Posted on November 1, 2010

O Tempora, O Mores! (November, 2010)

American Renaissance, November 2010

Sinking the Coast Guard

Unlike other service academies, which require congressional appointment, the US Coast Guard Academy (CGA) in New London, Connecticut, claims to admit students based on academic merit. The federal law governing the academy says admissions will be made “without regard to the sex, race, color or religious beliefs of an applicant.” Similar language usually does not stop blatant race preferences, but the academy claims to admit strictly on merit. Evidence suggests otherwise.

The CGA has a director of diversity affairs, and a freshman class that is 24 percent non-white. What is more, non-whites drop out and are dismissed at considerably higher rates than whites, so the academy expects that the class of 2014 will be only about 15 percent non-white by the time it graduates. (How come so many non-whites drop out if the academy admits strictly on merit?)

Fifteen percent is not nearly enough for diversity worshippers, so Congress struck out the non-discrimination language when it passed the Coast Guard reauthorization act. Now the academy can festoon the freshman class with as many non-whites as it wants, and will no doubt see even more of them wash out before graduation.

Congressman Joe Courtney, a Connecticut Democrat who sits on the academy’s Board of Visitors and who is an unintentional comedian, says the change will give the CGA “maximum legal flexibility to achieve the goal of diversity, and does it in a way that doesn’t create quotas.” Black Maryland Democrat Elijah Cummings says, “This legislative change ensures that the federal protections enshrined in the Civil Rights Act prohibiting discrimination by entities receiving federal funding apply uniformly at all federal service academies, including the Coast Guard Academy.” As usual, the only way to ensure blacks do not suffer discrimination is to strike out language prohibiting discrimination against them so that the academy can officially and blatantly discriminate in their favor. The reauthorization act is currently awaiting President Obama’s signature.

Antonio Farias, the academy’s director of diversity affairs, says, “We have to get out there and recruit.” He notes that “having the [non-discrimination provisions] gone doesn’t mean more qualified applicants from diverse backgrounds will apply. What it means is it gives us latitude in how we shape classes so we’re on par with the Harvards, MITs and other highly selective colleges that are not under a race-blind arrangement, and gender blind and religious blind. We have had all these blinders on.” [Jennifer McDermott, New Law Could Give CGA Leeway to Better Promote Campus Diversity, The Day (New London), Oct. 1, 2010.]

Presumably, the academy could now admit a class composed of nothing but black Muslim girls if it wanted.

White Out

Purveyors of “diversity” are fretting that the next slate of Academy Awards, to be handed out in February, may not have enough black nominees. The most likely contenders for best picture are either about white people or have all-white casts and production staff. The same is true of the most likely recipients of the acting awards.

This is a contrast to last year’s awards, which were heavily black. “Precious,” about an overweight black girl, got 6 nominations, and won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay. A black woman was best supporting actress, and a white woman, Sandra Bullock, was best actress for a film in which she adopted a hulking black teenaged football player.

Despite the success of such films last year, black director John Singleton, whose 1991 “Boyz N the Hood” received two Oscar nominations, says Hollywood just isn’t receptive to his kind of movie. “It’s more difficult than ever to get a picture made with any serious subject — let alone an ethnic-themed one. African-American-themed projects are now being relegated to specialty pictures — as they were in the ’80s before Spike Lee.”

The people who run the Oscars are worried. “For the Academy to continue going forward, it has to be relevant and it has to be inclusive of everybody,” says Tom Sherak, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. “My hope is that we get more ethnicity in the academy.” Experts say it only makes sense for Hollywood to make films that appeal to non-whites, noting that Hispanics are 15 percent of the US population, but buy 21 percent of the movie tickets, and blacks, 12 percent, buy another 11 percent. [Gregg Kilday and Matthew Belloni, Whitest Oscars in 10 years? Hollywood Reporter, Sept. 30, 2010.]

