Showing posts with label affirmative action. Show all posts
Showing posts with label affirmative action. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Dealing with Gov Corruption and Santa Clara County

I appear to have written this in 2010 or 2012.  I am publishing it on November 10, 2015.

Here is a hilarious and useful article on dealing with government shakedowns:

http://killingbatteries.com/2008/05/how-to-escape-a-bribe-shakedown-perpetrated-by-greedy-moldovan-swine/

All governments seem to have corrupt members, although differences exist in the degree and type of corruption. Why do governments have such difficulty eliminating corruption? Because government officials are backed by laws; laws confer power; and power tends to corrupt on some level.

Power Should be Limited when Objective Measures of Performance are also Limited

When I was younger, I believed judges and other government officials were uniformly intelligent and moral beings. Unfortunately, experience has taught me otherwise. Courts, police departments, and other government agencies are still subject to the rule of averages--there will be many people who are average, a few who are very good, and a few who are very bad.

Government agencies tend to have more bad employees because it is hard to judge someone who produces nothing tangible. You can judge a salesperson, surgeon, taxi driver or lawyer using many objective metrics--sales, financial well-being, customer satisfaction, number of accidents, etc. But how do you evaluate a police officer, government lawyer, teacher, or judge? It's much more complicated, because there isn't an obvious objective metric. For example, a good teacher could have terrible students, a bad teacher could have wonderful students, Cop A could have fewer complaints than Cop B but Cop B could still be better, etc. Remembering that power tends to corrupt, the general idea is to minimize power where possible, especially when performance is difficult to measure. (Unfortunately--or perhaps fortunately--most Americans haven't had sufficient contact with government officials to truly understand the aforementioned principle.)

Yet another problem with government officials--besides the power and objective evaluation issues--is that they are used to deference. Spending your day-to-day life being deferred to must have some effect on people. From what I've seen, receiving constant compliments and deference results in a gradual and permanent aversion to people who fail to genuflect socially. Such a result is not optimal, because the more government officials rely on deference, the more likely it is that kowtowing becomes the pathway to success, not merit. We will revisit this idea later on.

Santa Clara County might be a good example of the "Compliments Over Merit" principle. First, the level of inbreeding--i.e., family relations--is astounding. Several judges are married to each other or other county/city employees. This inbreeding means the entire family unit experiences constant deference and virtually no criticism. Is a societal/class/professional bubble welcome when judges have so much power and deal with diverse parties? After all, so much law turns on credibility. When judges are surrounded by sycophants and non-diverse coworkers, what is the result? When weighing testimony, are judges going to disfavor someone with an accent? Will judges be able to understand that an older Filipino person will probably agree with every single statement offered by them, regardless of actual veracity? Does being surrounded by zero African-American, Pakistani, and Filipino persons in power create a subconscious bias? Is one race or class unintentionally favored over others? We don't really know, because the level of transparency in the court system is essentially non-existent. (When I tried to increase transparency as a County Commissioner, the Presiding Judge apparently shot down my idea, claiming it would take up too much time and resources. My idea would have taken only a few minutes a day to implement.) In any case, it's fair to contend that the Santa Clara County Superior Court has a higher-than-average level of inbreeding in its upper ranks and little racial diversity. Why should we care?

For one thing, Santa Clara County Superior Court has so few minority judges, you have to wonder what it's like to be a minority in a place that resembles an Orange County country club. As of June 8, 2010, in the main civil courthouse, only two out of the seventeen judges were non-white (another three are Jewish). Also, of the seventeen main civil judges, only four are female. You might think such non-diversity is shameful in a county that is around 40% immigrant and presumably at least 48% female, but it turns out that the white male Irish-American judges--all of them--are the hardest-working, most predictable judges (I'm not saying they are the best judges, but they are consistent, work hard, and follow the law, which means a lawyer can tell his/her client whether it is cost-effective to do x or y). Moreover, the Caucasian/white judges are, by and large, quite good. The following judge is retired, so I will mention him by name--Judge Alden E. Danner, for example, went out of his way to assist me when I submitted an accommodation request for my hearing impairment. He didn't have to do anything for me, and if you believe new age liberals, you wouldn't think that a conservative white male would be overly helpful to someone like me, but Judge Danner was instrumental in my ability to practice law.

