July 3, 2023

Pay attention to what Joy Reid actually says here: It's not that she got into Harvard on lesser credentials!

I think Ramaswamy is distorting (or, less likely, not hearing and understanding):

She says she got high grades and test scores in high school, but she wouldn't have thought to try for Harvard if Harvard hadn't come out to her small, majority-black town and recruited. She was strongly encouraged to apply. The Supreme Court hasn't changed the power of schools to recruit in places like hers. Reid never says her scores and grades wouldn't have been enough if she were not black.

In fact, she describes feeling unwelcome at Harvard because other students expressed the belief that she got in on lesser credentials. I thought she sounded like Clarence Thomas complaining about how affirmative action hurt him because people assumed he was inferior to the other students.

Reid goes on to say that the white students at Harvard had the big advantage of feeling that they belonged there. They went to elite prep schools. They had parents who went to Harvard. Some of them had names that were the names on Harvard buildings. She seems to be saying, just put us all head to head. Take away the "legacy" preferences. Stop counting the advantages of wealth as a plus factor in admissions. Make the place welcoming for kids from different places and let them know they are wanted so they think of applying and feel confident venturing there.

That's all she's arguing for. She may be angry at the Supreme Court and attempting to contribute to the giant wave of outrage, but, interestingly enough, she never says she thinks schools should be able to do what the Court just said they can't. 

She passionately advocated for recruiting minority students to apply, treating them as equals when they arrive on campus, and eliminating special privileges that rich white students might have. All these things are still just fine.

ADDED: I used the Twitter embed so you'd have the video, but unfortunately, it doesn't show the full text written by Ramaswamy. You have to click through to Twitter. So here it is (with my commentary added):
Like me, @JoyAnnReid is a kid of immigrants from a former European colony...

Reid's parents immigrated from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guyana. Her father was an engineer and her mother was a college professor. 

... who went to Harvard. Unlike me, she benefited from affirmative action because she counts as “black” & in her own words wouldn’t have gotten in without it.

This is distorted, as I said above. 

She complains that her peers looked at her differently because of it. That’s surely true, I just draw a different conclusion: there’s no better way to foster racial condescension than to disadvantage others based on their skin color.

Once students are admitted, they ought to treat each other with respect. It's hard for me to believe that Harvard students were so socially backward that they communicated the belief that the black students were inferior. But Reid says they did. I don't know what "different conclusion" Ramaswamy thinks she made. Was it the "conclusion" that the Harvard students ought to have displayed goodwill and collegiality toward one another and related to each other as individuals, not as members of a racial group?

Time to achieve colorblind meritocracy, once & for all.

I see common ground between Reid and Ramaswamy, though Reid, if pushed, might deny it. 

Joy Reid talks about me on air, but hasn’t yet had me on for a debate. From one alum to another: the offer stands.

I heartily endorse the proposal that Reid bring Ramaswamy onto her show and have it out with him.  

120 comments:

Danno said...

Joy Reid is an effin retard and only speaks the DNC talking points. Everyone knows she is lying anytime her lips are moving.

Roger Sweeny said...

Joy Reid should know that a lot of white kids at Harvard did not go to elite prep schools, have parents who went to Harvard, or have their names on buildings. And a lot of them some times fell that they don't "belong" there either.

RideSpaceMountain said...

If she's so smart than why does she not know that when your smoke detector is beeping that means the battery needs to be replaced?

I'd link to twitter but that's not working, so if you get the reference, you'll get the joke...

Enlighten-NewJersey said...

She said she got into Harvard because of affirmative action. She didn’t say her test scores were equal to or greater than those of non affirmative action students at Harvard. She said she had really good grades and tests scores which means what? The SC ruling doesn’t stop any school from reaching out to students with the best credentials encouraging them to apply.

Aggie said...

But this is not something that must remain in the realm of opinions-to-be-argued. The data exists. Shall we open up the data sets from her admission year, and put this one to bed?

Gahrie said...

Once again, you go out of your way to give a Democratic hack the benefit of a doubt and put the best possible interpretation on their words instead of the most obvious and most probable.

Cruel neutrality indeed.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

"Once students are admitted, they ought to treat each other with respect. It's hard for me to believe that Harvard students were so socially backward that they communicated the belief that the black students were inferior. But Reid says they did."

Harvard is White Left. So Joy is saying the White Left students were racist?
shocked.

Enigma said...

Some see universities as a "show" or a "scene" above and beyond a place to learn. The Ivy League has long preserved legacy admissions for family tradition and to keep the donations pipeline flowing. Similarly, many want exposure to those beyond themselves and to show openness and to develop connections for international business.

In parallel with university sports, neither students nor athletes are are admitted purely for academic potential. College is the junior leagues for pro athletes. College is a big social club for C students, with some admitted to win the "elite career" lottery.

The clean solution would be to split the raw academic coursework off from the social club, but that's not going to happen. We've thereby replaced old-money corruption with virtue-signaling skin color corruption. Even if it erodes trust and quality over the long term.

Kevin said...

How does Joy Reid KNOW she didn’t get in because she’s black?

Even if you’re qualified, you still benefit from the existence of a racial quota.

This was Roberts’ point in oral argument.

tommyesq said...

eliminating special privileges that rich white students might have.

Not sure how long ago Reid went to college, but at present there is no one more unwelcome at universities than straight white students, particularly men. See, for example, https://collegedissident.com/columbia-hates-straight-white-men/.

Sebastian said...

"Reid never says her scores and grades wouldn't have been enough if she were not black.'

But many other black kids were admitted with scores that wouldn't have been enough if they weren't black.

"In fact, she describes feeling unwelcome at Harvard because other students expressed the belief that she got in on lesser credentials."

Projection? When I was in college, no one would have dared to express such a feeling. But of course blacks at Harvard themselves know the enormous preference they've been granted.

"I thought she sounded like Clarence Thomas complaining about how affirmative action hurt him because people assumed he was inferior to the other students."

On average, by academic standards, blacks at top schools are "inferior."

"Take away the "legacy" preferences."

My recollection is that legacy admits are academically comparable to others. Private institutions need family loyalty to get donations and pay the bills--including for subsidies for poor kids.

"Stop counting the advantages of wealth as a plus factor in admissions."

Without "wealth," private colleges can't function as they do.

"she never says she thinks schools should be able to do what the Court just said they can't"

That's good. But does that mean she doesn't think that?

"Reid's parents immigrated from the the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guyana. Her father was an engineer and her mother was a college professor."

IOW, she was hugely privileged to begin with. Why make a special effort to recruit such kids, unless blackness trumps all?

"But Reid says they did."

It's her lived experience, you know. Bunch of racists, those Harvard students. Prog talk.

"related to each other as individuals, not as members of a racial group?"

You mean, right after they went through an admissions process that categorized them by race and discriminated on that basis? Once enrolled, they become "individuals" again?

gilbar said...

Serious Question..
Her scores (she says) were good enough; but she went to a school no one heard of..
How many kids from schools no one heard of, that had Higher credentials (GPA, SAT, Etc) didn't get in?

jim5301 said...

