Thursday, March 10, 2011

Diversity Thursday

Yes, I am going to post on the Military Leadership Diversity Commission's report - but not perhaps how you think.

Read the Executive Summary here and the full report here. Judging from the bow-wave of emails I received this week on it, I know many of you already have.

Regular readers will find nothing shocking in the report - a desire for more jobs for the Diversity Industry, more divisive sectarianism. More requirements to adhere to the view of diversity in order to get promotion (yes, you have to demonstrate that, read the report). More enforced quotas through "accountability reviews" and the rest of the package.

Does anyone really expect anything different coming from such a commission? Just look at the background from Commissioners and Support staff. A horror show of grievance industry luv'n sectarian fussbudgets.
...received the Roy Wilkins Renown Service Award for outstanding contributions to military equal opportunity policies and programs from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1994.
...
... he served as the Senior Enlisted Advisor for the Chief of Naval Personnel Diversity
Directorate.
...
He specifically orchestrates the effort to conduct a comprehensive evaluation and assessment of policies that provide opportunities for the promotion and advancement of minority members of the Armed Forces, including minority members who are senior officers.
...
... he has also examined the most effective diversity practices by Fortune 500 companies, and barriers to improve diversity among the leadership of various government agencies and corporations, including the NSA, the Department of Defense, the United States Army, the United States Air Force, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the San Diego Police Department.
Do I really need to do any more - or do you get the idea? Talk about a lack of Diversity. Where is the Diversity of opinion? It is a commission that had a mission, and was selected as such by the last Congress.

You might as well task a commission on women in the service to URR and Skippy-san.

I find the timing funny though. Just a few days ago, we had National Public Radio's president and chief executive, Vivian Schiller, resign and the head of NPR's fund-raising arm, Ron Schiller (who isn't related to Vivian Schiller), resign. Why? Basically - he stated that there are too many Jews in print media - but not in their almost "Judenfrei" NPR.

So, we have a report that basically says - as reported by AP, Report says too many whites, men leading military.

Will people get fired for such a bigoted attitude? Of course not - some bigotry is approved, don't you know.

I'm not going to make the usual comments like; "Are there too many blacks in the NBA? Are their too many East Asians in engineering and sciences? Are there too many South Asians in medicine?" - those are just as valid comments - but we've used them so much I think they are just background noise now.

Here is where things get funny with the Diversity Bullies (who seem to like this report, shocker). They know this fact - but they don't admit it. They have to create a system that discriminates on the basis of race, creed, color, or national origin. Here is why.

One of the basic requirements to be an officer is a college degree. To get a college degree you have to be able to perform in an academic environment. One of the best indicators of academic success is performance on standardized tests.

Earlier this week was an interesting exchange between
Paul Krugman and Iowahawk about, of all things, the educational performance of Texas vs Wisconnsin. Review the details at the link - but here are some interesting stats to chew on.
2009 4th Grade Math

White students: Texas 254, Wisconsin 250 (national average 248)
Black students: Texas 231, Wisconsin 217 (national 222)
Hispanic students: Texas 233, Wisconsin 228 (national 227)

2009 8th Grade Math

White students: Texas 301, Wisconsin 294 (national 294)
Black students: Texas 272, Wisconsin 254 (national 260)
Hispanic students: Texas 277, Wisconsin 268 (national 260)

2009 4th Grade Reading

White students: Texas 232, Wisconsin 227 (national 229)
Black students: Texas 213, Wisconsin 192 (national 204)
Hispanic students: Texas 210, Wisconsin 202 (national 204)

2009 8th Grade Reading

White students: Texas 273, Wisconsin 271 (national 271)
Black students: Texas 249, Wisconsin 238 (national 245)
Hispanic students: Texas 251, Wisconsin 250 (national 248)

2009 4th Grade Science

White students: Texas 168, Wisconsin 164 (national 162)
Black students: Texas 139, Wisconsin 121 (national 127)
Hispanic students: Wisconsin 138, Texas 136 (national 130)

2009 8th Grade Science

White students: Texas 167, Wisconsin 165 (national 161)
Black students: Texas 133, Wisconsin 120 (national 125)
Hispanic students: Texas 141, Wisconsin 134 (national 131)
If you define Diversity as having a population that exactly represents the ethnic breakout of this nation - and that population has as one of its entering arguments potential for academic success - you can never reach your goal with the facts outlined above.

The only way to get there is to cheat - in this case, descriminate. In a zero sum game that is officer accessions, that means you take opportunity away from people on the basis of race, creed, color, and national origin and give to another on the same basis.

That is the action of a racist, a bigot; a person filled with hate. Is that where we are in 2011? Really? Official hate? Not a
2-minute hate - but a fully staffed and ongoing hate - one that is celebrated.

It is one hate though that sure fills a lot of paychecks.

If these people were really concerned with the lack of some minority groups (though not all) in the officer corps, then they need to look at our educational system.

That is hard work though. That asks hard questions. That makes for uncomfortable comparisons.

Do minorities fail because we are a racist country?
Is that it?
Small business experts believe Asians are successful, in part, because of their disciplined work ethic, their investment in educating the next generation to join the professional ranks and their loyalty in serving the Asian community.

Nationally, there are about 6 million minority-owned businesses, of which 3 percent gross more than $1 million in sales, according to Heyward Davenport, regional director of the Minority Business Development Agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Of those most profitable businesses, half are owned by Asian-Americans, according to Davenport. That success, according to interviews and available data, starts with a rigorous commitment to educational achievement, which then leads to higher-paying jobs, or the creation of businesses in more lucrative fields — such as engineering, information technology and health care. Once established, Indian, Korean and Chinese business leaders tend to carry less debt and save more of what they’ve earned.

Anil Bansal, president of the Asian Indian Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey, is blunt about the success of Indians.

“It’s the education,” said Bansal, a founder of the Indus American Bank in Edison and owner of a Web design company and a restaurant. “There’s no secret, whatsoever.”
...
Asian business leaders across the country added almost as many employees to the workforce as African-American, Hispanic and Native American business owners combined, according to the U.S. 2007 Economic Census.

Asians created 2.8 million jobs, compared with 3 million by businesses owned by the other three groups.
No, there are reasons there are not the "correct" percentages of some minorities at the top levels of the Navy - for the same reason there are differences in the NBA and Hedge Fund managers.

There always will be differences - and it has nothing to do with racism - but there is only one thing that can make the numbers work - and that is racism - the racism that uses race, creed, color, or national origin as a primary determination of someone's merit.

That is why they must be confronted early and often; let them call you names - but shame them with their own words & actions. They'll give you all the tools you need.

Visit here every Thursday, I'll do what I can to help.

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