Roy Exum: Inequality & The Left

  • Sunday, October 21, 2018
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

The story is told about a liberal politician who was getting a room full of snowflakes all heated up over equity and equality, which is big with the political Left right now. One of his handlers finally got the chance and whispered in his ear, “Use ‘fairness’ instead! That’s what sells … “

Afterwards a newspaper column read, “The liberals love fairness because it cannot be measured. It compels no action; it is an atmospheric ideal, an invisible gas … It is, in Churchill's expression, a "happy thought". We might as well promise to be nice, or a bit understanding, or champion the merits of compassion, or just cuddle each other.”

So, it was not surprising for the Hamilton County School Board to breach “equity” last week because our “liberal elite” desperately needs to stir up its faithful. If you’ll Google the words, “Inequality and the Left,” you’ll come up with about 82,400,000 results (0.42 seconds). If you will then read any of the offered, you will openly wonder who elected a school board quite as gullible.

There is not one parent of the 43,000 children in our public schools who hasn’t had the “life is not fair” talk with their children. Not everything can or will be the same. A fair is a place you take your favorite pig in the summertime. Pick any school in the district, line up the children and let ‘em race 100 yards. Life ain’t equal. Two kids at Tyner play on the same basketball team – one is 5-6 and the other 6-8. Any notion of both scoring 14 points in the same game is wacky.

I love to read Walter Wiliams and he has proven time and time again any talk of equality and equity is bunk. Here’s a vivid example:

* * *

AN EXCERPT FROM “LEGAL AND ACADEMIC EQUALITY NONSENSE.”

Written by Walter E.Williams, August 5, 2015

If one were to list the world's top 30 violinists of the 20th century, at least 25 of them would be of Jewish ancestry. Another disparity is that despite the fact that Jews are less than 3 percent of the U.S. population and a mere 0.2 percent of the world's population, during the 20th century, Jews were 35 percent of American and 22 percent of the world's Nobel Prize winners.

Are Jews taking violin excellence and Nobel Prizes that belong to other ethnicities? If America's diversity worshipers see under-representation as probative of racial discrimination, what do they propose be done about over-representation?

Over-representation may be seen as denial of opportunity. For example, blacks are 13 percent of our population but about 80 percent of professional basketball players and 65 percent of professional football players and among the highest-paid players in both sports. By stark contrast, blacks are only 2 percent of the NHL's professional ice hockey players. Basketball, football and ice hockey represent gross racial disparities and as such come nowhere close to "looking like America."

Do these statistics mean that the owners of multi-billion-dollar basketball and football operations are nice guys and ice hockey owners are racists? By the way, just because blacks are 65 percent of professional football players, let's not lull ourselves into complacency. When's the last time you saw a black NFL kicker or punter?

There are even geographical disparities. Not a single player in the NHL's history can boast of having been born and raised in Hawaii, Louisiana or Mississippi. Geographical disparities are not only limited to ice hockey. The population statistics for North and South Dakota, Iowa, Maine, Montana and Vermont show that not even 1 percent of their population is black. In states such as Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, blacks are over-represented.

When such racial disparities were found in schooling, the remedy was busing. I'll tell you one thing; I'm not moving to Montana. It's too cold. Geographical disparities don't only apply to the U.S. Historically, none of the world's greatest seamen has been born and raised in a Himalayan nation, such as Nepal and Bhutan, or a sub-Saharan nation of Africa. They mostly have been from Scandinavia, other parts of Europe, East Asia or the South Pacific.

Being a man, I find another disproportionality particularly disturbing. According to a recent study conducted by Bond University in Australia, sharks are nine times likelier to attack and kill men than they are women. Such a disproportionality leads to only one conclusion: Sharks are sexist.

Another disturbing sex disparity is that despite the fact that men are 50 percent of the population and so are women, men are struck by lightning six times as often as women. Of those killed by lightning, 82 percent are men. I wonder what whoever is in charge of lightning has against men.

Differences are seen by many as signs of inequality. Nobel laureate Milton Friedman put it best: "A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both." Equality in conjunction with the general rules of law is the only kind of equality conducive to liberty that can be secured without destroying liberty.

* * *

Another writer shares, “There is a common misconception that equity and equality mean the same thing — and that they can be used interchangeably, especially when talking about education. But the truth is they do not — and cannot. Yes, the two words are similar, but the difference between them is crucial. So please, don’t talk about equality when you really mean equity.

“What’s the difference?

“Should per student funding at every school be exactly the same? That’s a question of equality. But should students who come from less get more in order to ensure that they can catch up? That’s a question of equity,” she informs us.

And there you have identified the scam. It is more money for poor people. It’s huge with the liberals and is one reason the UnifiED APEX Project was exposed as no more than a bunch of fluff.

If Schools Supt. Bryan Johnson wanted, he could provide the dreamy ones on the school board the actual figures or additional monies and resources that the taxpayers have poured into our “at risk” schools with admittedly little return. Why? Money is not the problem.

And if the liberal elites really wanted to make a difference in generational poverty, they would demand the public schools place the same values on teaching children the private schools do. The reason one of every four children attend private schools in Hamilton County has nothing to do with equity, equality or inequality. The privates are all about learning and, if they don’t educate kids, they’ll go out of business.

* * *

“If we were to select the most intelligent, imaginative, energetic, and emotionally stable third of mankind, all races would be present.” -Franz Boas

royexum@aol.com

Opinion
Democratic View On Top State Senate Issues - March 18, 2024
  • 3/18/2024

Campbell bill seeks to save lives by studying suicide trends in Tennessee 3 p.m. Senate Regular Calendar — SB 1787 , by Sen. Heidi Campbell, would require state health officials to produce ... more

The Odor Of Mendacity - And Response (2)
  • 3/16/2024

The Fulton County judge, Scott McAfee, overseeing the Fani Willis prosecution of Donald Trump and eighteen other defendants has spoken. In response to a motion by defendants to remove Willis ... more

Capitol Report From State Rep. Greg Vital For March 15
  • 3/15/2024

General Assembly confirms new Tennessee State Supreme Justice Members of the General Assembly confirmed the appointment of Mary L. Wagner to the Tennessee Supreme Court in a joint session ... more