If white students at Harvard immediately questioned her right to be there (unlikely) perhaps it was after she let loose with some of her anti Jewish or anti gay comments she has a reputation for.

henge2243 said...

"In fact, she describes feeling unwelcome at Harvard because other students expressed the belief that she got in on lesser credentials."

After speaking with her for a few minutes, I'm sure that they made the proper determination. She's a dolt.

gilbar said...

Reid never says her scores and grades wouldn't have been enough if she were not black.

Does anyone on earth think they WOULD have been? Hands please.

Dave Begley said...

Vivek would mop the floor with Joy. Joy is a dunce. Vivek is the smartest guy I've ever met. And the most articulate. It would be a blood bath; especially if it went on for more than 5 minutes.

And Harvard doesn't need to recruit. Harvard is like Duke or Kentucky in basketball and Bama in football. They select from the best high school students.

I had two high school classmates that went to Harvard. I'm in touch with Mike Kennedy; the author of the "Frankenstein, Part II" book. He didn't think Harvard was all that great. What Harvard really provides is a chance to network with really smart students. The academic rigor is probably not much more (or even less) than other top 50 universities.

Jamie said...

she describes feeling unwelcome at Harvard because other students expressed the belief that she got in on lesser credentials.

And just how are you going to prevent students from feeling this way if the entrance standards are in fact different depending on the race of the applicant? Any individual applicant may have credentials equal to those of the resentful, but unless everybody goes around wearing a t-shirt listing GPA, test scores, awards, and extracurriculars, who can say whether that individual applicant got in purely on her merits versus partly because of how she "enhanced diversity"?

Reid may believe that preferential recruiting was her only leg up. She may even be right. But there's no way for her to prove it, and fair or not, everyone at an Ivy, or even a good non-Ivy, is subject to the skepticism of her peers. It's not as if legacies escape that.

There is no way to legislate resentment out of existence. At best, or "best," you can send it underground, where its effects will be more easily explained away. And that's where we stand now. Decades of unequal standards, decades of hiding the ball (I'm put in mind of Gahrie's revelation yesterday about the illegality, in California, of IQ testing of black students for the purpose of special education assessment - if this is accurate, and I tend to believe Gahrie about CA public education, it's hard to posit another reason for this law besides fear that the outcome will be bad) - of course those who know they were not the target of the benefit may harbor ill feelings toward the groups - not necessarily any individual - that were.

And that has consequences. How many black candidates for executive positions have been passed over because at the executive level there's a sense that competence matters, and we live in a world in which it's not unreasonable to consider that that black candidate may have been promoted up the ladder to this point not entirely on the basis of competence but at least partly on the basis of "enhancing diversity"? And, because some of those making the hiring decisions at that level will have lived through, including going to college during, these decades of unequal standards, their own experience is going to inform their decisions.

Thomas was absolutely right and the only viable solution is to end the unequal standards. Hell, drop admissions standards for all candidates to the reported level for black candidates - that's fine with me (though it'll probably lead to even more mismatch and the "elite" schools will have to cope with that problem).

Darkisland said...

First, I am a big supporter of outreach or recruiting programs so no complaints from me there.

Reid's parents immigrated from the the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guyana.

That, more than the recruiting, more than any affirmative action that may or may not have happened, goes a long way to explaining her success. Black immigrants, and their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren do very well in the US. Better, on average, than white, native born Americans.

I'll bet she had very little contact with "thug life" growing up. I suspect that if she had, her mother would have "slapped the bright out of her eyes" as the saying goes. I suspect that she was made to do her homework every night and had she skipped school, there would have been Hell to pay and no pitch hot.

She probably didn't need affirmative action, she probably would have gotten in on her own. Assuming grades, SAT etc.

BUT:

Like every other black person, every other woman, she has to live with the stigma and suspicion of succeeding because of affirmative action, even if just recruitment. Nobody will ever know for sure if she could have done it on her own. Worst of all SHE will never know.

Joy Reid should be dancing in the streets about the end of affirmative action. It may not do her any good now, but it will help black women coming up now who will not have to suffer this stigma.

Her father was an engineer and her mother was a college professor.

Another key metric for success having nothing to do with affirmative action. She grew up with a mother AND a father. Both of whom had gotten their education and, presumably, knew the importance thereof. Black kids who grow up in 2 parent households tend to do OK


John Henry

Sally327 said...

It's hard for me to believe that Harvard students were so socially backward that they communicated the belief that the black students were inferior. But Reid says they did.

I wonder why it is difficult to believe that Harvard students are "socially backward" and treat other people as inferior. Is it because they are attending Harvard? So it wouldn't be difficult to believe if they were at, say, the University of Wisconsin? Or is it because they are students and so, therefore, considered to be more enlightened and tolerant than, say, someone who is 50 years old and never went to college?

If you can't conceive of snobbery and condescension and exclusion from the so-called elites in this country, whether it be towards African-Americans or poor Whites or really just about anyone else who isn't part of their class already, then you might be part of that class yourself?

Jim said...

Sebastian nailed it.

Dave Begley said...

If it wasn't for alum money, Creighton would be in sad shape. I'll add that the Begley family has been associated with Creighton for over one hundred years.

Creighton University is the greatest enterprise in the world today. FACT.

Darkisland said...

Obama and Kamala are two other examples of children of black immigrants who did OK.

Both grew up in single parent homes, though.

And Kamala is explicitly an affirmative action hire, at least for VP. Biden promised the best black woman.

Her prior political success seems to have had more to do with her skills at fellatio than anything else.

John Henry

Gahrie said...

"related to each other as individuals, not as members of a racial group?"

You mean, right after they went through an admissions process that categorized them by race and discriminated on that basis? Once enrolled, they become "individuals" again?


Anyone want to bet that Reid was a member of the Black student union at Harvard? And other segregated organizations?

I bet if someone looks hard enough they can find evidence that Reid supports segregated housing and safe spaces on university campuses. It's certainly true that Black students do at all major universities.

One of the major "truths" of Progressivism is that any Black person who strays off of the accepted Progressive zeitgeist is not "an individual" but instead a traitor to their race and an Uncle Tom.

If Reid wants to know about feeling ostracized, she should talk to conservative Black people.

JAORE said...

Must we take every utterance by a lefty as gospel w/o evidence?

Joy says she had good enough grades and test scores. OK, what were they? What extra curricular activities added to her total?

Were there no white or Asian kid with better scores/qualifications that were denied?

Just the fact that Harvard flew a recruiter to Denver to meet with a black, non-applicant seems odd. Between Harvard and Denver there are quite a few AAs. How did Joy show up on Harvard's radar.

But, let's give her the benefit of the doubt. Let's buy that her qualifications fully met, even exceeded Harvard's standards of that time. Good for her. But that is NOT what the SCOTUS case was about, was it Joy?

Wince said...

Reid's parents immigrated from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guyana. Her father was an engineer and her mother was a college professor.

Question presented: Whether Reid on the basis of race and privilege took the seat of another student who was the actual descendant of slaves?

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Martin Luther King Jr's I have a dream speech - which is eternally beautiful - must make the White Left's skin crawl.

Judging people on the content of their character and not their skin color? We can't have that.

