal would fuse the multiple identities of the engaged citizen—the online activist, the offline voter, the donor, the volunteer—into a single, unified political profile....

Full data integration would allow the campaign to target its online communication as sharply as it does its offline voter contact. When it comes to sensitive subjects like contraception, the campaign could rely on its extensive predictive models of individual attitudes and preferences to find friendly recipients...

[maryrose]

OL:
their claim {the progs} that they have enough voters to pull Obummer over the finish line are FALSE.
They are lying through their teeth about the economy improving and about how much of the youth vote they have in their pocket. I am almost certain that a majority of the Catholic votr is gone because of his recent dictatorial stance. Only the wacko nuns are on board with it and that's because they want a voice as strong as the bishops. Sister Keenan has already been reprimanded. My brother works for Catholic Charities in Cleveland. They are not on board with this believe me.

[Ignatz]

I didn't think any of our secure and lovely JOM gals would be offended.
As a reward ladies, enjoy;

[Rocco]

And I'd need a wide angle lens!

[Janet]

And I'd need a wide angle lens!

LOL! I hear ya, Rocco! Hahhahaha...

[smackwater jack]

I don't know what you are all talking about, trees, rocks. I see none of those things and believe me I was staring. I did see a seats in the pics janet posted. Kinda odd to have a seat with floral prints and leather.

[cathyf]

And I'd need a wide angle lens!

In my case I think that the requirement is leaving the lens cap ON!

[bgates]

I had no idea bikini's were that small these days.

I'm not even going to post it here.

I'll link it, though.

[Jane]

Holy cow BGates!

[rse]

LUN is on the damage in Britain from equity for all in education.

We are on same trajectory about 5 years behind. Common Core though will leap that gap to full dysfunctionality quickly. These new principals are behaving like bulls in a china shop hurrying full implementation.

And giving me great quotes without realizing it.

[daddy]

Wow.

And I thought the previous thread was the one where we were supposed to "Read her lips."

[daddy]

Roman Bikini's.

[daddy]

The Downside of sitting in trees.

[Porchlight]

TC's link to Thomas Sowell @9:36 am was an excellent read. My dad gave me the Sowell Reader for Christmas - I need to start it asap.

[Clarice]

Well, Daddy , as I recall the prostitutes in rome were slaves..not upper class ladies dining on humming bird tongues and such.

[daddy]

True Clarice,

Until Nero took over and ordered the wives of the Senator's to become prostitutes in order to fund his banquets.

Off to Bangalore.

Bye:)

[Annoying Old Guy]

All his handouts to mortgage holders and his lies about the relious freedom issue will be exposed. The green companies and the WH connections will also be explained.

No, they won't. That's the advantage of having Old Media as your propaganda mill. And the biggest problem I have with the GOP contenders is their apparent inability to make exactly that case. For instance, the auto bailout. Did Romney or Santorum point out that GM's profit is on the backs of illegal acts and pension looting?

[jimmyk]

At some point Romney actually did refer negatively to the givebacks to the UAW, but not surprisingly I don't think he used words like "looting" or "illegal." Wouldn't be prudent.... It was more like, "I would have done it differently."

[pagar]

Why aren't we hearing more from the pension funds that were looted? IMO, every penny of that so called GM profit was fraud.

[jimmyk]

Incidentally, according to Wiki, Newt said at the time:

In a rigged proceeding in which the federal government disregarded bankruptcy law in favor of the political outcome it desired, the Chrysler bankruptcy laid the predicate for the much larger General Motors bankruptcy to come. Against law and precedent, the unions were moved to the front of the line when it came to who would benefit from the bankruptcy. The Obama Treasury Department strong-armed Chrysler’s creditors into a deal in which the UAW was given 55 percent ownership of the company while Chrysler’s secured creditors – investors who would have received priority in a non-political bankruptcy proceeding – were left with just 29 cents on the dollar."

[Danube of Thought]

Minus 14 at Raz today.

[jorod]

Asians make up over 30% of the world's population. So, they're a minority right?