July 2, 2007
a CITIZEN JOURNALIST examines the great nurture/nature divide (Now with more Littwins-dom)

Question: is it “normal” for a small boy to chase and try to catch birds? Because every child development manual I’ve consulted pointedly ignores the subject — except to note, peripherally, that should my son manage actually to catch the thing and, for example, bite its stupid bird head off before using the petrified beaktip to carve a swastika in his forehead and recruit a cult of libertine hippie chicks looking for a strong daddy figure, he “most likely” has what they call “sociopathic” tendencies.

– Which, it seems to me, is rather politically presumptuous; after all, were my son to catch the bird, pretend to sympathize with its bio-cultural oppression, then release it with the promise that, in exchange for its permanent fealty, he would one day, in the name of “diversity,” make sure the legislature and the courts “evened out” the “unfair disparity” of “specism” that has institutionally prevented the majority of birds from landing jobs batting about balls of yarn or catching kitchen mice — I seriously doubt these same “experts” would rush to label him an “enabler” with authoritarian leanings.

Instead, they’d probably just call him a “progressive” and offer him a column for, say, the Rocky Mountain News, or Salon…

Developing…

****
update: Darleen engages in an email exchange with the RMN’s Mike Littwin.

Or his hair. Hard to tell from the quality of the response Darleen gets, to be honest with you.

23 Comments  :::   Post a comment »

  1. Comment by mojo on 7/2 @ 9:33 am #

    Who the hell is RJ Eskow? I can’t tell from his (seemingly) media flack-written bio.

  2. Comment by Dan Collins on 7/2 @ 9:39 am #

    This Litwitt–is it absolutely necessary to show his picture?

  3. Comment by Darleen on 7/2 @ 9:40 am #

    Hmmmm…. I’ve consulted my copy of The Dangerous Book for Boys… nothing about birds but it does have a section entitled “How to hunt and cook a rabbit” plus tanning the rabbit hide.

    I suppose RJ would call me a sociopath, too, for purchasing this book with the intention of introducing my grandsons to it.

    Guess that makes me an inauthentic conservative

    bother

  4. Comment by Carin on 7/2 @ 9:43 am #

    Most so-called failing schools are composed mostly of poor, minority students. Here are some numbers: Latino students make up 19 percent of public school students, blacks 17 percent. And yet, 75 percent of these minority students go to schools that are less than 50 percent white. And 40 percent go to school that are less than 10 percent white.

    But, let’s imagine that the “so-called failing schools”, are failing not because of inherent racism, but due to failures in the (often) urban, economically challenged culture that may be tangentially related to , but not caused by, one’s race.

    I know, blaspheme.

  5. Comment by Darleen on 7/2 @ 9:52 am #

    We don’t have legal segregation any more in schools. But we do have resegregation. We have neighborhood schools that are as segregated as, well, our neighborhoods.

    Would someone please point Littwin to the part of the Constitution that guarantees freedom of association?

    Or does he want Affirmative Action for real estate and rentals?

    I’m sorry, Mr and Mrs Jones, while your finances are in order and the home you wish to bid on is well within your budget, the neighborhood just doesn’t have the right racial balance yet. You cannot legally tender an offer on the house.

  6. Comment by Lost My Cookies on 7/2 @ 9:54 am #

    is it “normal” for a small boy to chase and try to catch birds?
    God I hope so.

    http://maddad.blogspot.com/2005/06/gabe-caught-bird.html

  7. Comment by Lost My Cookies on 7/2 @ 9:55 am #

    Oops, I have no idea what happened there. My HTML foo went up the spout.

  8. Comment by Carin on 7/2 @ 10:03 am #

    Silly, Darleen. We’re not interesting in limiting the options of those who can afford to take their “school choice” to another level (by moving, or paying private tuition.) Obviously, those people -since they make enough money – are entrusted with the power to determine their future. We’re talking about the impoverished. They can’t be trusted to make important decisions regarding their children’s education.

  9. Comment by Sean M. on 7/2 @ 10:04 am #

    That someone could call a statement like, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” “nonsense” is deeply troubling.

    That he was paid to write something like that…well…

  10. Comment by Darleen on 7/2 @ 10:10 am #

    in an email I just shot off to Litty

    Where your argument actually reinforces the soft bigotry towards “minorities” on your part is that you assume the only way a “minority” child is going to learn is by sitting next to a “magic white child.”

  11. Comment by Darleen on 7/2 @ 11:31 am #

    JeffG

    Check your email.

  12. Comment by gahrie on 7/2 @ 11:41 am #

    To quote myself on Althouse:

    Most of those 58% that are not in the middle class are stuck in poverty not because of racism, but because they are victims of the culture of failure perpetuated in large part by those who think like you. A culture in which over %50 of black children live in single parent families. A culture that in large part brands academic success as “acting white” and celebrates gang life, involvement with drugs and the cult of victimology.

    As for those failing, largely inner-city, minority-majority schools:

    Who do you think the teachers and administrators are? Who do you think the schoolboard members are? Who do you think is sitting on the city councils, and are the mayors? The vast majority of these schools are being run by minorities. Are they racist? These aren’t schools being neglected by racist whites.