White left (and I included Sharpton, Obama, Reid, Whoopi, That other idiot on the View = white left) want eternal situation where blacks are other-ed and in constant need of the white left's crutches.

hpudding said...

Stop counting the advantages of wealth as a plus factor in admissions.

This will never happen. And more importantly, is impossible to do.

And that is why this court is basically a force for bolstering privilege and elitism rather than opportunity and individual character. All of its decisions, its entire philosophy (and that of conservatives in America generally) is to pretend that the basest form of elitism - relative wealth - should be the basis for organizing society.

I heartily endorse the proposal that Reid bring Ramaswamy onto her show and have it out with him.

I heartily don’t. What is this, couples therapy? ‘Swamy is one of the most practiced gish gallopers there are. If your goal is to just hear how quickly someone can projectile vomit easily debunked BS onto a telecast, go for it. If you care for the quality and reliability of the assertions to be credible, it will get you nowhere. Should people be encouraged to prefer performance to reality?

Donald said...

This is pretty typical of Vivek's rhetoric. He most often engages with a straw man, rather than making a good-faith effort to critique the argument actually being advanced by an opponent.

hombre said...

"Reid never says her scores and grades wouldn't have been enough if she were not black."

No, but that's a fair inference as is your inference that they were enough. Unless it is all theatrics, however, Reid's comments, in general, reflect a credentialed person not an educated person.

More and more that is beginning to show as Harvard, et al., not affirmative action.

MikeD said...

Thomas Sowell wrote "The sense of entitlement—independent of skills or performance—has long been an accompaniment of preferential policies, for the most disparate groups in the most disparate societies."

Michael K said...

I didn't know anything about Reid's background but it does surprise me a bit. I've dealt with quite a few black immigrants as students and one uniform characteristic is appreciation for America and often disdain for the complaints of American blacks about discrimination. African blacks, in particular, do not have anything like Reid's racist views. Maybe the Congo has something to do with it. There the blacks destroyed a civilization out of hatred for whites. They were provoked by the Belgians but went far beyond the provocation.

Greg the Class Traitor said...

She says she got high grades and test scores in high school, but she wouldn't have thought to try for Harvard if Harvard hadn't come out to her small, majority-black town and recruited. She was strongly encouraged to apply.

"High" is meaningless. What were her actual GPA, SAT, and three best Achievement Test scores?

Lots of people that year had "high grades and test scores", and didn't get in to Harvard.

In fact, she describes feeling unwelcome at Harvard because other students expressed the belief that she got in on lesser credentials. I thought she sounded like Clarence Thomas complaining about how affirmative action hurt him because people assumed he was inferior to the other students.

Except she has positioned herself as one with the people attacking Clarence Thomas for doing that. So she can FOAD

Reid goes on to say that the white students at Harvard had the big advantage of feeling that they belonged there. They went to elite prep schools. They had parents who went to Harvard. Some of them had names that were the names on Harvard buildings

What a racist pig. "All white people are the same! That kid from the Appalachians is just like that Boston Brahamin!"

News flash all you racist pig supporters of "affirmative action": no, 90% of the "white kids" applying to Harvard are NOT legacies or the in crowd. They just don't get admitted.

She seems to be saying, just put us all head to head. Take away the "legacy" preferences. Stop counting the advantages of wealth as a plus factor in admissions. Make the place welcoming for kids from different places and let them know they are wanted so they think of applying and feel confident venturing there.

Then she should be exscticly in favor of this decision, and what she should be saying is "Hey Harvard, drop all the BS. Grades, test scores, geographic distribution, and that's it!"

But she's not saying that, now is she?

Legacy Admission reality check: The point of having "legacy admissions" is that the $$$ you gouge out of alumni so they can get those admits more than pays for the capacity to handle all those students. Which means that if you eliminate all the "legacy admissions", the net result will be fewer non-legacies admitted.

Now, neither I nor anyone in my family every has or will benefit from legacy admissions. I'm perfectly happy getting rid of them. But I do understand it's a red herring

That's all she's arguing for. She may be angry at the Supreme Court and attempting to contribute to the giant wave of outrage, but, interestingly enough, she never says she thinks schools should be able to do what the Court just said they can't.

Bzzt. No

You can't be upset and teh current admissions policies on the ground's she's stating, AND be upset at teh SCOTUS ruling. All you've shown is that she KNOWS that the ruling is correct and for the best, and is so politically twisted that she just doesn't care

hpudding said...

If Reid wants to know about feeling ostracized, she should talk to conservative Black people.

Conservatism admires and therefore favors established groups. For a black American to be politically conservative is to ostracize him/herself by identifying with a group that has no respect (use) for his ethnic identity.

Clarence Thomas became conservative because he found out the hard way that diversifying his law school class couldn’t guarantee him the litigation and other skills needed to succeed post-graduation in a courtroom or law firm. It couldn’t make him a less crappy lawyer, law firm applicant, or judge for that matter. So he chooses to resent the opportunity he was given instead of the poor lawyering skills that he never developed or couldn’t develop.

Either that or the discrimination of of the workforce back then bit him in the behind and he blamed affirmative action for valuing diversity at a time while the law firms were still actively discriminating against hiring minorities. Nowadays firms do value diversity so that wouldn’t be a problem. But of course he’s too obtuse to notice that and basically wants academic institutions to emulate the pervasive discrimination of workplaces 45 years ago instead. I’m sure he’ll get his perverse wish.

Michael K said...

"I thought she sounded like Clarence Thomas complaining about how affirmative action hurt him because people assumed he was inferior to the other students."

Yes, good point. They never escape that prejudgement.

Yancey Ward said...

Does Reid ever tell us what her SAT/ACT scores were? That would be a key piece of data to support her argument. Sure, she could lie about it, but that is risky since she isn't the only person with access to that data point.

Now, from the videos of her that I have watched over the years, she is quite clearly a dumbass today, but I am willing to blame that on Harvard. What did she major in?

Virgil Hilts said...

In the first week or two "my presence was questioned by white people. . ." I do not believe this. Lots of family members who attended Harvard before and after Joy. That shit did not and does not happen. Just like someone did not hack her social media accounts and add a bunch of years old homophobic content. JR is not an honest person.

Josephbleau said...

Ok, but rather hard to believe that an immigrant college professor would not suggest that her high grade high SAT daughter not apply to Harvard. Lots of African elites go there. I also suspect that hs councilors would have called in the highest scoring SAT kids, she must have been a NM semi finalist to get into Harvard on merit, and advised them to apply to Harvard.

Michael said...

At what point will blacks become embarrassed by AA? I say never. Sad.

Rocco said...

Ann Althouse said...
"Reid's parents immigrated from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guyana. Her father was an engineer and her mother was a college professor."

Wince said...
Question presented: Whether Reid on the basis of race and privilege took the seat of another student who was the actual descendant of slaves?

Considering that slavery still exists in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to this today, a follow-up question would be: Is Joy Reid descended from slave owners and enslavers?

Greg the Class Traitor said...

Once students are admitted, they ought to treat each other with respect.

