The Minefield That Is Affirmative Action

It's hard to imagine that the Progressive Forces that permeate the Elite Institutions can get out of the trap that they put themselves into.

They found that Minority students were not being accepted at their Lily White (well, except for all those Asians) schools. In a panic that they might seem to be what they were, they decided to implement a complicated 'holistic' admissions process that discounted the pricey sorting mechanisms that they made students pay for (ACT and SAT), and instead add more hoops to jump through:

• Personal struggle essay - an easy-to-fake, easy-to-purchase written tear-jerker about their struggle, which might be how they Confronted the Power (social activists of the Progressive variety), Came to Realize their White Privilege (often, on expensive trips to 3rd World countries with multiple photo ops with the newfound not-White 'friends'), or Overcame the Oppressive Male Supremacy (i.e., started eating without vomiting). If Black, this is a Walk in the Park (without the mugging) that gives the admission people an excuse to admit you, despite low test scores and inflated grades from an grade factory.

Another minefield is the IQ-Race research. In my experience, IQ is pretty well distributed across races & ethnic groups. Percentages may vary, but - you can't predict the IQ based on racial/ethnic grouping. But, at this time, to even imply that there is variation in IQ that is related to heredity is guaranteed to cause the person doing so to suffer career suicide.

That's ridiculous, and contradicts the often observed and noncontroversial connection between parental IQ and that of their offspring. Can dullards spring from smart people? Sure. But, looking at probabilities, the smart betting is on a close relationship between IQ of parent and IQ of child.

Now, men - and women - have been known to mate in ways that trip up this relationship. If one parent is really smart, but the other is average (or below), it's just as likely that the child will display the mediocre intellectual capacity as the outstanding potential. Hence, the common situation of a prominent businessman who marries the proverbial 'dumb blonde'. That offspring may well be a disappointment, in terms of native smarts.

This connection is often demonstrated, and does not cause a problem if commented on.

Except in the case of race. If a researcher notes the differences between populations by race, the Progressive Dogs are unleashed. As in this case, where students and their allies attacked a speaker - and a faculty member - over a book written years ago - The Bell Curve.