Inclusiveness

Here are news items that bring out the oddity of the claim, which is now thought fundamental to humanity, morality and justice, that “discrimination” is a definite thing that must be wiped out:

• Black legislators attack Republican governor for “racist” suggestion that SAT scores help determine eligibility for scholarships. There are real differences among groups.

Here’s Howard Dean’s standard peroration:

This country depends on all of us uniting as a people, building a community, standing together. That’s what this country is all about. I am tired of being divided by race. I am tired of being divided by income. I am tired of being divided by gender. I am tired

Gypsy grandmothers say very little, but what they do say is followed without question. Among other peoples aging females rarely have such power, but they’ve always been allowed a certain freedom of speech. Even in Stalinist Russia babushkas were allowed to grumble a little. That’s an advantage of genuine social diversity—of what’s now called stereotyping … More ...

I just finished reading Victor Davis Hanson’s Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power. The point of the book is that the West—Greece, Rome, and the societies founded on the ruins of the Roman Empire—has always been superior militarily because of a Western way of war that emphasizes decisive shock … More ...

The kind of principles that now govern news coverage: Guidelines for Countering Racial, Ethnic and Religious Profiling, adopted by the Society of Professional Jounalists shortly after September 11. Some basic rules: don’t call Islamic terrorists “Islamic terrorists,” constantly remind the reader of bombings by white supremacists, and if you have to show a U.S. … More ...

A lifelong Jewish Republican complains about Socially acceptable bigotry: A primer in discrimination against us GOPers. Meanwhile, an exhibition of anti-Catholic “art” at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton draws comment from NRO on the theme of They call it art: The last acceptable prejudice.

The pieces are more interesting for their facts … More ...

Joe Guzzardi at Vdare put together an interesting assemblage of stuff about “diversity” in business and scholarly efforts to find out whether it does anything for the bottom line. Seemingly it doesn’t—the main study cited concludes that it can’t be shown to hurt or help much, although the finer print refers to problems created by … More ...

The conviction that there’s something odd and repellent about making distinctions on grounds of religion, race, sex and the like calls for explanation. How come no one used to think it’s a problem and now everyone does? And why are such distinctions so much worse than distinctions based on the fact that someone’s a fundy, … More ...

“Affirmative action” means that if blacks fall short it’s the fault of whites, so it’s only fair to take the benefits of success from whites and give them to blacks. Our established intellectual, moral and religious leaders—including the bishops—all say that’s just and moral, so one is reluctant to argue the contrary. Still, the system … More ...

So far as I can tell, this is business as usual in the defense of “affirmative action”:The Evidence of Things Not Seen. A University of Michigan study finds serious problems with racial preference programs. The summary is later rewritten to put a much more positive spin on the findings, the University uses it … More ...