At Navy. Hard to know that Professor Fleming would otherwise be able to write like this:
The Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead announced in Annapolis recently that “diversity is the number one priority” at the Naval Academy.
The Naval Academy superintendent, Vice Adm. Jeffrey Fowler, echoed him. Everyone understands that “diversity” here means nonwhite skins.
Fowler insisted recently that we needed to have Annapolis graduates who “looked like” the Fleet, where enlisted people are about 42 percent nonwhite, largely African American and Hispanic.
The stunning revelation last week was that the Naval Academy had an incoming class that was “more diverse” than ever before: 35 percent minority.
Sounds good, only this comes with a huge price tag. It’s taxpayers who bankroll the military. Yet nobody has asked us if we’re willing to pay this price. Instead we’re being told there is no price to pay at all. If you believe that, you probably also believe in the Tooth Fairy.
I’ve tried hard to understand this behavior, and I’m still not getting it. I mean, I understand the “feel good” aspect of being seen to have an officer corps that looks more like the fleet. I think I understand the political good will it can bring the service. I understand that people want to look around inside an organization and see people they can relate to as peers and mentors. But I can’t help feeling that we’re trying a little too hard.
Can diversity really be the “number one priority” at an institution whose mission is to “develop Midshipmen morally, mentally and physically and to imbue them with the highest ideals of duty, honor and loyalty in order to graduate leaders who are dedicated to a career of naval service and have potential for future development in mind and character to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and government”?
Diversity goals are intangibles and smart senior officers – you don’t get to put on three or four stars without being pretty darn smart – tend to run their business lines analytically. I’d like to see the slides the flags pass around behind the closed door that’s driving this behavior, because from the outside looking in, it’s pretty damned impenetrable.
Used to be we were issued uniforms to help us put away our innate differences in skin color and submerge them in a service culture of undifferentiated excellence. Now it seems we’re selecting officer candidates differentially by virtue of those innate differences. Differences which, though they might be innate and immutable, have nothing whatsoever to do with the content of the individual’s character or potential for useful service.
I honestly don’t feel too bad for the white kid with the C in math who doesn’t get in to Navy. He’ll be all right. I worry about the kid who had an unexceptional academic career that finds himself in a two-tiered institution, knowing that he’s got a long uphill slog ahead of him to reach the finish line, and that just about every white face he sees will always be ahead of him in the race. I’d hate to be the truly gifted “diverse” candidate who looks around him and wonders whether people will recognize his gifts for what they are, or whether they will instead assume he’s the product of some quota system.
I worry about the fleet CO who sees two young junior officers showing up on his quarterdeck, both of them Naval Academy graduates. The white ensign, he will know, had to be exceptional just to get in the door. The other guy?
He’ll maybe wonder about him.
That’s not fair to anybody.
Isn’t the whole point of the Prep school to bring up to speed marginal candidates to give them a fair shot at success at Navy? If you ask me, if increasing diversity at USNA is a valid goal (I’m not sold on that at all), Prep would seem to me the best tool to accomplish that.
You encapsulate the argument against affirmative action in all forms well. Does not institutionalizing racism and discrimination insure its continued stain on our national consciousness? One need look no further than the current nominee for the Supreme Court to see the fruits of such thinking.
Life is inherently not fair as, while all men (and women) are created equal, all are not born to the same set of advantages. To attempt to say this is not true ignores reality and perpetrates the myth that some real or percieved shortcomings can be righted by “assuming” that, by virtue of being white, one has all the advantages. This is not to say there are not advantages, just as it is advantageous to be born in America versus,say, Sierra Leone.
That, as you point out, putting a heavy finger on the scale of justice adds to the suspicion that the only reason some suceed has less to do with the “content of their character” than the fact they got to take a shortcut to get there.
Just as the white firefighter in Hartford how it feels to overcome huge odds only to be denied his just rewards simply because an accident of birth.
The official motto of the USAF used to be (don’t know if it still is) : “The Mission of the USAF Is To Fly and Fight and Don’t You Forget It.” All reservations about the current internal state of affairs of the USAF aside, such sentiments are sadly a far cry from those expressed by the phrase “Diversity Is Our Number One Priority.” That ANY branch of the Armed Services should proudly proclaim the latter as their new anthem to which all must salute is truly saddening. It is to weep…
The only answer, as has been suggested before, is selection without any photos or names. Just a number in the tank. Do away with quotas for females, minority, minority females, whites, etc. List the top 1200 and that is the class of 2013. Either that or really screw up the selection process by having every white applicant list themselves as African-American, which does NOT equate to black.
Wow, with LCS at $700 million a pop, flight hr reductions, INSURV issues, piracy on the high seas, and no coherent ship-building plan I’d say the CNO’s plate is full enough without trying to re-make the Navy into the face of society. But then again maybe he is just an efficient multi-tasker, huh? So was the Little Dutch Boy until he ran out of fingers.
Could this Fossil ask a question? In my day one could either make it through open competition from among the nominees; or the Senator or Representative could nominate a Principal and a First and Second alternate. If the Principal met the min. requirements and passed the physical, he went, regardless of the fact that either the 1st or 2nd (or both) alternates might have been more academically qualified. Has this more political aspect of the system been done away with?