  13. Comment by Lost My Cookies on 7/2 @ 11:44 am #

    Hold on:
    People don’t slavishly obey and follow every whim of Messrs. Bush (and now Cheney) because they revere them
    Has this person been on Mars for the past week?

  14. Comment by Major John on 7/2 @ 11:58 am #

    Jeff – I think you should have simply asked the altogether different kind of parenting advocates at Unsprung, Leakspring or whatever the heck they are calling themselves…

  15. Comment by Percy Dovetonsils on 7/2 @ 12:11 pm #

    …is that you assume the only way a “minority” child is going to learn is by sitting next to a “magic white child.”

    Darleen, I believe it was Chris Rock who said, “Screw that, I want my kid sitting next to the Chinese kid!”

  16. Comment by physics geek on 7/2 @ 1:03 pm #

    If you really want to lower your IQ, wade through the comments to that lefty twit’s post.

  17. Comment by Darleen on 7/2 @ 2:16 pm #

    The email exchange so far between Littman and me:

    From: Darleen Click
    Sent: Monday, July 02, 2007 10:24 AM
    To: Littwin, Mike
    Subject: resegregation

    Mr Littwin

    I believe Brown v Board of Education is quite clear. Government cannot use race to forceably assign children to public institutions. “Separate but equal” was rejected as a defense for such race-assignment.

    Where your argument actually reinforces the soft bigotry towards “minorities” on your part is that you assume the only way a “minority” child is going to learn is by sitting next to a “magic white child.”

    And your attempt to somehow “shame” those that applaud the common sensibility of this recent SCOTUS decision by lamenting “resegregated neighborhoods” is laughable. “Freedom of association” ring a bell?

    Or are you advocating some sort of Affirmative Action for real estate and rentals, where people would only be allowed to buy homes or rent apartments based on how “racially balanced” the neighborhood is?

    While institutional racism by policy is the proper province of governmental remedy, social racism is the proper province of societal pressure.

    You taint the talents and skills of “minorities” by infantalizing them as unworthy of equal opportunity.

    Just who is the “racist” here, hmmm?
    ……………..
    From: Littwin, Mike
    To: Darleen Click
    Sent: Monday, July 02, 2007 10:12 AM
    Subject: RE: resegregation

    Where did I say that the “only” way a “minority” child can learn is by sitting next to a white kid? Interestingly, I was on a radio show last night where the host used the exact same words. Love those talking points arguments.

    That said, minority children score lower than the magic white kids on test after test.

    What’s your explanation?

    What’s your remedy?

    Or do you think it’s something we shouldn’t concern ourselves with?

    By the way, I never called anyone a racist – and would hardly think that the five people on the Supreme Court who disagreed with me on a point of law were racist. You, however, suggest I’m a racist and also that I “taint minorities by infantalizing them as unworthy of unequal opportunity” — whatever that means. Yeah, that’s me and Judge Robert L. Carter, who argued Brown back in 1952 and who told the New York Times that the Supreme Court ruling turned his argument “on its head.”

    Mike Littwin
    …………….
    From: Darleen Click
    To: Littwin, Mike
    Sent: Monday, July 02, 2007 10:48 AM
    Subject: Re: resegregation

    Mr. Littwin,

    Lower test scores between arbitrary groups may have many causes, especially if one is measuring a suburban school with an inner-city school. There are many cultural factors that raw scores don’t take into account.

    For instance, even first generation immigrants from Asian countries score at higher levels than “whites”. Genetic? Racial? Cultural?

    The former is rhetorical of course. Culture – neighborhood and familial – is paramount in academic success.

    Or haven’t you hear Bill Cosby lately?

    As schools have become more bureaucratic with less accountability to the parents of its students, there has been less incentive to actually address its abject failures. School administrations have an attitude towards parents as “yes, come volunteer, open your checkbook, but certainly do not criticize us because we are professionals and we know whats best for you”.

    Ideally, I’d say vouchers would be the first dramatic step. However, practically that’s not going to happen soon, since sharing power with parents is anathema to government schools. So, legislatively I believe breaking up large school districts, returning control locally and encouraging more magnet and/or charter schools will go far in getting schools back on track in actually educating students. I’d like also to do something that would impose a ratio of spending dollars so most education funds go to the classroom, not the obscene percentage spent on administration. We do not spend “too little” on education currently, we just don’t spend it appropriately.

    But using racism to ostensibly “cure” racism only perpetuates it. It creates resentment on the part of everyone involved who feel they are little more than colored pegs moved around to whatever configuration du jour is considered “authentic racial balance.” Parents feel betrayed when their children cannot attend a local school. Parents feel betrayed when their children are used as “symbols” of white guilt.

    BTW, talking points? No. Common sense based on individuals rather than groups.

    So, what about those “resegregated” neighborhoods? What magic law do you want to pass to deny people the freedom of movement

    for their own good, of course!

  18. Comment by Pablo on 7/2 @ 4:09 pm #

    You, however, suggest I’m a racist and also that I “taint minorities by infantalizing them as unworthy of unequal opportunity” — whatever that means.

    And this moron gets paid to write? Shouldn’t you know a bit about reading before they pay you to write?

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