Chris: On a more-or-less unrelated issue, two things in the news have also been on my mind. One is the continued rioting in St. Louis. This time it is a heroin dealer who was shot by a policeman, a drug dealer is the latest hero of "black folk." I can't speak to the shooting, but even if the victim wasn't as bad a piece of work as it seems he was, nonetheless he was a third rate criminal. How in blazes can anyone make a hero out of him? Yet the same crowd, same sort of crowd, made a hero out of a thug in Ferguson and another young thug in Florida before that. Exactly what are we supposed to think? It surely is NOT to take the view that black people are reacting rationally to perceived grievances. Its no mystery that a large percentage of black people, especially young men, are, in fact, criminals. I doubt that street justice prevails each time a black hoodlum is shot by a cop, but just as clearly it seems obvious that such low lifes usually get what they deserve. And the police are killed on the streets, too. Forgotten the exact number but in excess of 50 police have been killed in the line of duty this year, most white but some were black. --------- The other news story was local. This is Eugene, mind you, a town with as low a rate of racial bigotry as you can find. It voted for Obama twice by huge margins. There are no slums in this city. All the African-Americans in town, at least this is my impression, are middle class or, in cases, well off. This may exaggerate the situation but, if so, it can't be by much, Here's the rub. Findings were just released about education in Eugene. Of the three groups who show up in statistically significant numbers in the schools, guess what? 50% of white public school students have the smarts to attend college upon graduation if they so desire. 27% of Hispanics. 15% of black people. This is just about identical to results from urban centers where a lot of black people have the excuse that their poverty is to blame, and that poverty is partly the result of discrimination. This kind of argument simply does not hold up in Eugene. Very different economic profiles but the same miserable results. For the Hispanics it is reasonable enough to explain a good portion of the disparity on language issues. Give it another generation, two at the max, and the gap should close significantly. But generation after generation and the story is the same for black people. They score abysmally on academic achievement. As a group they are a collection of basket cases. Yes, no problem to think of exceptions. And a good part of my thinking on this subject derives from a genuine black intellect, Thomas Sowell. But as a population the results are bad, they stay bad, and almost nothing changes. I have serious interest in wanting to take a racial egalitarian stand. As time goes by I am running out of excuses to maintain my views. Especially since Asians habitually outpace whites by around 5% to 10%. And Jews do about as well as Asians. My prime concern is how to encourage white students in school to compete effectively with Asians and Jews. Its all about improvement. It can be done, and as far as exceptions go there is a very large number who show that it can be done. Sowell is right about the fact that black people educated in some British derived education system do much better, close to parity in cases. Culture is a major factor. But I can't lean on this explanation for everything. I just can't -and still try and be honest with myself. About which I am stuck -with no obvious way to resolve the problem. Billy
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