I am not saying letter based reccs are racist in the old school sense. But it is a practice that dispro advantages some and harms others, and has a racial disparity. That matters. It means jobs are not being filled through some objective process of qualifications…which is precisely why aff action and DEI efforts are important, to balance out the dispro effect of those network processes. To get rid of AA and DEI as some would do, while leaving these other processes in place — and as you note, they are inevitable — would perpetuate inequity of opportunity in the job market. That is a matter of unfairness and unequal opportunity.
As for tests, actually Black immigrants don’t all do well on the tests — some do, some don’t — and same with Asians. Southeast Asians, who are dispro poor, don’t do very well. Most of the high scoring Asian students on the SAT, and similar tests were from from middle class and above families. Asian students at elite colleges come from dispro high wealth families compared to Blacks and whites actually, and were less likely to attend low resourced K-12 schools…
Here’s something I wrote on all the “Asians are all doing just fine” nonsense folks like you are quick to peddle…
And here’s another one, specifically addressing college admissions, testing, etc…
But my point with tests is that it is inherently unfair to give standardized tests to kids for whom we have made no real effort to provide standardized educations or resources. It makes no sense, and will always dispro disadvantage poorer kids, who are dispro of color.
As for crime, black men do not commit 1/2 of violent crime. Actually, only about 26% of all violent crime is committed by Black people (men or women). Half of homicides are committed by Black men, but homicides are about 15k per year, which is a small percentage of overall violent crime. And to try and justify dispro police violence against Blacks on the basis of homicide rates is insane. People being stopped and frisked, pushed against walls and shot are not, in most cases, being investigated for homicide. Indeed in NYC during stop and frisk, only 15% of stops were for investigation of (or suspicion of) violent crime at all, according to the NYPDs own records. Most were on suspicion of drugs (which whites possess and use just as often) or trespassing, or loitering or “furtive movements” and other purely subjective reasons…The Black people being shot are not, in almost any case, being investigated for one of those roughly 7500 homicides committed by Black men each year…meaning that data has no relevance to any given stop. None at all…And according to the research, Black men who are unarmed and not attacking police are still 2–3 times more likely than similar whites to be shot, so…
My reference to Bull Connor was not to compare you to him. It was to say that using aggregate data to justify disparate policing could be used to justify what he used to do as well…he could have said (and I’m quite sure he did) that “well, all the crime over there in the black neighborhoods is being done by Blacks, so naturally, that’s who we arrest, beat, shoot, etc” That is no different than the argument you are making, however much you might consider your version to be erudite and highbrow…it’s the same nonsense.