Why? Thurston Howell V is just as much of an idiot as his father and grandfather, and only got in because of family money. I wouldn't respect him, and can see no reason why anyone else should.

Sponge off him? Sure. But respect him? no way

It's hard for me to believe that Harvard students were so socially backward that they communicated the belief that the black students were inferior. But Reid says they did

1: The guilty flee where no man pursueth. If she's actually intelligent, she had to expect that everyone who say her assumed she got in on AA rather than merit
2: Would anyone SAY it? Of course not. Would they decline to seek out Joy Ann to have as a study partner, on the grounds that of course she's an AA idiot, and so would drag teh group down?

Quite probably.

Look, the thought that lives inside the head of every single white "affirmative action" support is "of course those black people can't make it on their own! That's why we need AA!"

So since Joy Ann is clearly not the kind of person who would seek out conservative friends, essentially every white she interacted with is someone who at some level sees here as an inferior who needs their help.

She made that bed. She demands that everyone else be shoved into it, to. And as a consequence she got what she deserved

Original Mike said...

"It's hard for me to believe that Harvard students were so socially backward that they communicated the belief that the black students were inferior."

Me too.

Roger Sweeny said...

JAORE asked how Kamala Harris could have shown up on Harvard's radar. I don't know how it works undergrad, but the MCAT (SAT for med school) gives Harvard (and I assume everywhere else) the scores of those who took the test and their declared race/ethnicity. Harvard Med School then sends out letters to every "under-represented minority" who scored above a certain point, saying that they should apply for admission.

This is one part of "outreach".

Rory said...

"she wouldn't have thought to try for Harvard if Harvard hadn't come out to her small, majority-black town and recruited."

What does this mean? It seems she grew up in Denver, and graduated from Montbello High School there.

John henry said...

On reflection it does not seem like it would be unfair to say that kamala is vp today because she is a black woman and good at fellatio.

She would never gotten her first step on the ladder without Willie brown and he helped her because of fellatio.

A hell of a thing to say about any woman and esp any woman politician.

John Henry

John henry said...

Kamala may wind up as our first French (iykwimaityd) president.

Macron can give her some special honor

John Henry

Butkus51 said...

All that knowledge and still wears a hideous wig that bears no resemblance to reality.

Makes sense.

Rocco said...

"It's hard for me to believe that Harvard students were so socially backward that they communicated the belief that the black students were inferior. But Reid says they did."

Sally327 said...
"I wonder why it is difficult to believe that Harvard students are "socially backward" and treat other people as inferior. Is it because they are attending Harvard? So it wouldn't be difficult to believe if they were at, say, the University of Wisconsin? Or is it because they are students and so, therefore, considered to be more enlightened and tolerant than, say, someone who is 50 years old and never went to college?

If you can't conceive of snobbery and condescension and exclusion from the so-called elites in this country, whether it be towards African-Americans or poor Whites or really just about anyone else who isn't part of their class already, then you might be part of that class yourself?
"

White German-American Warren Meyer, who used to run the CoyoteBlog, once had a post about his experiences at Harvard in the eighties. He grew up in Houston, and said that there was a lot of condescension towards Southern Whites at Harvard. So much so, that some of the Southerners who were previously indifferent or disliked the Confederate Battle Flag started displaying it as a big "Fuck You" to the snobs.

Chuck said...

This post is a model of good blogging by Althouse.

Chuck said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Chuck said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ralph L said...

Black kids who grow up in 2 parent households tend to do OK

Emphasis on "tend." I recall a study several decades ago that for boys (of any race), a step-father is only slightly better than no father in the home when it comes to avoiding criminality. With a step-mother, the rate was close to biological mother.

Sailer put up someone's graph some months ago. The children of higher income black households (number of parents unspecified) have the incarceration rate of the children of working class whites, a small fraction of that of w c blacks. The ones at the very top (guessing pro athletes, singers, and rappers) are actually significantly worse than the ones just below.

Rich white kids, of course, never go to prison because they're all angelic.

gspencer said...

We're told Obama was/is "brilliant." We still don't know his grades, SATs, LSATs.

Gahrie said...

Conservatism admires and therefore favors established groups. For a black American to be politically conservative is to ostracize him/herself by identifying with a group that has no respect (use) for his ethnic identity.

Even blind squirrels occasionally find nuts. This is one of those very rare occasions when you are right. Conservatives don't have any respect or use for anyone's ethnic identity. Instead they respect people as individuals and reject the idea that their ethnicity is important in any way.

cassandra lite said...

"Reid never says her scores and grades wouldn't have been enough if she were not black."

She also doesn't say, "My test scores and grades were high enough on their own to get into Harvard, so I didn't even consider Harvard as a possibility."

She implies that they weren't good enough by saying she benefited from affirmative action. Affirmative action isn't necessary if your grades and test scores are high enough. No one who hears the term "affirmative action" thinks of it as outreach.

Milo Minderbinder said...

Well, if only we'd axed affirmative action long ago, Joy Reid wouldn't have felt so unwelcome at Harvard, would she?

It's logically impossible to maintain on one hand that all races are equally capable, and on the other argue campus percentages of black students will decrease as a result of SCOTUS' decision to end (really, a decision to stop masking racial discrimination for public education) affirmative action. Percentages of black students will drop only if they were overrepresented in the past, the result of course of affirmative action. Enjoy your paycheck, Joy.

alanc709 said...

So Chuck, do you really think that pandering to our Cruelly Neutral bloghost will prevent your next banning? Maybe if you add that you are transitioning (male or female, hard to tell since you're such a weak person), you can garner her forbearance.

William said...

She is a child of considerable privilege. I wonder if all her resentment is a function of that privilege. People are perhaps more likely to feel resentment rather than gratitude for favors bestowed.....If a college is founded to educate the impecunious children of clergy, then that college has a right to give the impecunious children of the clergy preferential treatment for admissions....I guess Harvard is entitled to show preferential treatment but it does seem that they have managed to piss everybody off, including the people that have benefited from their preferential treatment.

Curious George said...

OK, the question is, can Joy Reid?

MadisonMan said...

Those very white fingernails are very distracting.

Tina Trent said...

Colorblind, needs-blind, sex-blind, no personal essay, SAT and later graduate school entrance exams required. Admissions staff receive only anonymous results with all personal references excluded, including geographic location (except home state for state schools).

Anything less introduces incentives for bias. Forget legacies: they and sports programs are a distraction from education. There is so much money wasted now beyond essentials that schools don't need legacy funding: if you love your community and school that much, nobody is stopping you from donating, even if Jr. doesn't get in.

Study after study has revealed that the largest differentials in success for students admitted to higher education lie in intact families and whether the parents attended college themselves.

I've worked in an elite school, low-ranking community colleges, and guest lectured everywhere in-between. The largest problem I saw in all cases was privileged students disrupting other people's learning. At the elite school, it was financially elite students and American-born minorities, by no means all of either group. At the average and poorer schools, it was American-born minorities whose privilege arose from attitude fostered by other who taught them to be disruptive, and the behavior was sometimes extreme to the point of threats and violence.