In contrast, the two most pompous and unprepared judges I've encountered happen to be non-white males. I have struggled to discover the reasons behind this phenomenon, and I think I've finally figured it out: basically, affirmative action has failed because affirmative action allows the majority to elevate minorities based on charisma or some other social factor, not merit. Meanwhile, the majority race--lacking an approved legal path to elevate members based on factors external to merit--elevates their own members using merit and intelligence, creating a gap in quality between racial minorities and racial majorities. [Note: I've noticed that local Latino judges tend to be independent and intelligent. There's one particularly cool, smart judge I've nicknamed, "The Messiah." I attribute this phenomenon to the fact that Latinos have sizable numbers and political representation in San Jose and Santa Clara County. As such, they may be racial minorities, but not necessarily powerless minorities, which creates a welcome exception to everything I'm writing in this post.]

Affirmative Action Results in Cloning Different Colors of the Same Culture

Why does affirmative action tend to work against independent, extremely intelligent minorities? A minority who works hard and shows an independent streak may show up his/her colleagues, which places him/her at a disadvantage when it comes to being hired. Who wants to hire someone who might show him up? In contrast, a minority who sucks up to the majority will be favored by the majority, even if s/he has fewer credentials. Thus, rather than help the best minorities get ahead, affirmative action seems to help undeserving, compliant minorities at the expense of hard-working, independent minorities. If my theory is correct, then affirmative action represents the worst of all possible worlds--it punishes hard-working minorities and elevates undeserving minorities, which causes all racial groups to be resentful.

Of course, there are exceptions to my theory, but even these exceptions prove that when the majority uses affirmative action to hire someone, they opt for a clone, not real diversity. For example, regardless of how you view him, Clarence Thomas is an example of an independent minority because his views differ from the majority of his own race. At the same time, his views are a clone of the person who nominated him, i.e., President George H. W. Bush. Thus, even when affirmative action results in the hiring of an independent racial minority, such independence tends to have a caveat: conformation to the racial-majority's views and culture.

[By the way, law clerks are a different breed--they have to produce something--accurate legal briefs and decisions--and so the above generalizations don't apply to them. Also, I've noticed that some of the best law clerks in Santa Clara County Superior Court happen to be Asian, which makes it strange to see so few Asian judges here. (As of June 16, 2010, only one of the main civil courthouse judges is Asian).]

To understand why affirmative action might be a terrible idea, we must think about how racial minorities function when they are surrounded by a single racial majority. A minority surrounded by a majority will automatically stand out, so s/he has to be non-threatening to succeed. One way to do that is to make jokes, have a sense of humor, and adapt as much as possible. It shouldn't be surprising then, that several judges may have shimmied their way to the top through charisma and playing the clown with colleagues. These judges tend to believe in kowtowing--that's how they've survived in their own jobs, and they probably believe what's good for the goose is good for the gander. In short, when racial minorities are placed in a non-diverse environment, they favor survival over everything else. As such, they tend to try to avoid a situation where they lose face, because while a majority-race judge will get the benefit of the doubt, it's possible the minority-race judge will not. Thus, to many minority-race judges, anyone who fails to show deference is viewed as a threat. You can almost hear the internal subconscious dialogue: "Who does this person think he is? I had to kowtow (or fit in) for years and conform to get to this position, and now he's challenging me?"

When I've seen lawyers fight for clients--which sometimes means disagreeing with a judge--the majority-race judges tend to take this opposition in stride. One judge--we'll call him the "Scandinavian Stud"--even tries to help out younger, more aggressive lawyers who disagree with him by starting out sentences with, "As you know, I can't give you legal advice, but..." However, two minority judges--both of whom are married to current or former government employees--tend to take any opposition as an insult. A failure to suck up tends to trigger the following subconscious response: "All right, you want to oppose me, I'll show you who's boss..."

I'm not saying some majority-race (i.e., white) judges don't have the same response. In one case, when I made a comment about African-American Oscar Grant, a white pro-police judge immediately got red-faced and combative. (More on this police-judicial connection later, but you can click on this LINK if you're interested in how this connection can affect justice in the court system.) Overall, though, I tend to notice race-minority judges being more prickly and demanding of deference.

Now, why should a subconscious, unintentional, and systemic issue of deference be a problem? Doesn't deference promote workplace harmony? First, all societies and systems do better when some criticism is encouraged. People improve through criticism, not false deference. (Didn't we all read the fable of "The Emperor's New Clothes"?)

