Wow, way to show your true colors.

Left by John Jarzemsky on October 31st, 2007 at 1:17 pm

And what “true colors’ would you be alluding to, John? Are you insinuating that I’m a racist?

If so, does posting the facts reported in this story make me a racist? Or drawing some logical conclusions based on those facts?

The fact is that more than 45% of all Hispanics in Houston area schools are dropping out. The fact is that more than 70% of all dropouts are either Hispanic or black.

You may not like these facts, and these facts might be disturbing to you — but reporting on them does not one a racist make. Nor does drawing the logical conclusion that people who drop out of high school are less qualified for better paying jobs than their graduating counter parts.

What part of that do you contest or find to be “racist”?

Left by Robbie on October 31st, 2007 at 1:26 pm

I agree with you on this, Robbie. This may come as a shocker to some, but you can talk about race without being racist!

Although John may mean well, his silencing of the discussion does nothing to solve the problem. Until we talk about problems, we can’t solve them, simple as that.

Left by Nazar on October 31st, 2007 at 2:29 pm

I’ve been called racist almost daily on some liberal blogs. It’s a tactic to try to intimidate you or get you to back down when those who call you racist have no other defense of the topic at hand.

Ain’t gonna work.

Left by Dianne on October 31st, 2007 at 3:41 pm

I believe the word “racist” was never included in my comment. I was referring to your assessment that those who drop out of high school are not qualified to do jobs outside the realm of menial labor. We all know that bright, promising kids, NEVER have to drop out of high school due to extenuating circumstances: such as the need to work full time to support family, for instance.

If anything, your comments are classist, not racist. I don’t think you’re a racist, Robbie. I think you, like many in our society, are of the opinion that those who live in poverty got there due entirely to their own laziness, and I think that’s a misguided assumption.

I can’t speak to your experience, but I knew I grew up very privileged. My family was wealthy, white, and happy, and I do NOT apologize for that. Still, whenever I see a fellow human being suffering, I try to walk a mile in their shoes.

To quell the impending surge of comments that will attempt to shove words in my mouth:

1)I’m not in favor of increased social welfare programs
2)I do think people in America are capable of making their own destiny
3)I don’t think there is a “massive right-wing conspiracy” to keep hispanics and blacks poor in America.

I only think that it’s very easy and dangerous to imply that those who drop out of high school do so because “they are underqualified”, ie: too stupid to hang in there.

I wasn’t trying to silence anything: Robbie was the one who put his own ugly little period on the article.

Left by John Jarzemsky on October 31st, 2007 at 3:46 pm

John — thanks for clarifying. I thought that your post was a veiled accusation of racism.

I didn’t think of the classism aspects.

My point was a generalization — admittedly. Obviously not every kid who drops out of HS is going to be resigned to a life of menial labor.

But the sad fact is that most Hispanic and black teens who do drop out of high school are so fated.

Left by Robbie on October 31st, 2007 at 4:42 pm

The facts are the sad facts. Yeah it’s a shame, and yeah it is a strong predictor of what your fate will be if you can’t even finish high school..we all know that is not rocket science…especially today. hell just show up and you will get out with high honors. Why is it that so many people feel guilty about having money or coming from a normal family?? I hear that a lot. Is that some kind of sickness or media driven insanity..all we hear about is how mean white people are and how intolerate that are, what hate they have..on and on. I heard just today about a college up north and what it is making its teachers and students do…be prepared for high blood pressure after reading…or go to link http://www.ktrh.com/pages/bakerblog.html

“Teachers from around the country will be in Baltimore this week for The National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) annual conference. Basically, the teachers will sit through a number of workshops and hear how to indoctrinate their students with multicultural propaganda. A sample of 2 of those workshops:
“The Unbearable Whiteness of Being: Dismantling White Privilege and Supporting Anti-Racist Education in Our Classrooms and Schools.” Designed to help educators identify and deconstruct their own white privilege and in so doing more deeply commit themselves to anti-racist teaching and critical multicultural teaching.

“Talking About Religious Oppression and Unpacking Christian Privilege.” Will examine the dynamics of Christian privilege and oppression of minority religious groups and nonbelievers as constructed and maintained on three distinct levels: individual, institutional and societal. God help us .. now there’s not only white privilege, but Christian privilege as well.
This worship at the tolerance and diversity altar is also going on at Colleges and Universities. The University of Delaware requires a course for all students in residence halls that in essence teaches “all whites are racists.” The course manual reads, “A RACIST: A racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. ‘The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality. By this definition, people of color cannot be racists, because as peoples within the U.S. system, they do not have the power to back up their prejudices, hostilities, or acts of discrimination….’” This re-education camp on rascism is reminiscent of the thought reform and self-criticism communists forced on the upon masses when the took power. ”

This I got from chris baker’s web page. I am blown away by the things that are happening in this country…We all better wake up in this country, white, brown, black, jew, christian, whatever. The thought police are coming for you, and they will not take NO for an answer.

Left by Marc on October 31st, 2007 at 9:42 pm

What I want to know is “who is the who” behind this movement that seems to be emerging from under every rock?

I have long known that whenever logic is thrown asunder and something just doesn’t make sense to you, you need to realize that something behind the scenes is going on that you are not privy to. I had an example of this at my workplace several years ago. The company I worked for set up international teams to evaluate restructuring an international company by moving a lucrative and classic research and development function out of the Research and Development departments to the Manufacturing departments. This evaluation was very expensive, involving tons of time and expenses associated with international travel as well as diversion from other pressing responsibilities. To make a long story short, it was all a charade to make “the peons” think they were actually involved in the evaluative and decision-making process when in fact the decision to move the function out of R&D was made BEFORE the evaluative team process had even begun! Why then was this charade carried out? It was carried out because this decision involved the loss of jobs in the United States by transferring the function along with its lucrative profit making ability to the parent company factory in Europe and the “charade engineers” in the company knew what an explosive impact it would have on the U.S. divisions and employees so they used the U.S. employees to actually “justify” the loss of their own jobs.

So, rest assured that there is a hidden agenda associated with this assault on “white people” and “christianity” and also realize that one must always “follow the money” when searching for the snake under the rock. I’m just going to speculate here that there is a “global” association with what we’re seeing. I’m not smart enough nor do I have any inside information to figure out just what the motives are, but it is becoming clear to me that whoever or whatever is behind this is using us “racist” white people to turn on ourselves as part of their subjugation strategy.

And, that’s Chapter One.

Left by Dianne on November 1st, 2007 at 6:53 am