I live in CT and work in Hartford; I didn’t hear about the New Haven firefighter and the Sotomayor connection. Need to read more about it but on the face of it – disgusting. Take away exam scores because there were no black applicants, with Sotomayor part of that decision.
New Haven, CT is a rough city with very few success stories from its residents (the location of Yale notwithstanding). To deny Ricci his promotion because of some ridiculous – and unknown – affirmative action requirement keeps that city on the downtrodden path. What a great story his success would have made; now he’s relegated to a lawsuit that may, in the end, give him his long-awaited promotion – but at what cost to him and the others?
This is obviously an attempt at forcing racial preferenced affimative action into the military academy system. Interesting, since affimative action has been discredited for some time now as blatantly racist, and essentially removed from federal activities. Now here we go back in time to racial preferences again, no doubt at the quiet insistence of Obama. Also in a related note, stimulus money reaching California for roads and highways work, comes with stipulations for “minority preference”, which causes a dilemma for State work that is supposed to be free of bias for or against race. More Obamanism. Excellence doesn’t have a racial component. Do we have to learn this all over again?
I look at this and I am like why does the Navy and Academy Leadership try to mess with something which is not broken? Ever since Rempt and messing with the words to blue and gold I tell you this place is going down hill. I feel for one of my classmates who is going back to work under the diversity officer.
The question is, where is teh real push for this racism coming from? I would bet that it’s not internal to the Navy.
Reverse racism is, as Lex points out in his last two sentences, unfair to the non-caucasians as well as to the caucasians. This is absolutely egregious. I don’t want some pilot to splash into the deck because he/she has been promoted based upon additional points added because of race/religion or ethnic background. Racism (PC or the older kind) has no place at the table, especially so when lives are at stake.
This reflection is sort of relevant to this discussion, which is basically about skewing results to fit pre-determined paradigms. Since I entered the workforce back in the days before affirmative action, the EEOC and other government agencies imposing “fairness” with a heavy hand, did not enter into my own personal struggles and achievements. But I’ve always wondered why young women, particularly back in the 70s, seized on appeals to the EEOC to achieve fairness in ‘on the job’ situations. Maybe the appeal backed by the EEOC enforcers would be successful. But how successful would the person who invoked the EEOC to win his or her personal battles on his particular job be *afterwards?* Bosses don’t particularly like employees who go over their heads to resolve a job crisis/problem. In fact, they usually don’t like them at all. Fellow workers tend to avoid them. I should think that the inevitable result would be a freeze in future job growth for the person who sought to engineer things her way, and a freeze in the way fellow workers regarded them. Which is one of the reasons I never considered taking refuge in government mandated fairness.
Better to think outside the box and figure out another way. Then, if you are successful, you can be proud of yourself too.
Is that so wrong?
Marianne
Mike M/
Of course it isn’t–at least until an entire generational cohort of flag officers who have internalized such beliefs are in the majority. Rather it comes from the fear that those on the left have in Congress–both feminists and their male liberal allies–the ability to scuttle/delay entire major wpns systems–wpns systems most aren’t favorably disposed towards to begin with–out of sheer pique for failure to promote enough “minorities” –and to hell with what such cancellations would do to the national defense.
From the left’s pov as I’ve mentioned before, the oxygen that fans the flames of minority quotas and women in the combat specialties is the naive belief that no matter what, the US is too strong to lose any war–so the DoD may be treated as a social experiment and jobs bank. The Pentagon acts the way it does because, although it knows full well that the overall combat effectiveness is thereby lessened, it calculates that this state of affairs is the lesser of two evils, as studies have shown that it reduces combat capabilities from only between 5-20% whereas the loss of a key weapons system could be potentially catastrophic. And since most studies show that we are around 200% more effective than our nearest competitors, a dimunition of even 20% still gives us comfortable breathing space. Loss of a key wpns system via the revenge factor of a canx thru the appropriations process could put us at even money.
The tragedy is that flag officers willing to risk careers by standing up to say the King has no clothes are few and far between in the best of circumstances. With Obama and Gates in the driver’s seat the odds of that happening are almost a negative number.
In light of the Supreme Court’s ruling against affirmative action, how is this process even constitutional?
VX,
You write of the tragedy that there are so few flag officers willing to risk their careers and speak up on these sorts of issues. There is no risk to the loose lipped flag officer’s career if he challenges orthodoxy. His career is 100% terminated at the moment his lips start to move. Remember what happened to Stan Arthur?
You would think that in a year in which a black man has been elected President of the United States of America that we would be beyond this nonsense. John Paul Jones must be turning over in his grave…
Flatlander/
Spinning is probably more like it…counter-clock-wise.
I think Virgil hit the nail on the head. From the beginning the nominations process was created to build an officer corps that was representative of the population. The troubling thing for me, from the “make every decision at the right level” point of view, is it seems the Navy is making political decisions about the composition of the officer corps that are clearly out of Big Navy’s lane.
If sombody thinks there’s a problem with the makeup of the officer corps in any of the services, the people that should be making corrections are the elected officials through the nominations process.
“Reverse racism is”
Non-existent.