I imagine few here have witnessed such behavior while trying to teach, and I hardly saw the worst of it, but the solutions are extremely simple. The person in the article below, however, has witnessed the worst, and even he can't admit how bad it is, just like other liberal friends of mine who have lasted a few weeks or months in a bad public k-12 school and quit rather than face their political culpability for the terrible conditions they witness. It's a brutal read:

https://wesleyyang.substack.com/p/taught-for-america

Chuck said...

As we sift through the recent SCOTUS term, with all sorts of NeverTrump/Movement Conservatives (myself among them) now defending many of the contentious decisions, let's recall the "Harvard" quote from our patron saint, Bill Buckley.

It's a quote that has been repeated so often with so many little variations that it sometimes is thought to be apocryphal. It isn't.

“I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the telephone directory,” he said, “than by the Harvard University faculty.”
1961 January, Esquire magazine, William F. Buckley, Jr.: Portrait of a Complainer by Dan Wakefield, Quote Page 50, Esquire, Inc., New York. (Verified with microfilm)

cf said...

Interesting background, reminds me of this:

The son of our dear (Black) friends in SoCal moved his band up here to Portland as an easier venue to break into big time (& eventually succeeded greatly). To get started, he stayed with us the first month while finding a job and place to rent, and one of his band mates stayed with us also.

Both black, and "our Chris" was from generations of American stock, an awesome, loving terrific fellah. But his bandmate, Osama, was a new American, his parents were upscale African college professors who had scored jobs at UC Riverside, and he had just graduated from UC with a degree in, I forget, sociology maybe?

Unlike other African immigrants/visitors I had worked with, "Osama" had adopted a bitter glower and was ever clenched to find wrong-think. He was full of the politics of victimization although he had never lived it. Thankfully, Cris' band let him fall away a couple of months after they got going up here.

What was interesting was watching him arrive "normal", dressed easy & casual like Chris, and eventually seeing him often on SE Hawthorne -- after he'd left the band -- wearing the most audacious "Angry American Black Man" attire, dreadlocks and generally making a scene.

Dear Chris would just shake his head.

reading this and Joy's background, I guess it's a thing.

Yancey Ward said...

Chuck is a large brown-noser the size of a small brown-noser.

Rory said...

"It's hard for me to believe that Harvard students were so socially backward that they communicated the belief that the black students were inferior. But Reid says they did"

Any frank discussion about affirmative action is likely to be taken this way.

Bob Boyd said...

All well and good until she starts claiming that it's okay with the SC majority for rich people buy places for their kids at Harvard because those people can pay for fancy trips. and then going on to say all such people were slave owners and that's the reason they're rich.
This is a vile slander based on nothing. Which SC justice has been accused of deciding in favor of letting rich people buy slots for their kids at Harvard in exchange for a fancy trip?
Obviously, it's an attempt to smear the majority by conflating the recent story about Justice Thomas socializing with Trammel Crow. The SC has no say over that policy at Harvard. And Reid has not asked any of them what they think about that policy, a policy of a private institution. It's evil and destructive to spread that kind of crap.

Actually, by doing so she is making an argument in favor of replacing race based affirmative action with affirmative action based on socioeconomic background and challenging life experiences.

Harvard is not suddenly going to stop admitting Black students. They will continue to hit their target numbers, they just won't say it's because of race and that could be a good thing for the black students because they won't have to endure having their right to be at the school questioned, the very experience Reid was describing in this clip.

Jupiter said...

"It's hard for me to believe that Harvard students were so socially backward that they communicated the belief that the black students were inferior. But Reid says they did."

And she wouldn't lie!

Hubert the Infant said...

I read recently something I had never thought of: Affirmative action is favored by elite blacks who are used to competing and winning against other blacks but who find it much more difficult to compete successfully against non-blacks. Something related to that is that black immigrants often look down on American-born blacks. Finally, it seems that there is a tendency among high-achieving blacks -- such as Justice Jacknson -- to marry whites. Could that possibly be a recognition that racism does not explain everything?

Jupiter said...

Of course, if Harvard really wants to be free to choose their students on the basis of whatever criteria they prefer, all they need to do is stop taking that federal money.

Amadeus 48 said...

Joy Reid's body of work speaks for itself. She is a bigot of the first order. She hates white people categorically and then accuses them of hating black people.

Watching her ridiculous blatherings causes one to become more prejudiced. Vikram is the least of her problems. Remember when she said her Twitter account was hacked to portray her as an antigay bigot? Not even The Intercept and The Atlantic let her tet away with that one

Moondawggie said...

gspencer said: "We're told Obama was/is "brilliant." We still don't know his grades, SATs, LSATs."

We were told the same about Al Gore by the MSM. Turned out his college GPA was lower than George W's.

hombre said...

Puddinhead wrote: "Clarence Thomas became conservative because he found out the hard way that diversifying his law school class couldn’t guarantee him the litigation and other skills needed to succeed post-graduation in a courtroom or law firm."

Puddinhead apparently believes he/she knows this to be true. Takes me back to the old Reagan observation: "It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so.”

It's not quite apt because today's lefties are not liberals in the classical sense and they are ignorant. Nevertheless, the point is well-taken in this case.

gilbar said...

Let's stipulate, that there "should be" AA, because of.. some reason.
WHY THE F*CK is Harvard recruiting a daughter of a foreign professor and a foreign engineer?
(i mean, ASIDE from the fact, that she was WAY smarter than native blacks)
Her family had NO Experience with american slavery (Congo slavery..maybe)
Her family had NO Experience with american discrimination
WHAT "diversity" did Joy Reid bring? The "diversity" of being a foreigner? Like a East Asian has?

Skeptical Voter said...

Ms. Althouse you are cutting the vapid Joy Reid some slack here. Harvard students so socially backward that they let Joy know "she didn't belong". I'll spot you Harvard, and point you to Yale Law School where J.D. Vance's fellow students expressed surprise (along with "you don't belong here") that a fellow from Appalachia was admitted to Yale Law.

MikeD said...

Would seem unqualified PoC's aren't only ones accepted. See White male(?) David Hogg.

Eric Rathmann said...

The expression "white privilege" has to be one of the more destructive racist statements. 49% of the people in poverty are non-Hispanic whites. 41% of the students at the worst school district (Jefferson Cnty, KY) in the country are non-Hispanic whites. 40% of Harvard students are US non-Hispanic whites. Of those, 43% are legacy enrollees. So out of the non-Harvard Legacy, non-Hispanic white, US population of 190 million, 60%, Harvard gets 23% of their students. Significantly lower odds of getting into Harvard than if you are Asian-American, Hispanic American, African American, Mixed race American. Fertile grounds if you seek equality and helping disadvantaged.

Bob Boyd said...

I don't have a problem with Harvard going out of their way to recruit a black young woman out of a small school in CO and offer her a chance to walk through doors only an Ivy League sheepskin can open. I think it's great that happened for her.
But if Reid doesn't like Harvard's policies with regard to legacy admits and big donors, she should take it up with her alma mater. How are those policies the fault of the conservative justices? President Obama's daughter went to Harvard. I don't hear Reid complaining about the Obamas taking advantage of Harvard's legacy admit policy or accusing Malia of somehow cheating because her father was President.
Affirmative action at elite schools only helps a very small number of people, smart, motivated people who will generally do very well in life whether they get into a Harvard or not. It's clearly not enough. We need to fix our public schools and that won't happen until we make it easy for kids to attend better alternatives. If the teacher's unions have a monopoly on public education, they'll have zero incentive to improve or change. Their priority will always be to preserve and increase their power.

