Obama Signs Executive Order Granting Black Students Carte Blanche to Engage in School Violence and Disruption

By Nicholas Stix

[Previously on this same issue, by this writer:

“Dubious Scholarship Feeds Racial Politics in Schools”; and

“School Violence and Race: Michelle Malkin Strikes Out Again.”]

My VDARE colleague Alan Wall, correctly called Obama’s notion that black kids may not be disciplined according to the frequency of their misbehavior, “racial totalitarianism.”

But if that is true, the civil rights movement was and is also “racial totalitarianism.”
 
* * *Obama backs race-based school discipline policies
July 27, 2012, 118 a.m.
By Neil Munro
The Daily Caller

President Barack Obama is backing a controversial campaign by progressives to regulate schools’ disciplinary actions so that members of major racial and ethnic groups are penalized at equal rates, regardless of individuals’ behavior.

His July 26 executive order established a government panel to promote “a positive school climate that does not rely on methods that result in disparate use of disciplinary tools.”

“African Americans lack equal access to highly effective teachers and principals, safe schools, and challenging college-preparatory classes, and they disproportionately experience school discipline,” said the order, titled “White House Initiative On Educational Excellence.”

Because of those causes, the report suggests, “over a third of African American students do not graduate from high school on time with a regular high school diploma, and only four percent of African American high school graduates interested in college are college-ready across a range of subjects.”

“What this means is that whites and Asians will get suspended for things that blacks don’t get suspended for,” because school officials will try to level punishments despite groups’ different infraction rates, predicted Hans Bader, a counsel at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Bader is a former official in the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, and has sued and represented school districts and colleges in civil-rights cases.

“It is too bad that the president has chosen to set up a new bureaucracy with a focus on one particular racial group, to the exclusion of all others,” said Roger Clegg, the president of the Center for Equal Opportunity.

“A disproportionate share of crimes are committed by African Americans, and they are disproportionately likely to misbehave in school… [because] more than 7 out of 10 African Americans (72.5 percent) are born out of wedlock… versus fewer than 3 out of 10 whites,” he said in a statement to The Daily Caller. Although ” you won’t see it mentioned in the Executive Order… there is an obvious connection between these [marriage] numbers and how each group is doing educationally, economically, criminally,” he said.

The order created a “President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans.” It will include senior officials from several federal agencies — including the Departments of Education, Justice and Labor — which have gained increased power over state education policies since 2009.

The progressives campaign for race-based discipline policies also won a victory in Maryland July 24.

The state’s board of education established a policy demanding that each racial or ethnic group receive roughly proportional level of school penalties, regardless of the behavior by members of each group.

The board’s decision requires that “the state’s 24 school systems track data to ensure that minority and special education students are not unduly affected by suspensions, expulsions and other disciplinary measures,” said a July 25 Washington Post report.

“Disparities would have to be reduced within a year and eliminated within three years,” according to the Post.

The state’s new racial policy was welcomed by progressives, including Judith Browne Dianis, a director of the D.C.-based Advancement Project. “Maryland’s proposal is on the cutting edge,” she told the Post.

Dianis’ project is also a law firm that litigates race-related questions, and it gains from laws and regulations that spur race-related legal disputes.

“The combination of overly harsh school policies … has created a ‘schoolhouse-to-jailhouse track,’ in which punitive measures such as suspensions, expulsions, and school-based arrests are increasingly used to deal with student misbehavior,” claimed the group’s website.

This “is a racial justice crisis, because the students pushed out through harsh discipline are disproportionately students of color,” the group insisted.

The administration had previously advertised its support for the campaign to impose race-based discipline policies.

In February, Attorney General Eric Holder claimed that “we’ve often seen that students of color, students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and students with special needs are disproportionately likely to be suspended or expelled.”

“This is, quite simply, unacceptable. … These unnecessary and destructive policies must be changed,” he said in his speech, given in Atlanta, Ga.

Holder’s speech did not, however, include any evidence of discrimination toward any individual African-American student. For example, he offered no evidence that school infractions by African-American students prompt stiffer punishments than similar infractions by white, Hispanic or Asian students.

The progressive campaign to impose race-based rules on schools relies on various judges’ decisions, which penalize so-called “disparate impact” in hiring.

According to progressive lawyers, “disparate impact” may occur when companies or state and local governments hire and promote people at rates different from their percentage in the local population.

Because of judges’ decisions, juries can force companies and state agencies — such as city boards that hire police officers and firefighters — to pay heavy financial penalties to plaintiffs, even when hiring policies are recognized as color-blind.

When facing a disparate impact lawsuit, employers have to justify their hiring practices, for example, by showing that the job demands special skills possessed by relatively few members of a racial or ethnic group.

In 1997, however, the Seventh Circuit appeals court barred the practice of racial balancing in school discipline to avoid disparate impact lawsuits, said Bader.

Progressives say the “disparate impact” claims are supported by the 1964 Civil Right Act.

Critics, such as Clegg, say “disparate impact” law is used to trump popular and effective color-blind practices, such as civil-service tests by governments and employment-suitability testing by companies.

Another critic, David Rettig, head of the National Character Education Foundation, told The Daily Caller in February that apparently-disproportionate school discipline practices can be a reflection of local crime reports.