Racism is a scalar quantity, not a vector one. Discrimination on the basis of race is racism. It matters nothing whether it is a white man discriminating against a black one, or a black man discriminating against an Asian one, or an Asian man discriminating against a Hispanic one, or a Hispanic man discriminating against a white one.
Now, the left would like us all to start formulating racism as a system, as being comprised of discrimination on the basis of race PLUS the power to make the object of discriminating suffer consequences thereby. Add to that the concept (quite strongly held, it appears, even in the face of recent election results) that black people are so heavily discriminated against in the U.S. that none of them actualy have any power, and it results in the concept that only white people can be racists.
So, Edward, while I’m sure you mean well, I must reject the formulation “reverse racism”. There’s no such thing.
Ronf, I applaud your statement and agree that it is scalar today.
But I remember…since I am old enough…
water fountains, side by side
separate entrances in train stations and bus stations
the dividing line between the front and rear seating on a bus
being bussed…past three schools to get to mine
black servicemen returned from WWII who were not allowed to wear their uniform in public
my mother, working at the Red Cross, having to separate pints of blood, because…
So until 50 years ago it was a vector. We have made tremendous strides in that half century, so much so that now a minority professor in a major university can teach students that only the “ice people” can be racists; the “sun people” cannot be racists.
Many who came to this country had to overcome prejudice based on race, religion and ethnicity. Again, my family recalls “Irish need not apply” signs posted at places of employment. Italians and Jews and Catholics — you name some group with a difference from the majority and they had to work very hard to win a place. It is our shame that one group came all unwilling in chains. Nothing we can do now can make it up to those who are long dead, save to treat all equally. Swinging the pendulum past dead center is an egregious error and actually a disservice to those dead.
It is not just the Officer corp this is going on in, the same thing is happening in the E-7 to E-9 selection process also.
So the assumption underlying all this discussion is that if more people of color are getting into the academy, it must somehow mean that standards are being lowered to accomplish that rather than perhaps admission policies that systematically excluded qualified people of color are being changed.
My experience has been that qualified, bright individuals of every background (socioeconomic class, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, etc.) exist in equal percentages–the opportunities offered to those individuals are not, however, always equal.
All opportunities being equal, I would expect the students entering the academies to be reflective of the composition of the populations who are drawn to military service overall…if the academies do not look like the rest of the military, then yes, IMHO, there must be a break down somewhere in the admissions process…but that’s just nearly two decades of university teaching talking.
Not an assumption so much as taking for granted the words of the USNA professor meant what he said they meant:
That certainly seems less qualified to me, once again, taking him at face value.
Makes me glad MY Midshipman did not make it into Annapolis. She left Penn State a more well rounded officer (cheering a much better football team). Her impression is that Annapolis grads are full of themselves and not much else – just like the grads of most inner city high schools – NOW I see the reason why – Social promotion and feel good self esteem.
BTW – She is on her way back for her second Gulf cruise.
Billy Bob
For what it’s worth, letting less qualified applicants because of their minority status doesn’t mean they’ll be able to hack the academics or lifestyle once they’re in. I’m one of those A/B student/athlete/leadership types, and the academics sure ain’t easy.
Academies have also fudged the numbers for years to get good athletes of all races. I’m not trying to defend or condemn either practice, I just think it’s interesting that it’s being openly acknowledged and even celebrated now.
(I know several mids who’ve had Prof. Fleming, and by all accounts he’s an interesting character to say the least.)
I think that the facts are in with regard to dual standards in academic admissions. The ugly reality appears briefly each time somebody like Ward Connerly proposes that we stop discriminating in education and admissions and simply let the academic achievements of the student stand alone. I find it impossible to say more on the topic since to damn those who would discriminate on the basis of skin color is to invite the damnation of those who believe that no price is to great if it ensures equality of outcomes on a percentage basis of course….
Laurie,
I would suggest you read Prof. Flemming’s Op-Ed in full and also I would like to recommend his book written about 5 years ago that concentrates heavily on the unequal admissions process at USNA.
“admission policies that systematically excluded qualified people of color”
On the contrary Laurie, USNA bends over backwards to assist minorities through the application process, literally walking minority applicants and sports applicants through the process, which is the equivelent to applying to 3 universities simultaneously. NO ONE helped my son in any way make it through the application process to USNA and, it was so complicated that I actually generated a flow chart in order to help my son get through it. And yes Laurie, my child is a white male!
“I would expect the students entering the academies to be reflective of the composition of the populations who are drawn to military service overall… ”
I am willing to cut you a break on this Laurie as I am pretty sure that you understand very little about what motivates someone to apply to a service academy vs. those that choose to enlist in our armed services. You might want to think about the fact that your “nearly two decades of university teaching” might actually diminish your perception of the motivation behind a career in the military officer corps…
Prof. Flemming’s last book would make interesting beach reading for you while you are on your 3 month vacation this summer.
Prof Fleming also recently had an interesting piece on the teaching and mis-teaching of literature.