Second, the kowtowing system disfavors hard-working minorities. If you're a minority who doesn't want to kowtow to the government or your colleagues, and you care more about working harder than fitting in, then you're out of luck. The majority-race judges are used to minorities who will adapt and fit into their culture, and God help the minority-race person who tries to do things differently.

Third, the whole point of affirmative action (AA) is to increase diversity and make minorities feel comfortable despite their lack of political representation and power. In theory, the majority benefits by showing its tolerance and also by gaining alternative viewpoints and experiences. However, if I am correct--that affirmative action favors charismatic and social minorities over more hard-working and independent minorities--then the aforementioned benefits do not exist, because AA produces under-performing clones of the majority. Under my theory, we could put some black makeup on a few majority-race employees and get the same result as our current AA programs. In short, as long as the majority is choosing who is hired or promoted based on AA, the benefits of AA are dubious.

Citizens Should Favor Ideological Diversity over Race-Based Diversity

Don't get me wrong--we shouldn't completely disavow AA. If AA leads to useful diversity, not cloning, then it makes sense. As it stands, many judges are elected by special interest groups--thereby reducing ideological diversity--which means residents and voters should seek useful diversity. In Santa Clara County, the county sheriffs and city police have tremendous influence over judicial elections. Remember our recent election? Almost every winning judicial candidate mentioned an endorsement from some public safety officer union. Since most residents are unfamiliar with the local court system and its members, they tend to rely on endorsements when voting, which provides police officers with disproportionate influence over judicial selection. As a result, the state judicial branch--which is supposed to check the executive branch, i.e., the police--no longer has the sufficient diversity to challenge the police. In fact, the public safety unions--the police officers, firefighters, and prison guards--have so much power in Sacramento, they have even affected the independence of the legislative branch. From an ideological perspective, real diversity in government seems to diminish with each passing day. If AA promotes independent thinkers and outsiders--a term that can sometimes be equated with minorities, though not always--then it serves a useful function. If, however, AA produces clones of the majority, it is not helpful to anyone and serves merely to reinforce the existing culture and majority.

You want one obvious example that AA doesn't promote the best minorities? The only African-American federal judge in San Jose, California  [as of 2010] may have lied about his brother being targeted during civil rights strife in the South. Even though the judge's lie was discovered, [as of 2010] he is still on the bench, and until a few weeks ago, he was surrounded by no other local judicial minorities--all of his colleagues in federal and bankruptcy court were part of the racial majority power structure (or look like part of the racial majority or power structure), and all of them are really good judges. (One of them, a white male judge, is probably one of the best judges in the entire country. I refer, of course, to Judge Jeremy Fogel.) Of course, the federal bench has several white judges who do "interesting" things and manage not to be singled out.  Clearly, the "prickliness" factor is not limited to racial minorities, but because racial minorities stand out more, their behavior gets noticed more, which reinforces an awful cycle of "respect ma authoritah!" (You may think I am being hard on racial minorities, but if you read carefully, you will notice I am not being hard on minorities--just affirmative action. All entities have good, average, and bad employees.)

What makes the AA selection process even more problematic is that hired minorities harm other minorities by promoting a culture of deference and the status quo, not true diversity. As such, if the majority gets out of hand due to a lack of cultural knowledge, there is little luck that minority co-workers will be able to rein in the majority. If anything, minority co-workers promoted via affirmative action may lead the charge against independent minorities in an effort to fit in and promote the status quo. As Shelby Steele states, "Such policies have the effect of transforming whites from victimizers into patrons and keeping [minorities] where they have always been--dependent on the largesse of whites." What then, is the use of having racial diversity if it is being achieved in a way that discourages useful diversity?

Are Social and Subconscious Racial Preferences Inevitable?

One judge has commented that lawyers are more social than other professions, implying that lawyers should understand that social activities and connections do not impact decisions and culture in the courthouse. I call shenanigans. When I see a judge hugging a lawyer in Starbucks, I get upset. When I see more experienced lawyers--who lack civility but get respect from the judges based on tenure--I get upset. When I see a judge being Facebook friends with active lawyers who may appear in front of him, it makes me upset. This web of social ties causes some judges to rely on reputation rather than the papers/briefs when it comes to evaluating testimony and deciding whether to overturn a law clerk's draft.

Think about it: social ties and inbreeding lead to gossip, and gossip relies on hearsay, which is usually unreliable and which corrodes the "fairness for all" legal system. Why read the briefs if you know the lawyer from your days in law school? Why bother checking the case citations if most cases settle anyway? Are you really going to contest a lawyer's interpretation of the law if you know he plays poker with a friend?