Bruce Hayden said...

“ Rich white kids, of course, never go to prison because they're all angelic.”

Esp if their last name is Biden. Apparently, a bag of cocaine was found yesterday on the Biden WH lawn. Coincidently, it was the same day that a video of him was released driving 172 mph on his way to Las Vegas, smoking crack. And a week after he got a slap on the wrist for a dozen or so felonies. Oh, and he is apparently a Harvard grad.

Michael K said...

Something related to that is that black immigrants often look down on American-born blacks. Finally, it seems that there is a tendency among high-achieving blacks -- such as Justice Jacknson -- to marry whites. Could that possibly be a recognition that racism does not explain everything?

I've noticed that, as well. One good reason OJ got off is that black women hate white women who marry black men.

mikee said...

Althouse errs in thinking that Harvard would be diverse, at least for certain values of that word, without onerous federal law, vast regulation, "advisory" letters from DOE, and strings the size of the Titanic's hawsers attached to the money that flows into that institution.

It used to be that "too many" Jews graduated Yale, so their entry was limited. What next? How about just stop the damn foolishness of diversity and achieve more with meritocratic admission, or just go 100% legacy admissions and admit the whole university system is corrupt?

Drago said...

LLR-democratical and Violent Homosexual Rage Rape Fantasist Chuck: "As we sift through the recent SCOTUS term, with all sorts of NeverTrump/Movement Conservatives (myself among them)..."

LOL

A "conservative" who openly and passionately supports the radical trans agenda in full, including groomer activities in schools, defends Whitmer on every policy debate (as just one state government example), adores Adam Schiff and who continuously pushes every MSNBC/dem lawfare/lefties talking point across the board.

This list could go on forever.

Gee, something tells me there is something rotten over in LLR "conservative"-land.

It's almost as if those LLR's aren't really "conservatives" at all........

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

hpudding is a obedient cookie cut hivemind leftist. No debating the holy and precious left! Obey the narrative!- no need to listen to anything but the leftist echo-chamber. Obey.

Drago said...

Eddie Haskell: "This post is a model of good blogging by Althouse."

Another cringey and creepy post by our resident schizophrenic suckup/lefty attack dog LLR-democratical Chuck.

Static Ping said...

Joy Reid is pretty much Exhibit A of why an Ivy League degree is far less valued than it once was. I don't know if she would have gotten into Harvard without Affirmative Action or not, but if she did qualify normally it brings into serious question Harvard's judgment. Nothing she has done has indicated she is a deep thinker, or, for that matter, does any thinking at all. I suppose we should be impressed that she has gotten very well paid for her ignorance, but that sort of thing is quite easy in any system that gets infested with psychopaths and sociopaths. Once those people get in charge, they only hire people who will further their own goals, which has nothing to do with what the organization is supposed to be doing, or are unthreatening to their positions.

She's also another example of a Leftist saying things that would be completely unacceptable to any non-Leftist but is perfectly fine for her. She was hacked! Via time travel! True story, bro!

Drago said...

Danno: "Joy Reid is an effin retard and only speaks the DNC talking points. Everyone knows she is lying anytime her lips are moving."

So very true.

And that also makes Joy a "LLR" in good standing.

Oh, maybe that's why LLR-democratical Chuck spends so much time linking to MSNBC.

Kind of makes sense now, doesn't it?

Deevs said...

"In fact, she describes feeling unwelcome at Harvard because other students expressed the belief that she got in on lesser credentials. I thought she sounded like Clarence Thomas complaining about how affirmative action hurt him because people assumed he was inferior to the other students."

Well, I then assume Joy Reid will be happy to know that non-black Harvard students won't have any reason to think black Harvard students got accepted based on anything other than their academic qualifications.

dbp said...

"That's all she's arguing for." Except, that's not all that she's arguing for or even what she's arguing for.

She's only talking about affirmative action because of the recent decision by the Supreme Court. By talking about literal affirmative action, when what was banned is euphemistically called affirmative action, she's trying to pretend like this ruling is something it isn't.

She complains about her presence being questioned by white people:

1. It's highly dubious that the highly socialized game-players who get into Harvard would have done any open questioning.

2. They would have ample reason to question Reid's qualifications though: A bit under half of white and Asian students are below average (for Harvard) but most black American students are below average (for Harvard). Everyone knows this, so there may be some subconscious manifestation of it.



Chuck said...

alanc709 said...
So Chuck, do you really think that pandering to our Cruelly Neutral bloghost will prevent your next banning?


No, I'm quite certain nothing I do will prevent my next banning. There's very little rhyme or reason as to any of my bannings. Nothing that any stated policy would explain.

Maybe if you add that you are transitioning (male or female, hard to tell since you're such a weak person), you can garner her forbearance.

You're a weird motherfucker. Let me tell you what I do. When I disagree with Althouse (almost never, on technical legal issues; much more often, regarding Trump), I say so. Usually very respectfully.

And when I agree with Althouse, I sometimes say that too. As I did here. I meant it. I care less than nothing as to what you might think about that.

In the vast majority of her posts, I make no comment at all.

Even more rare is when I address a comment to anyone other than Althouse. Because most of you TrumpWing maniacs aren't worth it and never will be.

Original Mike said...

"It's a brutal read:
https://wesleyyang.substack.com/p/taught-for-america
"


Yes, it was.

Dogma and Pony Show said...

Bob Boyd said: "Harvard ... will continue to hit their target numbers, they just won't say it's because of race and that could be a good thing for the black students because they won't have to endure having their right to be at the school questioned, the very experience Reid was describing in this clip."

It seems doubtful to me that Harvard will be able to admit nearly the same number of black applicants without being able to use race per se as a plus factor. Harvard is admitting roughly 300 blacks per incoming class, not a lot in terms of absolute numbers. A lot of those students come from suburban and private high schools and from overseas. Joy Reid may be pretty typical of the type of AA applicant who gets into Harvard: the product of an affluent and accomplished two-parent family. If Harvard switches to an admissions model that heavily favors applicants who overcame economic and social disadvantages, a Joy Reid is not getting in on that basis. Nor will the son or daughter of a successful black surgeon in Manhattan, to use another example. If Harvard tries to make up for the loss of these privileged black applicants by tapping into the pool of inner city black kids who actually did grow up under adverse circumstances (poverty, broken homes, etc.), it'll find that very few in that cohort are remotely qualified to attend Harvard. And Harvard will have the additional problem of having to open its doors to underprivileged white and Asian students, too. I don't see any easy way out of this situation for Harvard. Perhaps they can find ways to include a few extra blacks here and there at the margins; but it's going to be very hard to match their previous numbers if they can't treat skin color itself as a reason to favor a talented black student over a talented white or Asian student; or favor an underprivileged black student over an underprivileged white or Asian student.

Freeman Hunt said...