College applicants (including USNA) need to be High School grads. The black community’s breakdown of the family and disdain for academic effort has taken a severe toll, with only 51% of blacks graduating (and I suspect a much higher percentage of females than males). Among whites the rate is 72% and among Asians 79% and Hispanics 52%. (http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/ewp_03_appendix_table_1.htm)
That severely distorts the applicant pool from which to draw qualified MIDN and it will NOT reflect the same percentages as the general population. Of course, every college in the country is seeking qualified (or even marginally qualified) minority applicants, so the available supply is spread pretty thin.
Other cultural factors such as lack of discipline due to lack of fathers, out of wedlock births, limited family heritage of college attendance or military service, and the general decline in individual initiative and responsibility created by several generations of being kept on the welfare state plantation all work against black candidates being interested in, or qualified for, military service. The epidemic of teen pregnancies and widespread drug usage and high rate of criminal records also reduce the percentage of eligible applicants for enlistment or commissioning programs. These factors are often beyond the control of the kids we are seeking to recruit, but they cannot be ignored. Unless we want to get even deeper in to double-standard affirmative action racism.
If the goal is getting proper ratio of pigmentation, the USNA approach will achieve that. But it will not produce well qualified minority officers in large numbers.
A far better approach is to use the BOOST type approach to select minority applicants from the enlisted ranks who have adapted to military life and demonstrated the leadership skills and intelligence to be groomed for commissions. That comes much closer to merit selection (albeit by alternative measurements) than merely lowering the bar for high school grads. Most of the best officers I encountered had some prior enlisted time.
Our national defense demands the best qualified officers and sailors we can find and recruit. The sole measurements should be their ability and potential. In fact, it could be aptly described as judging applicants “…by content of character not the color of skin.”
Having worked in the Admissions Department for three years and having sat across the table from Dr. Fleming on many a Thursday afternoon let me add my voice to the discussion.
First, all other things being equal, the number and type of nominations an individual receives largely determines their chance of receiving an appointment. A straight A student from northern Virginia with 1300 SAT’s is a lot less competitive than a similarly qualified individual from say, Bogalusa Louisiana or Fort Stockton Texas. This is because each Congressional district is its own competition. It’s also because there are a greater number of academically talented students from Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other mid-Atlantic states applying then from other areas of the country. The truly sad fact is that every year there are over 100 congressional districts not represented in the USNA class. There have been a few years where it was toss up as to whether every state would be represented.
Second, the vast majority of minority students matriculated at USNA have generally been of Asian and Hispanic descent. The majority of these either won the competitive nomination from their respective Representative or were designated as a Principal Nominee, in which case it didn’t matter what their SAT/ACT scores were, as long as they were academically, medically and physically qualified. A large number of Hispanic applicants are also matriculated through the Presidential nomination which is reserved for sons and daughters of individuals who were either honorably retired from active service or were killed while on active duty.
Third, in a brief sentence Dr. Fleming highlights one of the other groups to receive preferential treatment in front of the Admissions Board, which are recruited athletes. A significant portion of these are football players, but I’ve seen similar numbers of basketball players, squash players, tennis players, swimmers, divers and more who receive much of the same consideration before the board. The majority of the these athletes are sent to either the Naval Academy Preparatory School (NAPS) or through a prep school associated with the Naval Academy Foundation for an extra year of academic preparation.
The other group who routinely bring less than competitive academic records to the Naval Academy Admissions Board are the Sailors and Marines who apply. My last year in the Admissions Department over 120 were accepted either for direct entrance into USNA or into the NAPS program. Many of these are also minorities.
While arguably the slots offered to the enlisted folks and recruited athletes could have gone to applicants with stronger academic records the decision was made to select these individuals as they brought something unique to the Brigade of Midshipmen. Whether it was their athletic abilities or their experiences having served in the Fleet or Marine Corps, they offered something intangible, yet valuable that couldn’t be measured with a standardized test score. The same argument can be made on the decision to grant offers of appointment to minorities. I would rather a midshipmen be exposed to the culture of African Americans, Hispanics, Puerto Ricans, Asians and any other culture this country represents while at USNA and learn to effectively work and lead individuals who are considerably different than they are. Then wait until they get to their first ship or platoon and try and figure it out then.
Some of the comments posted expressed dismay over the lost opportunities for academically superior students, if only preferential treatment hadn’t been given to minorities then these talented individuals would have been offered an appointment. I guess my question is this, would you remove all preferential treatment and treat everyone the same before the Admissions Board or just for the individuals who you favor?
Lex,
I can’t counter anything you said — on the surface it seems spot on. But I must admit until a few years ago, I would have made the exact same arguments. But after spending a few years sitting close to the CNO’s Special Asst for Diversity and really thinking it through I became a complete convert. Fleming is stretching it a bit as retired-n-Texas points out.
My concern is that it is not good enough to point out that the affirmative action programs embraced by the Navy and much of our government are tantamount to reverse discrimination and serve to damage everyone including minorities who deserve to compete and be recognized on the merits.
The problem is there IS still real discrimination out there and we need real solutions. For instance, the Texas top 10% rule for university admissions is pretty good, if imperfect program. It enhances diversity based on merit given roughly equals sets of opportunity.
How do you fix real discrimination without affirmative action? Start at 1955 and work it forward.
Would there be a Colin Powell, Sam Gravely, or even a Barrack Obama without affirmative action?
I, for one, doubt it.