Social ties are fine for private sector workers who need to sell things and make things, but government employees cannot help but favor people they see on a regular basis. Most government workers don't produce anything tangible or measurable, so their success is measured primarily by reputation. Naturally, then, as in the private sector, someone who smiles and sucks up to them will be favored over someone less social. The solution isn't to blame an introverted lawyer or a non-conformist lawyer, but to work harder to rely on objective data when making decisions about courtroom culture and to increase transparency. Do certain judges rule against minorities more than other judges? Do certain judges favor corporations over individuals? We don't know. No statistics are kept on such issues. Useful transparency doesn't exist in the local court system. (Why do written pleadings even have the name of the lawyer or firm on them? Can't a system be developed to track the papers based on numbers or some other non-identifying status? Most legal opinions at the trial court level are written before lawyers appear at court hearings.)

Diversity can be excellent in terms of production and innovation, but it also creates challenges and leads to volatility. Legal systems ought to ensure that government employees, especially judges, do not attack or disfavor non-conformists, especially when such non-conformists are not part of the majority-race.

Our current legal system in Santa Clara County is flawed for many reasons, including a culture that crushes non-conformity. When a non-conformist understands the legal system is flawed, the natural response is to avoid the system--not to suck up to it. Also, when one judge physically intimidates a lawyer, and another judge lies to his face--and both of these judges allow unfair speculation to run rampant and allow their colleagues to unfairly suffer collective punishment--more social ties aren't the answer. Lawyers and residents should be able to rely on judges being fair and impartial, regardless of social ties. Oftentimes, the best people to expose cracks within the system are part of the system and cannot openly speak out; consequently, government entities should implement self-correcting measures before problems affect an entity's or person's reputation. As we all know, courts rely on their reputation to maximize compliance with judicial orders and judgments.

If Santa Clara County Superior Court fails to recognize its lack of useful, consumer-based transparency; its inbreeding problems; and its absence of independent minorities, the court's reputation will suffer. Once lost, a reputation is difficult to regain. One can only hope that the Presiding Judge and her colleagues understand what is at stake.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Shelby Steele on Racial Preferences

From Shelby Steele's excellent book, The Content of Our Character:

A [racial] preference [like affirmative action] is not a training program; it teaches no skills, instills no values. It only makes color a passport. But the worst aspect of racial preferences is that they encourage dependency on entitlements rather than our own initiative...And here we fall into an Orwellian double-speak where preference means equality.

The most interesting chapter so far is Chapter 5, titled, "White Guilt."

Update: someone posted the quote above on his Facebook wall, and a debate ensued. Here you go:

J.N.: First of all, Steele's argument pre-supposes a disparity in skill levels between traditionally privileged applicants and the beneficiaries of affirmative action. This is not typically the case. In fact, one of the major arguments FOR affirmative action is that while a member of a minority may be less prepared, he is by no means unable or unfit to do the job. There are still basic qualifications that must be met.

Therefore, we don't need affirmative action to teach skills or instill values. In fact, it's insulting to even suggest that those who qualify for affirmative action are somehow "lesser" people than those who do not- I particularly have an issue with the "instills no values" part.

What affirmative action does do, however, is function as a mechanism that counterbalances the systemic disparities in OPPORTUNITIES for minorities, usually a side effect of internalized and often subconscious racist and oppressive actions on the part of the status quo. A status quo, mind you, that has no problem enjoying all of the advantages and perks that come from being members of the preferred race, cultural and moral background.

In the case of two candidates equally qualified, affirmative action is meant to give more opportunity to the member of a historically disadvantaged group over the one that isn't. However, affirmative action as a policy isn't instituted in every single job or educational institution--not even the majority. And even if it were, minority populations are small enough that there is still room enough to for everyone. So the biggest argument against it--systemic discrimination against majority ethnic members--doesn't really hold up considering the numbers.

Bottom line: in his lifetime, a white, middle-class college-educated guy will never lose as many opportunities to affirmative action as a poor, uneducated black woman will just for being born black and poor into a society which does not value all of its members equally.
Affirmative action isn't replacing equality with preference. It's bringing people into the picture who weren't even considered as part of the equality equation to begin with.

