GABlog Generative Anthropology in the Public Sphere

May 11, 2007

No longer raining on the just and unjust alike

Filed under: GA — Q @ 9:51 am

A headline in my local newspaper today proclaimed “Study finds storm [Katrina] hit blacks harder.”

Is anyone else getting tired of these studies, which seem to be appearing in our news now on a daily basis, that not everybody in America ends up in the same place? A local “scandal” in Utah is that hispanic children in the public schools do not do as well on achievement tests as whites. Public pressure forced the governor to appoint a commission to investigate. Yet there has been no evidence produced of discrimination in the school system, nor even any allegations of discrimination. Aren’t individuals responsible for themselves anymore? I fear we’re going to end up like the futuristic society described in one of Kurt Vonnegut’s stories, in which the smart, talented, and “advantaged” people are forced to wear various torture devices in order to “level the playing field.”

All we can do is make and enforce the laws against discrimination; after that individuals have to take responsibility for their own outcomes.

~Q

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