Remember just 40 years ago, terrific athletes were not welcome on sports teams in the south, despite their clear ability.
In the sixties, minorities had a rough time gaining admittance and graduating from the Naval Academy. An Admiral, 66″ USNA grad, I truly respect, often describes how anyone without white skin was on the run out program … very few stayed.
We have come along way BUT studies still show that anonymous applications jobs change when you add pictures — it is still not pretty.
So life is NOT fair … there is still real discrimination and real value in diversity of experience, opinion, and talent in our Navy and our nation. It is what makes us strong.
So, how do we level the playing field and handle the discrimination that does exist. At the same time, we also have to avoid a racial spoil systems where well off minorities are taking advantage of AA while income is a better determinant of opportunity.
For instance, my half hispanic kids, have had great opportunities and deserve no special consideration. One is a reporter, honor graduate of UT and the other enters USCGA in two weeks … they listed themselves as white on applications because my bride is absolutely opposed to playing the hispanic card in any way.
But the kids in intercity El Paso — where my wife grew up–certainly don’t have the same opportunities.
While I abhor Sotomayor’s New Haven fire fighting logic, I also get a little tired of the reverse discrimination argument without offering up solutions to real discrimination, real inequalities of opportunity, and without putting it all in the full context. Sure, we have come along way but we have along way to go. Without real programs that level of the field, we will never get to that colorblind society so many of us pray for.
Big Dave –
You said Remember just 40 years ago, terrific athletes were not welcome on sports teams in the south, despite their clear ability.
I assume the point was that these teams were overlooking the best athletes because of the color of their skin.
Please explain to me how this new USNA policy is not overlooking the best applicants for the same reason.
Thanks.
Dave, I know you’re sincere and respect your conversion. I’m just wishing I could make it, but for whatever reason I can’t get my head around it. Pick a person from Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood in a few years, maybe named Sasha or Malia. She’s a person of color who has therefore the presumption of having been discriminated against. She’s also the daughter of a former president of the United States, expensively educated in the best private schools. Does she deserve preferential treatment based on race over some poor (as in deprived) white kid from Appalachia who somehow rose above his or her circumstances and scored better on the appropriate whole person tests of academic and leadership potential? Does she add to the diversity of the institution through her experiences as a person of color, or as one of privilege? If not the former – clearly not – then why should the latter apply?
You might say that this is an reductio ab adsudum and I wounldn’t disagree, but it’s a logical way to ask ourselves what we actually think we’re getting when we lump individuals into preferential categories based on the accidents of their birth. Race tells us nothing about any individual, and it’s deeply reductive to employ it in this manner, obliterating whatever distinguishing characteristics that make a person who he or she is.
Even if I concede the rest of your argument on the value of diversity, when you say there is real value to our Navy in diversity of talent without defining what value attaches to selecting the less talented you lose me. It smacks of cant rather than reason. There may be societal value to it, but in terms of our mission to fight and win the nation’s wars, it feels a bit like we’re getting out of our swim lane.
We will never be able to peer into each man’s heart and discern his intentions, but as an arm of the federal government all we can do is the best we can do, to live up to our cherished ideals as we always should have done: The way to stop discrimination based on race is to stop discriminating based on race.
With due respect for Big Dave’s conversion at the fount of diversity, I cannot accept his premise:
“So life is NOT fair … there is still real discrimination and real value in diversity of experience, opinion, and talent in our Navy and our nation. It is what makes us strong.”
Perhaps there is still some discrimination, but that against non-minorities (e.g.- white guys) seems to be predominant now. (And what will happen with diversity enthusiasm when whites become a minority in a few years?)
Further, should we really worship the “benefits” of “…diversity of experience, opinion, and talent in our Navy and our nation. It is what makes us strong.” Should we do so INSTEAD of talent, intelligence and ability as warfighters?
I see a shortage of mentally handicapped representation, a deficit of career criminals, and an inadequate supply of Code PINK and ACORN organizers. Why not bring back the mental CAT IV’s of McNamara’s 100,000 so we can be really inclusive? How did that work for us?
The claimed benefits of “diversity” are largely to assuage white guilt and prove to one’s liberal peers that “we all care.” And that does not equate to capable warriors defending our nation against all enemies foreign and domestic.
Indeed, I believe that many in the diversity cult are perilously close to being domestic enemies, albeit well intentioned and motivated by (in their minds) the best of intentions.
Give us fast ships and the best trained and most capable sailors, for we shall go in harm’s way again. REAL sailors don’t care about race, religion or ethnicity, only how well their shipmates will perform their jobs.
Big Dave,
I reject your premise. Yes, there is inequality, but it is not due to the uneven playing field. I grew up in PG County, went to a high school that was about 70% Black, the next majority could have been White or Philippino. It was a toss up, as I recall. The Blacks I went to school with were diverse. Some were inner city-ish, some were middle to upper middle class kids. A large portion of them had a greater family income than mine. My graduating class was a focus of Courtland Milloy I don’t know, maybe around ’92 or so. By then, we had lost almost 9% of our graduating class (~650) in largely drug related crimes.