D.M.: Shelby Steele creates a "strawman" and then knocks it down. "Affirmative Action" is NOT setting up a racial preference no matter how much the Republican Party and the mindless right wing want to claim that it is. In fact, what occurs in a real Affirmative Action situation is a slightly larger pool of applicants for a job or a slot in a university. The claim that the slightly larger pool has then degraded the job, the university, or the applicant is absurd. Racism exits in our society to label those who fight against racism as "reverse racists" is quite simply a ploy by the most right wing elements in our society to maintain white skin privilege.

L.L.:
you two basically say two things: one, African-Americans don't start on an equal playing field (they are "less prepared") and thus deserve additional assistance to maximize "opportunities"; or two, that affirmative action, though it uses race as a benchmark, simply broadens the pool of accepted applicants. Both of you also refer to "white" privilege as a justification for affirmative action. Steele would respond:

"Such policies have the effect of transforming whites from victimizers into patrons and keeping blacks where they have always been--dependent on the largesse of whites...The former victimizers are now challenged to be patrons, but where is the black challenge? This is really a statement to and about white people, their guilt, their responsibility, and their road to redemption. Not only does it not enunciate a black mission, but it sees blacks only in the dimension of their victimization and casts them once again in the role of the receivers of white beneficence...

What is needed now is a new spirit of pragmatism in racial matters where blacks are seen simply as American citizens who deserve complete fairness and in some cases development assistance, but in no case special entitlements based on color. We need deracinated social policies that attack poverty rather than black poverty and that instill those values that make for self-reliance. The white message to blacks must be: America hurt you badly and that is wrong, but entitlements only prolong the hurt while development overcomes it."

Steele, unfortunately, does not specify what he means by "developmental assistance," but I suspect he would approve of merit-based programs like scholarships and financial assistance to top performers who come from low-income families.

J.N.: "Where is the black challenge?" really? REALLY? The black challenge is in their freaking daily existence. Blacks continue to be victimized and discriminated against, now not just because of their skin color, but because they are now the economic and social victims of a society that has minimized their lives to the near constant effort of trying to EXIST much less SUCCEED in white America. I agree that blacks need other assistance, but I think they need it as well as affirmative action, not instead of.

The problem here is that your author seems to be equating affirmative action with reparations, which while I may be foolish to deny a connection, that is not all or even a majority of what it does. We're not making it up to the blacks for making them pick our cotton all that time, we're counterbalancing all the sh*t we've been doing to them from the moment they were granted citizenhood up until TODAY.

L.L.: You've played right into Steele's hands. He would respond that in your mind, the "black challenge" has no relation to merit, hard work, or anything individual--it's merely a rehashing of the old formula that being black = wretched, and being wretched necessitates special help. You fail to see that you've just condemned an entire group of people as wretched or disadvantaged because of their skin color. Of course, you then cast yourself as the compassionate shining white knight who will help these unfortunate wretches surface from their so-called miserable existence. I will quote Steele again:

"Selfish white guilt is really self-importance. It has no humility and it asks for unreasonable, egotistical innocence. Nothing diminishes a black more than this sort of guilt in a white, which to my mind amounts to a sort of moral colonialism."

Steele also quotes Ralph Ellison, who said, "Our task is that of making ourselves individuals. The conscience of a race is the gift of its individuals."

S.M.: [She is half-white, half-Filipina] It seems like whenever anyone is talking about victimized races in the United States, they are either black or Hispanic. Although statistics may be in their favor on that note, they are no longer the minority of minorities. There are programs everywhere for "disadvantaged" Hispanics and blacks, but somehow, when you're a half-this or half-that, no one knows what to do with you. Are they supposed to discriminate against the top half, but not the bottom? Maybe vice versa?

I'm saying I agree completely agree with Steele that being a particular race has become an issue of entitlement. Frankly, I feel bad for [fully] white people, because the masses of disadvantaged minorities seem to forget about the disadvantaged "hillbillies." Unfortunately, if those "hillbillies" stand up for themselves, then suddenly they are bigots. And when you are mixed, forget about it; one side identifies you as the other side, and suddenly I'm not white or I'm not Filipino enough--[and] I'm American, God-damn it. It's for this reason that affirmative action has always got my pannies in a bunch.

L.L.:
the Supreme Court, when recently analyzing an affirmative action case, pointed out the difficulty of having any racial categories or preferences in an increasingly mixed-race world.