Black Party

A group of blacks in New York State think the Democrats take them for granted, and have started their own party and are running a candidate for governor. The Freedom Party needed only 15,000 petitioners to get on the ballot, but got more than 45,000. It is running Charles Barron, the Brooklyn city council member who once invited Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe to City Hall, hugged him, and held his hand aloft like a victorious boxer. At a rally for reparations for slavery, Mr. Barron once said he sometimes wants to go up to a white person, tell him, “You can’t understand this, it’s a black thing,” and then “slap him just for my mental health.” [Joyce Purnick, Mugabe’s Visit Has Council Speechless, New York Times, Sept. 16, 2002. Council Extends Welcome Mat — And Also Steps on a Few Toes, Washington Post, Sept. 15, 2002.]

Eva Doyle, a retired school teacher from Buffalo, is the candidate for lieutenant governor. She says the Freedom Party intends to put the political establishment on notice that it shouldn’t count on the black vote. “If I listen to both candidates [Andrew Cuomo and Carl Paladino], I’m not hearing them address any issues pertaining to the working class, poor people or urban communities,” she says. Betty Jean Grant, who sits on the Erie County council, supports the Freedom Party. “We need a party that takes notice of and addresses our issues,” she says.

The Freedom Party has an uphill fight. Most blacks have never heard of it, and the black Democratic establishment is not supporting it. “It will not have a major effect because people will realize it’s a really important election out there and will vote for one of the two top candidates,” says black assemblyman Herman D. Farrell of Manhattan, former chairman of the state Democratic Party. The Cuomo campaign, which would be hurt if the Freedom Party wins many black voters, dismisses it as “extremist.” Nevertheless, after encountering a number of Freedom Party protestors, Mr. Cuomo made a trip to Harlem to see embattled Congressman Charlie Rangel in an attempt to shore up his black credentials. [Robert J. McCarty and Deidre Williams, New Party Enters Governor’s Race, Buffalo News, Sept. 28, 2010.]

Time to Celebrate

The federal government officially recognizes the 30-day period between September 15 and October 15 as National Hispanic Heritage Month. The feds began celebrating “Hispanic heritage” in 1968, when President Lyndon Johnson declared “Hispanic Heritage Week.” Professional Hispanics felt shortchanged, so President Ronald Reagan expanded the week to a month in 1988. National Hispanic Heritage Month begins on September 15 because that is independence day in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, and close enough to independence day in Mexico (Sept. 16) and Chile (Sept. 18). National Hispanic Heritage Month also includes Columbus Day (Oct. 12) — or rather, the anti-Columbus Day “celebration” known as Dia de la Raza, or Day of the Race. Since the 1960s, Hispanic pressure groups have staged rallies on Oct. 12 to denounce Christopher Columbus and Western “genocide.” [About National Hispanic Heritage Month, hispanicheritagemonth.gov.]

Hazleton Update

On September 9, the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia issued a ruling prohibiting the town of Hazelton, Pennsylvania, from enforcing its law denying business permits to companies that hire illegal aliens and fining landlords who rent to them. Hazleton mayor Lou Barletta gained national attention when he introduced the law in 2006, after two illegals killed a local resident. Mr. Barletta says illegal immigrants were bringing in drugs, gangs and crime, and overwhelming police, hospitals and schools. Following Hazleton’s lead, a number of cities across the country adopted similar laws, and most have suffered a similar fate at the hands of judges.

The ruling claims the Hazleton law usurps the federal government’s exclusive power to regulate immigration. “It is . . . not our job to sit in judgment of whether state and local frustration about federal immigration policy is warranted,” Chief Judge Theodore McKee wrote in the decision. “We are, however, required to intervene when states and localities directly undermine the federal objectives embodied in statutes enacted by Congress.”

Mayor Barletta, who is running for Congress, vows to take the case to the Supreme Court. “Hazleton was the first, and became the symbol of hope for many around the country,” he says. “Since I proposed this law more than four years ago, we have seen the growing frustration all across the country. This frustration is not going away and it will not go away until the federal government finally secures our borders and cracks down on illegal immigration.”