I forget the statistics, but PG County is one of if not THE most affluent concentration of Blacks in the US. Yet, PG County and Baltimore are two of the most crime ridden areas in the state, thus ranking MD easily in the top 10 nationwide for violent crime. Why did my classmates eschew the basic principles of education and self fulfillment? Was it the White man keeping him down? I would submit, it was the meme of victimhood, thuggery and lowered expectaitons. This is also backed by Dr. John McWhorter from Stanford.
I married a minority and I remember her mother getting incensed when she would see the ignorance at our school. She was a professional educater herself.
Attacking and leveling the playing field at the academy level stage of the game is idiocy. Attack the “wanna be white” and “Oreo” mentality labeling those that pursue excellence. Attack that in elementary school up through high school. Continually lowering standards tells minorities they are incabable of competing, at best, and that they are mentally inferior, at worst.
Think of “Lean on Me” with Morgan Freeman or “Stand and Deliver” with Edward James Olmos. Both of these inspirational movies dealt with tough teachers that cared and raised their students UP to the standards and taught them that they WERE capable and did not further the myth that they were incapable of learning.
John touches on some of the factors above, but it is time for the Black community to take responsibility for that which is wrong and fix it. Bill Cosby said nothing that is not said at kitchen tables in Black families all over the US. The problem was, he aired it in public. That is not appreciated by the community as a whole. My $.02.
The effects of all this? Rubber, meet road. My opinion reflected in real life actions:
My son wants to serve his country. I never guided/pushed him to that choice. Actually, I would prefer he become a lawyer, doctor or businessman, anything but endure the sacrifice and challenge the military avocation entails. On top of this he wants to be an infantry officer through some genetic anomaly I can’t understand. He wants to be a US Marine.
Though many fine Marines go to the Naval Academy, I am quietly recommending Marine option ROTC or West Point. BTW, I am a Naval Officer, retired. Does it really matter which race/ethnicity we are BD?
Why aren’t I strongly recommending CanoeU? I am not sure I agree with the ethos of that institution at Annapolis. Seems more like a public elementary school with all the politics/PC to go with it. Too close to the Beltway I guess.
b2
B2,Let me take this opportunity, before the usual suspects, you know who you are, chime in to commend for you and your sons consideration my alma mater, Norwich University…a small private military college, founding home of ROTC, located in central Vermont…thankfully well north of the Beltway and Messrs. Mason & Dixon’s line.
All Army ROTC in my time it now has a vibrant AFROTC and NROTC component as well. Great education, good folks, female cadets and no grits…whats not to like. Best
Snake, as highly as W.E.B. Griffin speaks of Norwich, it must be good
Everyone here seems to have bracketed the tgt here to one degree or another. I WOULD like to comment, however, as someone who left an integrated environment in Illinois and went to an all-white LSU in 1962 in the days of Jim Crow and those separate drinking fountains, etc., that Edward also remembers, as to the psychic effects of affirmative action on whites: namely the extent to which it “colors” the attitudes of whites toward ALL minorities despite their accomplishments.
At the outset as a disclaimer let me say that there is no doubt, as some here ave already commented, that much racism in many forms and degrees of intensity still exists within our society and that a certain cultural schizophrenia has always reigned in the attitudes of whites toward minorities. I well remember a discussion I had in the spring of 1966 on a train ride home from B.R. to Ill. on the old ICRR with a recent black ROTC grad from Alcorn A & M who was, we both discussed, probably headed pipeline to Vietnam–as I would be a year ltr out of flt school. Even as we stood talking I was thinking to myself about the absurdity of it all. Here was a guy, a fellow officer and comrade-in-arms, who in a short while I might be risking my life for to provide CAS, or he his to rescue me should I be shot down while providing that support–yet he would be unwelcome in my fraternity house and to many of my fraternity brothers and on campus in general. It was a Red Queen world, I thought to myself, thinking six impossible things before breakfast–and how does one mentally cope with that?
Well, the world has rotated many, many times since that conversation, much has changed, ( I saw, thanks to the Civil Rights Act of ’64, history happen before my very eyes as separate drinking fountains, bathrooms, etc., all disappear by the time I graduated in ’66) and LSU has won two National football championships since, mainly with black players, so things are not now what they once were by any means, but the lingering problems of racial differences and attitudes and what to do about them are still with us–as are quotas and affirmative action–and our deeply divided society and our ambivalent attitudes about these aspects of our attempts to come to grips with the subject.
Which brings me to my Father and how affirmative action affected his outlook. My Father was a Hall of Fame coach who coached three sports–Basketball, Tennis and Football–as a head coach in his 30 yr career at an integrated midwestern Univ. (and never had a loosing season in any of them, btw) who was no stranger to blacks in the early Jim Crow post-war years. So, although a conservative Republican, his views on race, by dint of his profession were decidedly more “progressive” than many of his generational cohorts. Even more to the point as far as his personal views went, he once told me: “Son, we probably won’t ever ‘solve’ the race problem in this country until everyone has inter-married to such an extent we all look like Hawaiians.” LOL! He was only half joking. Dad would be the LAST person one would label a bigot or a racist person by any means. Yet by the end of his life affirmative action soured him on race relations and made the professional achievements of all blacks suspect in his eyes. This change happened as he personally saw his school hire female minorities (twofers in affirm. action hiring parlance) as coaches that he regarded as seriously unqualified and incompetent, simply, in his view, to fill the square.
