Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Couldn’t Have Said It Better Myself… XII
Prof. Mike S. Adams just out-and-out calls the UNC administrators a bunch of bigots and liars. He raises an important point, which I can’t state any better than he does, but I do have a few things to add to the end. Let’s let him go first.
Recently, a local Wilmington, North Carolina news station (WWAY) ran a news story on my satirical column “My new contribution to educational racism.” Local news stations like to run news stories on my satires because the proliferation of crack, heroin, methamphetamines, prostitution, and illegal immigration in my town is not sufficiently newsworthy.
In the midst of important business negotiations (money talk), I declined to do a recorded TV interview for the WWAY Top News Story of the day, which was my satire. Instead, I offered the following statement intended to make things more exciting in the workplace when I return in mid-August:
“North Carolina’s most notorious bigots, racists and segregationists are no longer found within the leadership of the KKK. They are found within the leadership of the UNC system.”
The comment, which was expected to produce a blanket denial of racial discrimination by UNCW officials, appears to have had the intended effect. Here�s what WWAY reported as my employer�s response:
“UNCW officials deny any preferrential [sic] treatment of minorities.”
While WWAY carefully avoids “preferrential” treatment for serious journalism, UNCW officials are guilty of avoiding preferential treatment for the truth about the school�s racial policies. In a letter posted on the UNCW website, Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo had this to say to those who want to do business with the university:
“As a contractor seeking to conduct business with the University, it is my personal expectation that you will exhaust all possible means to meet or exceed the minimal 10% minority participation goal that has been established through the North Carolina General Assembly.”
Despite the “all possible means” language, I assume that DePaolo would stop short of asking employers with only 9% minorities to kill a couple of white employees in order to exceed the 10% quota. Nonetheless, the point is established. UNCW uses racial quotas and meets them via the “preferential treatment of minorities” they so blandly deny.
My comments:
This has become a widespread tactic anywhere an employer, or educational institution, or accrediting authority has a deep pockets and/or a critical mass in their payroll and/or medium-to-high visibility: Claim to not participate in, or to be aware of, or to sanction “any [preferential] treatment of minorities,” on the record. And then, when it’s time to actually engage in the hiring or contracting or graduating business that was just put under the inspection, go ahead and engage in the practice that was just denied. Go ahead and discriminate, in ways that any reasonable person could observe and comment “no ifs ands or buts, that right there is discriminatory.”
In other words, like Dr. Adams said, lie.
There is danger in this kind of hair-splitting, in which what’s been asserted on the record may be lexicographically correct, but is nonetheless conceptually wrong. The danger is that it’s an official line, and the vital ingredient of deception is already there. Once the process is re-articulated, people who have to do the job of articulating it but have that basic instinct of “gee, I don’t want to out-and-out lie about anything,” end up lying anyway. They aren’t introducing that vital ingredient of deception — it was already put in there, by the next layer up.
And so they end up saying things that are in stark contradiction with one another. We don’t engage in preferential treatment of minorities…and in the same breath…make sure you meet or exceed the ten percent requirement for minority representation.
Adams makes no mention of what the UNC system’s response is going to be to his charge of lying. I would expect they’ll say something along the lines of, this isn’t preferential treatment, Chancellor DePaolo is simply complying with the requirements of the state law. That’s the problem. The buck is always passed. So “no preferential treatment” doesn’t mean no preferential treatment, even if it’s misspelled. Fact is, we’re up to our armpits in preferential treatment.
We’re also up to our armpits in reverse-racists, reverse-segregationists, people who just don’t get it. As I had the pleasure of pointing out yesterday.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.