Black President Offers More Special Treatment To Black Students

Inside Higher Ed reported today (this is the entire report):

President Obama announced Wednesday night that he is planning to create a new office to focus on the needs of African-American students at all levels of education, NBC News reported. The office will work with all federal agencies so that “so every child has greater access to a complete and competitive education from the time they’re born to the time, all through the time they get a career,” Obama said in an address to the Urban League.

His teleprompter must not have been working, since he obviously didn’t mean “every child” but “every black child.” And what is the world’s finest orator doing saying “from the time they’re born to the time, all through the time they get a career”?

This announcement raises some obvious questions. First, why stop with “the time they get a career”? Doesn’t the president care what happens to them during the course of their career? What about all the “structural barriers” and  “systemic racism” he believes they will continue to encounter.

And what is he, anti-Hispanic and anti-Asian? Don’t Asians and Hispanics deserve “greater access to a complete and competitive education”? I don’t even have to ask what he thinks about poor whites.

 

Say What? (2)

  1. Cobra July 27, 2012 at 3:17 pm | | Reply

    “More special treatment?”

    LOL…I’m dying to hear what you considered to be Obama’s PRIOR special treatment for Black students.

    –Cobra

  2. willowglen July 30, 2012 at 11:32 am | | Reply

    Cobra – I fear for this program. It is special treatment, but I don’t see what is so special about it. Most programs of this kind end up stigmatizing black students, putting more pressure on them than they already experience in a competitive academic environment. I know that this is not to be mentioned in polite company, but does anyone really think about the students themselves, and the kind of mindset and sense of focus and motivation that it takes to do well academically, irrespective of race? I am reminded of Patrick Welsh’s 2009 article on the achievement gap (mostly concerned with the absence of fathers) where he related that an Alexandria Virginia principal posted conspicuous student achievement charts categorized by race. Nothing could have been worse in terms of stigmatizing the black kids in that school – all done under the guise of having the zeal to close the achievement gap. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/15/AR2009101503477.html)

    A rising tide lifts all boats – raise the education level and expectations of all students – and progress can obtain. I know there is a view that black students learn differently, but that makes no sense to me. In many cases, they start off behind without the generational and cultural advantages of other groups, but they don’t learn differently. Raise standards – both academic and behavioral – for everyone, and cut down on credentialism. A 12th grade education should be, well, a true 12th grade education.

    I know my views may be unorthodox, but I was pained to see a young black male (a great kid) in my neighborhood receive all sorts of undue pressure and attention when it became clear he could score 1400 on the math and verbal section of the SAT’s. Everyone in the school became overly vested in his progress, as if he was the key to solving the achievement gap. No one around him was letting him be a kid, as racial identity politics were more important than anything else. Be careful of what you wish for.

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