My conclusion? If a government-sponsored social practice can so sour a man like my father–let alone a KKK racial supremacist–and so greatly alter his long-held views on race, we must seriously consider it’s long-term dysfunctional aspects, no matter how much it may have initially ameliorated race relations initially. I would liken it to powerful drugs administered to a near fatally ill patient which, while beneficial in the near term, have powerful side effects that after a while build up a toxicity in the system to a degree such that they become as great a threat to the health of the patient as the original disease itself. In the medical world the SOP for these situations is to take the patient off the drug and rotate another in it’s place–or simply to allow the body to “recover” for a period before prescribing any new drugs at all………and I think we may be at that point in terms of affirmative action.
The point for me is one of how far we have come and how far we may yet have to go. As a product of the south I experienced integration in the 60s in real time. Not everyone was enthusiastic to say the least. But by the time I graduated from HS not too many gave it a second thought.
But resentment boils when, in an effort to stamp out the last vestige of perceived racism, remedies are proposed that seem to define sucess in some predetermined outcome. The selection process should be hard at the USNA and it is. Everyone should have a chance. Efforts can be made and should be to provide opportunity to all Americans – some need more help than others and I’m OK with that. But in the end either you cut it to the same standard or you don’t or, as pointed out earlier, allowances are made because a decision is made that Navy needs to keep beating Army in football so the bar might be “adjusted” if you happen to be able to throw a football 60 yards AND have the stuff to handle the academics, etc.
But deciding that, diversity for diversity’s sake based on race, creed, or color just seems to me to apply the same assinine attitudes we worked so hard to get rid of in the first place – namely that your race, creed, or color has a damn thing to do with whether you will make a good Naval Officer. If there was evidence – and I haven’t seen any – that the admission boards of the Academy are denying admission based on race, etc. there might be a case to be made for preferences. But looking at the outcome of the racial diversity of the Officer Corps and therefore deciding that it just must be a problem with admissions if foolish and an insult to those who work so damn hard, no matter what color, to get there.
If you want more diversity start early teaching the merits of achievement so that the qualified stream of minority candidates fills the pipeline. Don’t lecture me on how, because the pipeline obviously isn’t as full as it should be that somehow we need to ignore the need for preparation and just lower the bar. Its insulting and does much to set us back on ridding racism from the culture. But the diversity industry would not have a demon to rant against so that’s not going to happen. I experience discrimination every day and I employ a very diverse workforce. Being told I can’t compete for certain work simply because I am not black, hispanic, etc. enrages me in ways I wish I didn’t have to experience. All I want is the right to compete – don’t lower the bar for others and then tell me I can’t. Oh I’ve had enough advantages – I happened to be born white.
Somehow I think Dr. Martin Luther King would be amazed that we would be turning his vision of a colorblind society on its head.
Lex’s points on the false use of ethnicity as a proxy for disadvantaged status is dead on. The idea that “we need a USNA that looks like the Navy” is equally fallacious. It is a chimera, defined in the eye of the beholder. It relies on an idea that ethnicity trumps all other affiliations, which is a false logic. If we really were to have a service academy student body that reflected our manpower, then we would skew the admissions by region — reflecting recruiting as a ratio of total population. For instance, in 2004, the Middle Atlantic and NE states were significantly underrepresented in enlistments — .75 and .71 ratios respectively. Most other regions had close to 1.0 ratios. A single region made up the slack for failure of the Mid Atlantic and NE regions to defend our nation during a time of war — the West South Central region with a 1.25 ratio.
The idea that a Mexican heritage seaman from the Rio Grande Valley finds inspiration in a hispanic Lieutenant, Dominican Republic family, educated in the finest prep schools of NY, is ridiculous. I will bet that Valley rat (geographic term — has nothing to do with ethnicity) has more in common with someone who also played Texas HS football, grew up eating the same food, and follows the same sports teams. That seaman from Hidalgo County might as well be from the moon in terms of that New Yorker understanding him — heck, they probably barely understand each other’s Spanish. But get him and his Lieutenant talking Big 12 football, and they are sympatico.
The point of all this is not to argue for slicing the cake in ways I like — it is to point out the ridiculousness of slicing the cake to begin with. I think the current slicing rules have more to do with the desires of the cake slicers to be seen as upstanding citizens, than it is driven by the aspirations of those eating the cake.
I recall reading very recently an article about how few of those who can appoint or nominate young men and women for the academies, do so. I wonder if anyone has ever broken down the nominations and appointments made by each senator and congressman with an eye to the racial diversity of that aspect of the admissions process.
Scott/
How very true. And as some else has already pointed out elsewhere, the idea that the college age daughters of a millionaire President of the US and educated at elite pvt schools should be considered “disadvantaged” and be given preferential treatment in the college admissions process,simply by dint of the color of their skin while a white, male, rural product of Appalachia and educated in public schools is not, is the height of insanity.
Snake,
Re Norwich: It’s on his list- Army and Marine. I agree it’s a fine school that has produced many fine officers. On the other hand it’s pretty close to Brattleboro (San Francisco East Yankee Style!)…LOL.
