THE PLANK MARCH 18, 2008
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Perhaps it's a waste of time to comment on the rantings of John Derbyshire over at National Review. But something he wrote today struck me as particularly egregious. In his speech, Barack Obama spoke about contemporary school segregation. Granted, none of this segregation is de jure, and some of it is a result of choices made by parents both white and black. Nevertheless, Derb remarks:
It's true that there is widespread school segregation today. In my state, 60 percent of black students attend schools that are at least 90-percent black. From what I can see, the main reason for this is the great reluctance of nonblack parents to send their kids to schools with too many black students (emphasis added). Do you think that they — actually we, as my wife and I share this reluctance — are wrong to think like this?
How many black children, John, are "too many?"
--James Kirchick
8 comments
Interesting that the post where Derbyshire makes this argument has (for whatever reason) been removed...
- kingstonreif
March 18, 2008 at 3:25pm
I think the answer is 8.
:-)
Good point, though, Jamie.
- miceelf
March 18, 2008 at 3:25pm
I think he meant that too many is that many in a particular school ,which is coincident with that particular school 's inferior education as compared to comparable schools with not as many.
But I'm just guessing.
- basman
March 18, 2008 at 3:43pm
wow. nice catch James. That viewpoint is exactly why we need open and honest dialogue about this issue. Barack has hopefully started this conversation, and he certainly packed a heck of a lot of complex issues into just a 30 min. speech. It was like a 'crash-course' in racial and identity politics.
- daschaer
March 18, 2008 at 3:49pm
Thanks to the free market in housing, we actually know the answer to this question. White families prefer to live in mixed neighborhoods than all-white neighborhoods, but they tend to begin fleeing neighborhoods in which the black population exceeds 15 percent. Black families also prefer to live in mixed neighborhoods, but they tend to flee neighborhoods in which the white population exceeds 50 percent. Which is why mixed neighborhoods so rarely stay that way for long.
But the point is, the answer to "how many black students is too many" is 15 percent.
- rhubarbs
March 18, 2008 at 4:10pm
basman - are you saying that the number of black children in a school can now serve as a proxy for the quality of education to be had at that school? I'm not arguing. I think Obama was making that point. And calling it a bad thing. But Derbyshire's statement makes it sound as though the black children themselves are the thing to be avoided. If Derbyshire wants to open his fat mouth in service of the idea that maybe publicly funded schools ought to provide equal levels of education/resources to every customer, the same way that oh, post offices do, then I'll cut him some slack. But for now it feels like he thinks that it's ok that black kids and sh**ty schools go together like white and rice, so why shouldn't they be avoided?
- psantillana
March 18, 2008 at 4:53pm
pheobe I am not saying anything. I was just trying to interpet what Derbyshire or whatever his name is said. Don't shoot the messenger; and yes I think he was saying that in bad schools black kids are the problem and accordingly should be avoided. I am not, I repeat, saying that. I am saying that he is, I think, saying that. So, mind you does my brother in law, a democrat, and the principal of a private school.
What can I tell you?
- basman
March 18, 2008 at 7:01pm
I'm not shooting you, basman, just Derbyshire. Sorry if the bullet hit you on its way to him!
- psantillana
March 19, 2008 at 3:57am