Smart kids want rich kids there. Who is going to invest in their start-ups?

walter said...

We know schools can cook their books to make their school look better, receive funds. I remember teachers in Georgia getting caught a few years back.
In theory, the standardized tests try to suss that out.
But targeted recruiting (greenlining?) paired with "holistic" credits are themselves a form of AA.
And if you go in feeling you got special consideration, you are far more likely to feel subject to discrimination. I'd be curious if she has any actual examples.
I had an email conversation with an AA Madison radio show host about AA. He felt quotas were wrong but that it was ok to chase/recruit faculty position applicants across the country based on race though they didn't apply. I asked him by what metric would one determine enough slots were filled that way? Deflection ensued.


Michael K said...

Conservatism admires and therefore favors established groups. For a black American to be politically conservative is to ostracize him/herself by identifying with a group that has no respect (use) for his ethnic identity.

pudding cup shows, once again, how little lefties understand conservatives. After this series of USSC decisions, lefties have not been so angry since Republicans freed their slaves.

Greg the Class Traitor said...

hpudding said...
Conservatism admires and therefore favors established groups. For a black American to be politically conservative is to ostracize him/herself by identifying with a group that has no respect (use) for his ethnic identity.

"Ethnic identity"? You mean like "Hutus" and "Tutsis"? No, we dont' give a damn about that.

We don't care about your skin color, either.

Because unlike you, we aren't racist pigs.

That's a positive, not a negative

Gusty Winds said...

Harvard Schmarvard. Who cares. Harvard is not the issue.

Bigger issue are flagship state school like The University of Wisconsin in Madison. Supported by WI taxpayers.

WI kids should be first in line. And the admission percentage of in state applicants should be much greater than the current 46%.

paminwi said...

1. “Some of them had names that were the names on Harvard buildings.”
2. “eliminating special privileges that rich white students might have”

1. Waaahhhh! So a few rich kids had families that gave Harvard a boatload of money. Exactly how many kids out of the thousands of students did this situation apply to? In my world there are and were ALWAYS people way richer than I am/was.
2. Exactly what special privileges is she taking about? Rich people ALWAYS have special privileges. This will NEVER stop happening.
Why do people complain about things that have happened since the beginning of time?

iowan2 said...

She went to Harvard, but did not want to go to Harvard.

The issue seems to be, she sees herself as first and foremost Black. Then not worthy.

This sounds like a self esteem problem, allowed to fester by her parents and guidance councilor.

Her comment, just supports the narrative, Reid is not the brightest bulb in the box. She actualy thinks being recruited is the same as Affirmative Action

SAGOLDIE said...

"It's hard for me to believe that Harvard students were so socially backward that they communicated the belief that the black students were inferior."

Hopefully I'm not being too presumptuous . . . .

To use Obama's term, I'm thinking you could have written, "It's hard for me to believe that [a bunch of] Harvard students were so socially backward that they communicated the belief that the black students were inferior."

I'm sure you are right. BUT, all it would take is one or two to leave a lifelong memory of her time at Harvard.

Not to say that these instances would dominate her thinking about the whole four-year experience but they would be there, ready to surface when prompted by a "so what was it like for an African American at Harvard, back in the day?"

It's been more than 60 years and I well remember my first encounter with anti-semitism as a college freshman. I also remember the second. I don't remember the tenth.

Anyway, that's what I think.

Mikey NTH said...

I can easily believe in the social backwardness, awkwardness, and general cluelessness of people aged 18-22.

Rabel said...

Treating Joy Reid as an honest reporter of the facts of her history or anything else is an error.

Jamie said...

No one who hears the term "affirmative action" thinks of it as outreach.

This isn't true, I'm afraid.

Our various progressive and Left-liberal friends all think this is at least partly and maybe even entirely what it means - that Step 1, at least, is preferentially recruiting (for school or for work) in "nontraditional" places where the applicant pool will be "diverse." And then many of them believe that the playing field is level thereafter, which, who knows, maybe in some cases it is. Harvard isn't one of those places, based on the published metrics for successful candidates.

Interestingly, one progressive couple we've known for years was talking about this ruling with us this week. (They know we're not as far left as they are but would be horrified to learn we're actually on the right.) The husband, a son of wealth and privilege, was getting all mouth-frothy about the ruling. The wife, who we estimate makes about double what the husband does (they do very very well), is Romanian, and did her undergrad in Europe and grad school here, shocked the heck out of us by arguing in favor of the ruling. We think this is because their older son starts high school this year and suddenly it's personal.

She is a high-up banker. She told a story about a black woman at her bank, undergrad in petroleum engineering then MBA, who was hired to head the group that dealt with lending to petroleum companies. She was promoted to Managing Director, and our friend (who outranks her) said she couldn't see why, based on her performance.

Her husband argued that this MD hadn't taken a job from anyone else; we all chimed in at that point, as it is inarguable that MD is a rank in banking to which all aspire and which few achieve.

And then the plot thickened: The bank now no longer lends to petroleum companies, but this woman is still employed and - our friend seemed to say, though I've not heard of this before - still headed that now-empty and idle group. Our friend, not being from these parts, came right out and said it was "obviously because she's black" that she still had a job there, as an MD no less.

Bob Boyd said...

@ Dogma and Pony Show

Never doubt Harvard's ability to come up with a wonderfully creative rationalization that will allow them to both do whatever they please and to fall in love with themselves all over again in the process.

Mason G said...

Diversity, is it? How did that work out for Yugoslavia?

Iman said...

The Qween of Distortion takes a hit. Color me unimpressed.

Iman said...

“pudding cup shows, once again, how little lefties understand conservatives. After this series of USSC decisions, lefties have not been so angry since Republicans freed their slaves.”

Slavery, KKK formation, Jim Crow, lynching… Democrats/lefties have quite the list of accomplishments under their belts. And yet they still won’t shut their festering gobs.

Drago said...

Mason G: "Diversity, is it? How did that work out for Yugoslavia?"

What's Yugoslavi.....oh. Right.

Moondawggie said...

paminwi said:

1. "So a few rich kids had families that gave Harvard a boatload of money. Exactly how many kids out of the thousands of students did this situation apply to?"

Well, as Eric Rathmann pointed out in a post above, "40% of Harvard students are US non-Hispanic whites. Of those, 43% are legacy enrollees." So legacy admissions apparently make up almost half of all the US white kids entering Harvard. That's not remotely trivial.

2. "Why do people complain about things that have happened since the beginning of time?"


Gee, slavery was with humanity since the beginning of time until those evil white Europeans and Americans largely put an end to it in the 19th century. Same with human sacrifice over a longer period of time. Look up ancient Egyptian, Aztec, Carthaginian, and more recent Indian Suttee if you are unfamiliar with the concept.

The world was never perfect and has much room for future improvement. That's why we bitch and change crappy things that have been around for way too long.

Moondawggie said...

paminwi said..."1. So a few rich kids had families that gave Harvard a boatload of money. Exactly how many kids out of the thousands of students did this situation apply to?"

Well, according to Rathman's post above, of the "non-hispanic whites" Harvard admits, 43% are legacy admissions. So legacy admissions make up almost half of all white kids entering Harvard. That's not trivial.

