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Posted by
JayMan
on Tue Jan 3 09:41:53 2012, in response to Republican candidate Santorum out of touch with African-Americans., posted by streetcarman1 on Mon Jan 2 19:47:44 2012.
edf40wrjww2msgDetailOT:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d As Luch would say, everyone knows that when politicians talk about welfare reform and the like, they mean Black people. It is true that a disproportionate number of Blacks are on welfare. Those who have following along with HBD will find this as no surprise. But in Iowa, most people on the dole are White simply because you can count the number of Blacks in Iowa on one hand (not literally, but not too far off).
Conservatives (those that don't embrace HBD for political reasons) have crafted their own reasons why racial gaps in achievement and socioeconomic status exist, as exemplified by Newt Gingrich with his brilliant prescription for the plight of people of color:
(from http://www.nas.org/polArticles.cfm?doctype_code=Article&doc_id=1310):
First, you have to understand that educational policy is consumed by the achievement gap, which is the disparity between groups of students on most educational measures, particularly the groups of race and socio-economic income—and, if I'm going to be honest, it's race that generates the most intensity. I don't just mean that this is the number one priority. It's the only priority. The achievement gap pervades every corner of American educational policy discussion. Nothing else matters. No Child Left Behind was entirely about the achievement gap and measuring schools to see if they'd closed it. Obama's Race to the Top is just another take on the achievement gap—again, focusing on testing and this time holding teachers responsible if they can't get low-performing students to improve.
In the public domain, you'll hear two contrasting views about the achievement gap, its cause and solution. The first is the progressive view, the one associated with "progressive education," which holds that social injustice, institutionalized racism, white prejudice, and other societal ills cause the achievement gap. Progressives want to fix the achievement gap by moving underachieving students closer to high-achieving students whenever possible, arguing that tracking and sorting are evils that create underachieving “ghettos” that perpetuate, or even cause, the gap. In schools with a majority minority population of underachievers (i.e., inner city urban schools or charter schools specifically created for these populations), progressives push for community involvement, encouraging teachers to support their students in every aspect of life and seek to make the curriculum "relevant."
[...]
The second view, what I'll call the conservative view of the achievement gap, also focuses on student values. But instead of encouraging teachers to respect the student's culture, conservatives say that parents and teachers of low-performing students are the cause of the gap, by failing to give the students the correct cultural values. Hard work, family values, commitment to the importance of education, and "no excuses," to quote the Thernstroms, who are major proponents of the conservative view, will close the achievement gap. The conservatives believe that higher standards are the order of the day, and that everyone can achieve if they just work hard. Conservatives hold ed schools in extremely low esteem, and feel that the progressive push to “understand” students and teach simplified (as they see it) curriculum contributes to the problem. The conservative view is held by most politicians of any ideology. Both NCLB and Race to the Top are based on this viewpoint—which comes along with a hefty dose of blame for the teachers, the ed schools that produce them, and the unions that represent them.
To illustrate the difference between conservative and progressive viewpoints on the achievement gap, consider how each discusses Asians. (Note: I am well aware that "Asian" is a ridiculously large population about which you can't generalize. I'm just telling you the conversation.) Those with a progressive view of education almost never mention Asians. I often joke that in ed school, you only read about white boys in special ed class, white girls in the eating disorders unit, and Asians make a brief cameo in the ESL course. The conservatives, however, never miss an opportunity to mention Asians who, in their view, are the ideal culture, or the "model minority"—they value education and they work hard.
If all you watched were the shout shows, you'd never know there was another way of assessing the achievement gap. And in fact, while progressives and conservatives have many adherents and could even be described as "groups," those holding the third view don’t get together much. They don’t hold meetings, they don’t have organizations, and in general, they avoid the field of educational policy. People holding this third view—again, not a group—don’t talk much in public. Let's call this third view the Voldemort View: the View That Must Not Be Named.
Santorum is just reciting the party line for those who find full on HBD too politically untenable to profess. The fact that he specifically mentioned Black people shows conservative think on the matter.
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