From my perspective, the difference between African-Americans and other races is the way Americans favored and promoted slavery in America. While other races have experienced government-sanctioned discrimination (Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese internment camps, etc.), I don't think they were subject to institutionalized slavery and the deliberate break-up of their families. Perhaps I am wrong, but my understanding is that America--at least domestically--has treated only Native Americans worse than African-Americans (as a group). Consequently, I am not offended when academics and others focus on African-Americans and Native Americans when discussing social programs. Today, however, using race to award benefits has become controversial, because a family's wealth and education levels are probably the primary factors in establishing a child's success--not race.

By the way, I am surprised that no one has cited perhaps the best argument for affirmative action: diversity. Being from California, perhaps we take diversity for granted. (Or perhaps we believe in many types of diversity, not just racial diversity.)

Update: some of the confusion seems to be the difficulty of defining "affirmative-action." For example, I do not think
this program (Posse Foundation) is race-based affirmative action, though some people might disagree. (The program clearly includes Caucasians and Asians from disadvantaged areas, not just African-Americans.) In the future, perhaps people should attempt to define affirmative action before engaging in a debate about it.

Update: See HERE for a link to one of the best articles on affirmative action I've ever read.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Excellent Article on Affirmative Action

The December 2009 issue of the Washington Lawyer has the best article on affirmative action I've ever seen. To read "The Future of Affirmative Action," by Joan Indiana Rigdon, click HERE.

I wish the general media published more articles like this. The only reason I found this particular article is because of my affiliation with the D.C. bar, but there's no reason why the general public shouldn't have better access to reasoned, balanced discourse.

Update: Shelby Steele's thoughts on affirmative action are definitely worth reading. See HERE for more.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Educational Discrimination: Race Baiting?

I just had a major argument with someone about educational benefits. It got so bad, her boyfriend was ready to fight me inside a Marie Callender's.

Apparently, this woman's friend had complained that a school district denied her white child benefits because of his race. This woman then said her friend raised this issue at a public school meeting and was "brave" for doing so. This woman specifically said that "only minorities could apply for these benefits," which riled me up. (Later, in an online discussion, she wrote, "my friend's child was not allowed to obtain government assistance because an administrator determined that the program was for minority groups only.")

I said several times that the government could not deny public educational benefits to anyone based on race. She reiterated that only minorities could apply for these benefits. After several minutes of heated back-and-forth discussions, I heard her say the law and reality were two different things. In other words, the law itself might not discriminate against white kids, but in reality, the school district wasn't allowing white kids to apply for certain benefits. (I guess what she meant to say earlier was, "In practice, school districts allow only minority children to apply for certain benefits.") I asked for the name of this anti-white program. She couldn't tell me the name of the program.

Then, some other people at the table jumped in. One person said teachers were giving undeserving minorities passing grades so their schools could get funding. I said it sounded like teachers were passing stupid people (of all races) to get funding. He agreed. I said if stupid people are being passed, we're not necessarily talking about minorities--we're talking about stupid people. He clarified that a certain percentage of minority students had to be passed each year to get funding. Once again, no one was able to cite a specific law or program.

Afterwards, I thought about "No Child Left Behind." The law apparently rewards school districts for retaining children from disadvantaged groups, including disabled kids and economically disadvantaged kids. I suppose a teacher who wanted to game the system would pass an ever-increasing percentage of black kids each year. My friend's husband probably meant to say that teachers are unfairly promoting stupid kids who happen to be black, not black kids because they are black. Maybe it's a subtle difference, but it's an important difference. I didn't see any federal funding tied to ensuring a certain number of minority kids pass a particular grade. (If I am wrong, I hope someone will leave a comment citing a U.S.C. or C.F.R. section.)

Someone else then mentioned a school program that allows black kids from a poor section of town to attend an affluent Atherton, California school. The problem? These black students live outside Atheron's mainly white and rich county, so their parents don't pay the same amount of local property taxes as the white Atherton parents. In essence, it seems these black kids are getting a free ride, i.e., a special benefit because they are black--or at least that was the insinuation.