B2
B2, Agreed Brattleboro is one looney flippen town (suggest Googling “Brattleboro Nude Bicycle riding 2006 ” for conclusive evidence.)
Norwich is, by New England standards, a long way geographically from Brattleboro and a bit of an anomaly in the current and shameful Peoples Socialist Rupublic of Vermont… but no matter… it has long proud, albeit generally unknown history… it’s graduates have served with distinction in every American war since the schools inception in 1819…and yes it has produced many fine officers along with a few …alas smart-assed knuckle-heads like me.
I’m confident that wherever he ends up it will be an exciting and rewarding journey…if he chooses Norwich he’ll be in good company… either way I wish him well. Best
Brattleboro is SF Lite. If you want SF go to to the Montpeculiar area. The People’s Republic of Burlington a close second.
Dust/
Has Mont”peculiar” always been that way? Fourty-five yrs ago I dated a gal from there in college; SHE didn’t seem that way, but then she and I weren’t exactly deeply discussin’ politics.
VX, I’m reminded of the saying…”there’s no fool like an old fool” …except in your case it should be modified to say ” there’s no cad like an old cad “… you deserve…no need… a sound thrashing. Best
VX,
I suspect when you were dating her there was still residual Republican inclinations here as VT was one of the three states that voted Republican in 1940. It was closer to 1940 then than ’64 is to is to the present. BTW, If you were dating her today recommend you insure she is, in fact, a she.
Best,
Dust
Dust, In the fall of 1960 I recall driving north up RT 5 ( the pre interstate route) with my Father on my way to Northfield/Norwich and crossing into Vermont over the Connecticut River at White River Junction…a large sigh just to the right of the tressel bridge defiantly proclaimed…” Welcome to Vermont… the last stand of the Yankees “…kind of off putting for a green, down country, second generation ethnic eighteen year old…but in realty the last gasp of the old order…the interstates would soon come and with them an invasion of flatlanders mainly from New York, Connecticut and New Jersey who would in time transform the state into the socialist embarassment/abomination it has become…as Lex might say ” tis to weep “…yes…tis to weep, indeed…Best
Weeping as we speak Snake. It is a liberal wasteland here – I’m trapped.
Snake, don’t forget those other institutions of higher learning: VMI, The Citadel, and Texas A and M.
Byron, All very fine institutions…not forgotten…I just wanted to get my licks in before those crass Citadel Gomers, they know who they are, elbowed their way in. Best
B2, I’ll second the recommendation of Texas A&M. At least, when I was an undergrad with naval aspirations looking for the best engineering school I could afford, that was the place.
Lots of pretty girls running around in not a whole lot, due to the heat I was told, made the whole experience just that much more enjoyable.
On second thought, that could also be construed as a warning.
– Max
Snake, Spot on. Them flatlander Trust-Fund Bohemian Prolitariat types infiltrated via the Eisenhower Highway System. Concentrations of ‘em in Barre, Montpeculiar, Waterbury- Stowe and Burlington along I-89. Brattleboro on I-91 and in Manchester they just inflitrated in from all over. Don’t have to work so they run for office from the Select Boards on up. Working folks don’t have the luxury.
Wow Babs, if I ever get that three month summer vacation, I’ll be sure to look at that book. Problem is, I don’t get paid over the summer (9 month schedule) so I’m working extra months teaching and doing administration so I can pay the bills.
As for understanding the motivations for service or entering one of the academies, pretty quick to make judgments, eh? I actually come from a family that has both… one West Point, but many enlisted Marines, Army, Navy, and cousins (they were ROTC, now career track marines and army) currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have had a lot of students serve and have written back and forth with them extensively and sent carepackages with regularity.
I was recruited by each of the academies and gave it careful consideration–it was actually me who pointed out to recruiters that I have a physical handicap that would make it difficult to keep up with some of the motor skills required in the academy.
But what do I know about these things, I’m just some ignorant university professor.
To respond to the rest, there have been recent studies tracking students who have lower GREs, grades, in high school, and looking at how they do in competitive academic environments–low and behold, students of every color, no matter what their “numbers” improved their scores in a more competitive environment.
Personally, I find most of our measures of suitability for a college education to be bs. I’ve never met a student who didn’t want to do well and put in the work who failed. This is an issue that gets everyone wringing their hands and wailing over the weakening of standards. The standards are pretty arbitrary–I went to a highly competitive high school where they pumped up GPAs by letting students take advanced tracks in chorus and band, courses with assured As–those of us who took heavy math and science loads, got hit hard in comparison. I taught at LSU (that’s Louisiana State University) when they had no admissions standards beyond a high school diploma, and I found the range of abilities among those students to be the same as those I’ve taught at UCLA and Berkeley.
I doubt that the ability to preform well on a standardized exam is a great measure of future leadership abilities. I’d be happier if admissions to the academies were done all on the basis of interviews.
Wow Laurie, you have to work all twelve months! Gosh that must be quite the hardship for you.
You may not be aware of it, but for most of us, we do not have a choice. If I asked for three months off, even without pay, I believe that the answer would be yes: with the caveat that I might want to look another job.