“Outside the walls of the school, how many of these kids are coming from not just dysfunctional homes, but homes that are not supportive of their children?” he told TheDC.

Follow Neil on Twitter
 

[P.S. I found some pretty good comments, already on the first page.]

Showing 1-20 of 719 comments

bluegreenboy
The most relevant part of this article is that which refers to the problem of 7 in 10 African-American children being born out of wedlock ... and presumably growing up in single-parent families. Yes, there are many factors that contribute to poor school behavior and performance, but this has to be a big factor.
So, the question is, how does one break the cycle of this self-perpetuating problem?
If the "progressives" are concerned about equal treatment for African-American children, then one simple, although expensive option is to "re-segregate" and create schools open only to African-American children, who would have only African-American teachers and role models.
If racial discrimination against non-blacks grows as a result of this proposed policy, then what's going to happen is that non-blacks are going to self-segregate, either by migrating to private schools for those who can afford it, or moving to school districts were blacks do not live. Sounds bad..doesn't it - not the social utopia that many aspire to, but it could happen.

Robert
All animals are equal but apes are more equal than others

Stratosaurus
Could it be that "disproportionate" numbers of black students are disciplined because they don't do their schoolwork, aren't attentive in class, are disruptive in class, and refuse to follow instructions, and try to be thugs.
But, yeah, de white man be holdin' me down!

Joe Zimmerman
What else would you expect from a RACIST MUSLIM S.O.B. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leland64
How will punishment for infractions be administered in 100% black schools? Why would any non-black willingly attend a school with a significant black population? The TV series "The Wire" looks more a documentary every day.

renojmc
What then if they applied this to adults? It would mean that whites would get a prison sentence for a speeding ticket or a black rapist would be set free.
Truly insane!

blooper
Why would the President intentionally instigate racial turmoil? He has a reason. Who is he? When will we know?

smartgranny55
Let the reverse discrimination lawsuits began.

Johnny D.
It seems to me that Obama and the "social justice" progressives are cementing the view that blacks are an inferior sub-species of human being that is inherently unable to compete with the Caucasian and Asian sub-species. I also notice the propensity of Obama to blame everybody else and everything else for his political misfortunes, and how he likewise shifts blame away from the young black delinquents who populate our public schools and prisons. Their violence makes their schools unsafe, so Obama blames their unsafe schools instead of them. They refuse to take challenging college preparatory classes (or even do minimal work in regular classes), so Obama blames the lack of college preparatory classes instead of them. They disproportionately experience school discipline because they are disproportionately undisciplined, so Obama blames the resulting disproportion instead of their lack of discipline. They are overwhelmingly unprepared for college, so Obama blames everybody else for not preparing them, but not them for not studying. And since he cannot lift them up and make them equal, his policy is to drag everybody else down into their squalid misery. This is a perfect example of progressive social justice, Obama-style. Lawlessness, social disintegration, and revolution are the goals. Communism is the name of the game.

What-A-Mess
This is exactly why we will never get past the race issue. Even a black man now has stated that they are too stupid to conduct themselves in a proper manner.

blooper
Lower standards and racial quota's defined Affirmative Action. We intentionally and unconstitutionally , discriminated agains't our white fathers, brothers and sons, to provide more oppotunity for African Americans. Expect no gratitude.

mikecipriano
How can this be under the 14th Amendments equall protection clause, surely a non black student facing punishment will sue and John Roberts will say it's not a punishment it's a Tax!


TJDIXIN
Did anybody see hannity thrusday, FARRAKHAN !! This RACIST FREAK makes HITLER look like a nice guy!!Dose the rest of the country know about this FOOL!! Im betting NOOOOOO!!!! This FREAK is the MAYOR EMANUELS an OBARRYS BEST BUDDY!! And im not making this up!! If this doesn't wake all those sleeping americans up, NOTHING WILL!!!

blooper
Never in recorded history, has more opportunity been provided to one ethnicity, than to African Americans. Expect no gratitude.

Steven H Ahle
If he were truly interested in good schools for minorities why did he shut down the DC voucher program at the request of the NEA. Boehner restored it and Obama's latest budget would kill the vouchers again.

Liztaylor1982
Time to pull your children out of public schools -- no equality no justice for anyone other than black students -- how does this make anyone a better person? How does this make a student succeed in the real world.

Jamgus24
all one has to do is go into a school and watch the white and black student's behavior. i've been there and witnessed it for several years. the majority of the whites don't cause the problems but the majority of the blacks are causing the problems, are the trouble makers and have little respect for the teachers, the white and black students and no respect for themselves. this is one of the most racist policies i've seen. but what do you expect out some of the most racist people like obama, holder and the entire obama administration. equal opportunity punishment. what a farce. obama HAS to be defeated in november

Mega
Once again, the majority will pay for poor decision making on the part of the minority.

[There had to be one lying, racist fool, but fortunately, there was only one on the page.]

Rose
I agree with President Obama about the race based school discipline policies, because many black parents have watched their child/children mistreated because of racial bias with nothing done about it and child is pointed out if the parent does complain about a staff person.
 

[A tip ‘o the switchblade to Glaivester.]