I had enough of the word "P.C." (as in Politically Correct) from the first day I heard it, if a guy delivers my mail he's a mailman, not a Postal Carrier, my old College mascot was the Chieftains; how because someone decided they wanted to get offended at that, the new mascot is the redhawk... there is no hawk by that name in nature.
Lately another word has been rubbing me the wrong way "diversity". Everyone is throwing the word around, but precious few seem to know what it means. Here's a coupe official definitions
1) Merriam-Webster = The condition of being diverse
2) Wiktionary (business def) = the business tactic which encourages diversity to better serve a heterogeneous customer base
Ouch folks... OUCH! These definitions are piss poor; you never put the word you're looking for in the definition itself. They try to tip-toe around the real meaning of the word. Let's open up the TOMLAND dictionary and see what it says:
Diversity - Too many white people in the US are getting all the good stuff. We need to find a way to get non-whites a greater slice of the socioeconomic pie. We don't really have a good way to do it, and we can't tell you to "replace" white people with other races so we'll just use the word "diversity" in our policies and hope you understand that we mean EXACTLY that... "replace white people with other races" They've been getting it to good for a long time.
Ah Tom spewing out the racist rhetoric again?... Not at all. In fact I think that given the same IQ level and same environment all races are equal. The problem is that not everyone has the same IQ and not everyone has the same environment.
Let's take a look at today's Seattle PI article entitled "Poor students of Color less likely to be in Seattle's gifted program" As the title suggests, the article says that the makeup of students in the Seattle School district gifted program do not match do not match the racial and economic makeup of the Seattle Public Schools. Here's one of the article examples:
Only 5 percent of students in the Accelerated program are eligible for free or reduced lunch, while nearly 40 percent of the overall district student body qualifies. That measure reflects students in low-income families.So what is the main way kids get into the gifted program? According to the article:
Families apply from kindergarten through seventh grade and typically test in the 98th and 99th percent on cognitive, reading and mathematics testing.There you go... score high enough in the standardized tests and you're in. That's about a race neutral as you can get. But instead the school district says this method appears to allow to many privileged white kids in, and not enough minorities.
UGH.... PEOPLE... LISTEN UP! I'm going to break this down for you as simply as possible. The reason "Poor Students of Color" don't get in has precious little to do with color. It's has a lot to do with being "poor".
There are two reasons for this.. one you're going to want to hear, another you are not.
#1) IN GENERAL (not always) Families with less money are not only less able to follow up on learning opportunities that cost additional money, like music lessons, camps, tutoring programs, etc. But also have less time available (or less inclination) to guide their children in their formative years. This is because they're too busy trying to find more money so they can live. They are also more likely to either be socially stigmatized by their more wealthy classmates and/or make friends with others in their own socioeconomic circle which continues the cycle of poverty.
2) ALSO - I submit that as a percentage, the lower the income demographic the lower the overall IQ score for the family becomes......................(OK are you done yelling and cursing at me... now let me explain). You're right, there is no direct line between IQ and $$ but if you look at large demographics of people the more successful aka the ones with more $$ have a higher education and tend to marry around their own level of intelligence. Thus having a higher chance of creating offspring with a higher IQ score. If you look at the lower income demographic people also have children. But the parents of these children may not have finished high school, may have done damage to their children (physically, mentally or environmentally) by not providing a stable home. And the cycle continues.
TOM! That' can't be true , what about people who don't speak English as their native language, what about this guy I know down the street, what about.....
Yes yes, I'm talking in general here, there are always cases (both ways) that are different. As far as immigrants go, sure 1st generation immigrants may be held back by language. But their children will not be and once again it will come down to IQ and environment. Higher IQ will move up the socioeconomic ladder, lower IQ will move down and the cycle continues.
QUIT USING THE WORD "DIVERSITY" TO TRY AND FORCE OUT PEOPLE ALREADY QUALIFIED. WORK ON FIXING THE UNDERLYING ECONOMIC ISSUES AND THE REST WILL FOLLOW... BUT REMEMBER NOT EVERYONE IS "GIFTED"
Whether a child comes from a "better" or "worse" background dosn't matter. If you want to be fair stick with the standardized tests folks. They are truly diverse because they will include anyone regardless of ethnicity as long as the score is high enough.