The ACLU, which brought the lawsuit against Hazleton, is happy. “This is a major defeat for the misguided, divisive and expensive anti-immigrant strategy that Hazleton has tried to export to the rest of the country,” says ACLU lawyer Omar Jadwat. [Michael Rubinkam, Pa. Mayor to Take Immigration Law to Supreme Court, AP, Sept. 9, 2010.]

Adios, Texas

Texas tipped into the majority non-white column a few years ago, and the white percentage continues to fall. The Office of the State Demographer estimates that whites (or Anglos, as they are now called) make up just 45.1 percent of the population. Hispanics are 38.8 percent, followed by blacks at 11.5 percent. Asians, American Indians and everyone else make up 4.6 percent. By 2020, the state’s ethnic/race distribution is expected to be 37.6 percent white, 45.2 percent Hispanic, 11.2 percent black, and 6 percent other.

These demographic changes are now being reflected at the state’s premier public educational institution, the University of Texas at Austin. The University of Texas is one of the largest universities in the world, enrolling more than 50,000 students. This year’s freshman class numbers 7,275, and is the first without a white majority. Whites are just 47.6 percent of the class of 2014, followed by Hispanics at 23.1 percent, Asians at 17.3 percent, and blacks at 5.1 percent. Last year, whites were 51.1 percent of the freshman class.

When graduate and professional students are included, whites are still a majority at the University of Texas — but just barely, at 52.1 percent. [Class of First-Time Freshmen Not a White Majority This Fall Semester at the University of Texas at Austin, utexas.edu, Sept. 14, 2010.]

Joys of Diversity

Due to quirks of colonization and conquest, Haiti and the Dominican Republic have ended up sharing the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, but do not have much else in common. Dominicans like to think of themselves as mestizos, and look down on Haitians because they are black. Many Haitians cross into the Dominican Republic illegally each year, looking for work in construction and agriculture. Dominicans resent this, and the tension has often led to violence.

In 2005, Dominicans were convinced a Haitian murdered a Dominican woman, and sought revenge by burning Haitian squatter camps. The government then deported the 3,000 burned-out Haitians. In 2009, Dominican vigilantes beheaded a Haitian who had murdered a Dominican man. Haitians rioted outside of the Dominican embassy in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.

Authorities fear another round of clashes may be at hand. On September 25, a group of Haitians working illegally on a residential construction project near the beach resort of Bavaro-Punta Cana confronted their foreman over unpaid wages. The foreman drew a pistol and killed 32-year-old Issac Louis. The Haitians retaliated the next day, attacking supervisors with rocks and wooden poles, beating one Dominican to death and seriously wounding another. [Ezequiel Abiu Lopez, Dominican, Haitian Killed in Race-fueled Dispute, AP, Sept. 26, 2010.]

Showdown

Since 2009, the French government has been raiding illegal “Roma” squatter camps, rounding up the Gypsies, and deporting them back to Romania and Bulgaria — much to the consternation of European Union bureaucrats in Brussels. The EU’s Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, Luxembourg politician Viviane Reding is in a fearful dither. “This is a situation I had thought Europe would not have to witness again after the Second World War,” she huffs, adding, “This is not a minor offence. After 11 years of experience in the commission, I even go further: this is a disgrace.” She says the EU will take legal action against France for violating the EU’s right to “freedom of movement.”

French President Nicholas Sarkozy personally ordered the crackdown in 2009. France deported 9,875 Gypsies that year, and 8,000 so far this year, including 1,000 since August, and 69 the day after the EU threatened legal action.

President Sarkozy calls Commissioner Reding’s comparisons to Nazi atrocities “disgusting,” adding, “I am head of the French state. I cannot let my nation be insulted.” Calling the camps havens for crime and squalor, Mr. Sarkozy vowed to get rid of them all. “We will continue to dismantle the illegal camps, whoever is there,” he says. [Raf Casert, France Defies EU Criticism on Gypsy Expulsions, AP, Sept. 16, 2010. EU Threaten France Over Roma Crackdown, Sky News, Sept. 15, 2010.]