2. "Why do people complain about things that have happened since the beginning of time?"

Slavery was with humanity since the beginning of time until those evil white Europeans and Americans largely put an end to it in the 19th century. Same with human sacrifice.

The world was never perfect, and has much room for future improvement.

That's why we bitch and change crappy things that have been around for way too long.

MikeM said...

How did she do in Calculus 1 at Harvard?

madAsHell said...

........I went to Harvard, but all I got was a job as a talking head.

Color me unimpressed!

paminwi said...

Moondawggie: 1. who cares about the 43% legacy students? Are you saying every single one of those kids over decades of time have buildings named after their families on campus? Cuz that’s what she was bitching about!
2. She never defines “special privileges”. It’s late so May e I am missing your point but what does slavery have to do with “special privileges”?

gadfly said...

So in all the time that minority students were being recruited, if not oriental, no system popped up to recruit all scholars regardless of skin color on the same basis as athletes.

The closest we got was using National Merit Scholarship test scores, but the scholarships offered have always been mediocre. Some schools such as Michigan State offer annual testing and interviews to about 1,000 students while granting about 50 full boat giveaways.

But building better teams is a goal but enabling the smartest to succeed has never been a favored social goal. So colleges are for winning at sports as paying athletes to play comes of age.

Mind your own business said...

Until you know what her grades and test scores were and compare them to the averages of other kids admitted to Harvard, you still have no idea whether she was a AA admitted person or not.

You may want to pretend she would have gotten in on her own, but that is no more valid an assumption than the assumption that she wouldn't.

hpudding said...

Takes me back to the old Reagan observation: "It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so.”

Well make up whatever is left of your mind (or Reagan’s demented mind) and say which it is. Are Thomas’s words untrue or ignorant? I only referred directly to them in that comment. And if you stick your head even deeper into that ostrich hole, you could find out for yourself what he said. I quote:

“He has said that the law firms he applied to after graduating from Yale did not take his J.D. seriously, assuming he obtained it because of affirmative action. According to Thomas, the law firms also "asked pointed questions, unsubtly suggesting that they doubted I was as smart as my grades indicated".”

Sounds like Thomas was either a poor law firm candidate or could have used affirmative action in getting hired at truly discriminatory practices, just as I said.

A decent man would apologize for getting as wrong as you just did. Only judges who talk to colleagues about pubic hairs on Coke cans would be so careless.

hpudding said...

Slavery, KKK formation, Jim Crow, lynching… Democrats/lefties have quite the list of accomplishments under their belts. And yet they still won’t shut their festering gobs.

Interesting. You’re saying Democrats were “left-wing” presumably prior to 1964. I wonder what Republicans like Teddy Roosevelt would say to that, seeing as how called himself a progressive.

Sounds like “left wing” means conservative to you, then?

hpudding said...

"Ethnic identity"? You mean like "Hutus" and "Tutsis"? No, we dont' give a damn about that.

Oh, I see. So your colorblindness would have prevented you from activist affirmatively to arm or assist the Tutsis who were being slaughtered in a genocide launched against them by the more powerful Hutu majority. Thanks for clarifying the evil nature of your position, acting un-affirmatively to keep minorities unequal and subject to depredations in either conflict or social advancement.

Greg the Class Traitor said...

Moondawggie said...
Well, according to Rathman's post above, of the "non-hispanic whites" Harvard admits, 43% are legacy admissions.

It's lovely how the game of "telephone" gets played.

That 43% is legacies, "athletes", and children of employees, NOT just "legacies.

But hey, never let teh facts get in the way of a good story, right?

Craig Mc said...

If one of the dumbest people on the dumbest cable channel is a product of Harvard, they need to fold up and sell off the land.

Greg the Class Traitor said...

hpudding said...
"Ethnic identity"? You mean like "Hutus" and "Tutsis"? No, we dont' give a damn about that.

Oh, I see. So your colorblindness would have prevented you from activist affirmatively to arm or assist the Tutsis who were being slaughtered in a genocide launched against them by the more powerful Hutu majority.


No, puddinghead, it's left wing ideology, which says "they're all black", that caused teh Democrat Clinton Administration to just sit back and watch the genocide take place..

SO is it your claim that you're just too stupid to figure out teh point I was making?

John Adams said...

The fatal flaw in your position (and Reid's) is that what is is describing isn't what affirmative action is or how it works. She "says" she had "really high SAT scores and really good grades", but... DID SHE?

My son just finished 9th grade and took his first AP course. He's a straight A student. He got 1310 out of 1420 on the PSAT first time taking it. He got a perfect score on the math. He is now working toward getting a 1600 on the SAT, which I'm sure is much higher than Reid got. My other son got a 1390 on the SAT and he isn't even trying. The 9th grader I'm talking about has a GPA of 5.6625 now. He is two years ahead and will graduate with over a year of college finished already. If you just look at him and discern that he is white, he would most likely NOT be accepted to Harvard... even though he will have a 1600 SAT score and an almost 6.0 GPA. But then, when they look at his race on his application and see that he is American Indian, he'd be a shoo-in, which is wrong. Granted... he would actually have earned it with his scores... but I've heard Joy Reid reason and my 15 year old already demonstrates far better reasoning skills than she does. I bet her SAT score didn't break 1400 and her GPA wasn't as high as my son's GPA (unweighted he is 4.0). That means she couldn't be accepted to Harvard unless she was an affirmative action student who got in with lesser grades and scores. That means that she displaced somebody who was more deserving than she was and had better credentials.

Joy Reid is nothing more than a race-baiting misologist who literally gets everything wrong ALL the time. And to think, her entire existence is based on a life mired in lies and mediocrity.

John Adams said...

The fatal flaw in your position (and Reid's) is that what is is describing isn't what affirmative action is or how it works. She "says" she had "really high SAT scores and really good grades", but... DID SHE?

My son just finished 9th grade and took his first AP course. He's a straight A student. He got 1310 out of 1420 on the PSAT first time taking it. He got a perfect score on the math. He is now working toward getting a 1600 on the SAT, which I'm sure is much higher than Reid got. My other son got a 1390 on the SAT and he isn't even trying. The 9th grader I'm talking about has a GPA of 5.6625 now. He is two years ahead and will graduate with over a year of college finished already. If you just look at him and discern that he is white, he would most likely NOT be accepted to Harvard... even though he will have a 1600 SAT score and an almost 6.0 GPA. But then, when they look at his race on his application and see that he is American Indian, he'd be a shoo-in, which is wrong. Granted... he would actually have earned it with his scores... but I've heard Joy Reid reason and my 15 year old already demonstrates far better reasoning skills than she does. I bet her SAT score didn't break 1400 and her GPA wasn't as high as my son's GPA (unweighted he is 4.0). That means she couldn't be accepted to Harvard unless she was an affirmative action student who got in with lesser grades and scores. That means that she displaced somebody who was more deserving than she was and had better credentials.

Joy Reid is nothing more than a race-baiting misologist who literally gets everything wrong ALL the time. And to think, her entire existence is based on a life mired in lies and mediocrity.