After a few questions, I found out these black kids live in a county (maybe an unincorporated area?) without a school. Because they don't have a school in their county, the nearby Atherton school allowed them to attend. I pointed out that these kids weren't getting a free ride because of their race--they had to go to school, and their county didn't have a school. It sounded like someone saw a bus dropping off a bunch of non-white kids at the mainly white Atherton school district and assumed there was a pro-minority government program. In the alternative, perhaps there was a busing program to help desegregate various schools. In these programs, both white kids and minority children may attend schools in other districts. [See below for more information on this Atherton busing program. The Tinsley Act/Program, aka VTP, does create more opportunities for minorities; in fact, the district's own webpage specifies that "Students of Color living in the Ravenswood City School District entering kindergarten, first, or second grade" are eligible. Minority students, aka "students of color," are assigned limited placements through a lottery system; however, white children from the better-performing Atherton schools may apply to attend the poorer-performing Ravenwood School District.]

If anyone knows of any government program that denies benefits to anyone because of race, s/he should contact this legal foundation (Pacific Legal Foundation). In America, the government cannot legally prevent anyone from receiving educational benefits because of their race. See here for a relevant U.S. Supreme Court decision, and my analysis of the decision here.

In six years of legal practice, I have seen legitimate complaints about anti-white government programs only in two instances: allegedly improper promotions or unqualified hires in government jobs, especially in police departments. If, however, you believe the government is denying educational benefits to white children because of their race, you should know that such programs may be illegal. Again, see here.

I find this notion of anti-white government programs ludicrous. I mean, an entire swath of teachers, parents, lawyers, boards, PTAs, and administrators would have to knowingly violate the law (or stay silent) for schools to deny "special" benefits to white children because they are white. We're talking about tens of thousands of people involved in a de facto conspiracy to violate the law and prevent white children from applying for public benefits.

Now, there may be special programs to assimilate Spanish-speaking children in schools, but such programs are not based on race. For example, an Argentinian immigrant of German ancestry could benefit from such a language-assimilation program. In addition, I favor opening the desegregation program to all poor children, including white children, from East Palo Alto.

Once again, to the extent there are programs that assign special benefits to children because of their non-white race, you should contact the Pacific Legal Foundation or the Cato Institute. You may also contact me. I am very interested in learning whether widespread anti-white discrimination exists in the administration of educational benefits in California.

Anyway, whew! Not what I expected on a Friday night. In the future, I hope all children and adults study Occam's razor--the idea that in most cases, the simplest explanation is the right one.

Update: I researched the law extensively to see whether I could find something on point. Here is what I found: see 20 USC 1703: "No State shall deny equal educational opportunity to an individual on account of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin..." After Brown v. Board of Education, this country has taken numerous steps to ensure that all children have equal access to educational benefits.

I thought about the idea that some teachers were passing kids who didn't deserve to pass. I looked up the No Child Left Behind law again. It doesn't force teachers to pass kids of any race; however, it does establish vague goals, like "closing the achievement gap between high- and low- performing children, especially the achievement gaps between minority and nonminority students, and between disadvantaged children and their more advantaged peers." It appears to authorize programs for lessening the achievement gap, but it is unclear who is funding these programs.

In one section, however, NCLB establishes a specific grant for "students with disabilities, ethnic minority students, and students with migrant parents" for the sole purpose of visiting Washington, D.C. (It looks like more of a pro-tourist grant than a race-based grant.)

There are other sections of NCLB that focus on children with disabilities and "ethnic minority groups," but every single provision provides a reward for adult teachers and government workers of *any* race if they improve "retention" of low performing kids, including minority kids. I did not see any benefits that were restricted to minorities only. All educational programs must be open to all students, but schools appear to be rewarded for boosting the academic performance of ethnic minorities. In any case, it is unclear to me how a white student is negatively affected if a minority student unfairly passes a grade. If anything, the undeserved promotion probably hurts the minority student.

Outside the educational sphere, I did see some government programs that favored minorities over non-minorities. For example, certain government contracts are open only to minorities--see 10 U.S.C. § 2323. However, within the educational sphere, it appears that teachers and administrators of *all races* may get more school funding if they promote academic achievement for economically disadvantaged children, including minorities and disabled children.

This country has racial issues and a major economic divide, but playing up "white victimization" isn't the way to solve anything. Just my humble opinion.

Update: I started looking at California state laws, too. One Education Code section is interesting:

54402. For purposes of this chapter, a "disadvantaged minor" is a minor who is potentially academically able but scholastically underachieving, and must compensate for inability to profit from the normal educational program. He is a minor who...(c) Is, because of home and community environment, subject to such language, cultural, economic, and like disadvantages as will make improbable his completion of the regular program leading to graduation without special efforts on the part of school authorities...

Sections 54403 and 54405 allow the State Board of Equalization to establish K-12 programs to assist "disadvantaged" minors. The word "race" isn't used anywhere, so the law does not prevent linguistically slow or culturally disadvantaged white kids from participating in the programs; however, it is clear that many minorities will participate in these programs. The reason many minorities will participate in these programs is because their parents, unlike domestic-born kids of any race, probably have no idea how to help their kids with homework. If your parents don't speak English and haven't been to school here, then obviously, they will have difficulty helping their kids understand their homework.

I realize single or poor white mothers may also lack the time to help their children with their homework. Under the law, no school may deny disadvantaged or low performing white children entry into these remedial/extra programs.

By the way, other sections authorize programs to assist "migrant" workers, but these are remedial programs and are not based on race. For example, Swedish kids who came to California in September and knew they wouldn't stay a long time would be able to participate in these programs. Fishing migrants and many other categories of migrant workers are included, not just agricultural migrants.

Update: I just thought of something that might clarify the discussion. Some people might argue ESL and other language-assimilation programs are anti-white b/c they sap resources from schools that would otherwise go to native-born kids, many of whom happen to be white. I can see why some people think this way; after all, 99% of the kids in ESL programs are probably non-white. Perhaps if you walk into a class with 99% minorities, it's easier to believe that your white child, who isn't getting special language classes, is somehow harmed (even if your white child is taking advanced English).

In reality, language-assimilation programs are not race-based; for example, German immigrants who don't speak fluent English would be allowed to enter ESL programs. It just so happens that a lot of our recent immigration has been from so-called non-white countries. In the future, if most of our immigration comes from Sweden, and we spend lots of money on ESL programs, I have a hard time believing that anyone would say such "special" programs are anti-white or deny benefits to white children.

I already mentioned language-assimilation programs earlier, but I'm not sure if I was clear. I really don't see any evidence that schools discriminate against white kids because they are white. I rest my case on the inability of anyone to specify a single specific program where schools deny benefits to white kids (who, by the way, don't need remedial English courses). I do understand that someone may argue that desegregation or busing programs discriminate against white children to the extent white children cannot apply for these programs.

I'd appreciate seeing some specific evidence of harm to white children as a result of desegregation programs. Without specific evidence, it is hard to have a productive discussion. For example, at the dinner, I felt like Richard Dawkins, trying to refute creationists--no matter how many times I demanded proof, someone expected me to accept allegations of anti-white K-12 discrimination on faith. Sigh.

Update: here is a friend/teacher, who sheds some more light about the Atherton issue:

I am glad that someone is taking the time to dispel the many misconceptions people have about society and education. You are correct about NCLB. It is essentially an unfunded federal mandate that actually has nothing to do with grades. It has to do with scores on standardized tests but has no bearing on passing or failing classes or moving on to the next grade.

Also,
there is a desegregation program that allows East Palo Alto minorities to attend Palo Alto, Atherton, Mountain View schools (some others too). Our district (Palo Alto Unified) does bus in minority kids from East Palo Alto every day in what we call the Voluntary Transfer Program which is only available to minority students even though they have a district of their own (Ravenswood). It was a court mandated ruling from the 70's called the Tinsley Act. You should look into it. It was designed to provide equal opportunity to minority kids from East Palo Alto in the form of better teachers, books, etc. I do think that white children can apply even though there aren't many in East Palo Alto.

Fascinating. See here, here, and here for more on the Tinsley Act. The district's own page states, "Students of Color living in the Ravenswood City School District entering kindergarten, first, or second grade" are eligible for the program. At the same time, California's Constitution allows voluntary desegregation programs. See Article I, Section 7:
Nothing herein shall prohibit the governing board of a school district from
voluntarily continuing or commencing a school integration plan after the effective
date of this subdivision as amended.
There is also controversy about whether the Atherton school is subsidizing the students from the other side of town. For example, one person commented, "The [Palo Alto/Atherton] district gets $3,500 per student in return. But Palo Alto spends approximately $10,300 per student, so it is 'subsidizing' these students by about $6,800 apiece for a total of $3.7 million a year." If anyone has more information about the Tinsley Program, please leave a comment.

Bonus: according to John Barton, while "California is ranked near the bottom in student test scores, the state is 25th in per-pupil spending for the current K-12 operations, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, part of the U.S. Department of Education. It is No. 1 in teacher salaries nationwide -- the U.S. average is $45,810 while the California average is $56,283 (2002-03)."