The Student Debt Train Wreck

The Sunday NYTimes did a story on the plight of a White middle-class student who amassed a student debt of $100,000 to get a liberal arts degree from top-flight NYU. She is now living with that decision, compared to her earning capacity, and it looks grim. What the story doesn’t talk about is how minorities, with a graduation rate of nearly two-thirds that of Whites (here) (half for black men), get saddled with similar debt and no degree. That’s grim, with a side of criminal on the part of those who are suppose to be helping these kids get an education.

The article (here) describes how schools are in the ‘business’ of enrolling students, but not telling them that they will spend a near-lifetime repaying loans, similar to the way their parents paid off the 30-year home mortgage. Private banks have been too happy to step in and provide what amounts to ‘no-doc’ variable-rate loans to kids, to fill the gap of what the schools, with any conscience or financial sense, could not do. As long as the government or parents guarantee the loans everybody’s happy – but then judgment day arrives.

When you are facing 10-15 years of student loan payments that look like rent payments, the cost of a good education doesn’t look so good. Forget bankruptcy, since that loop-hole was closed a long time ago on student loans. With a growing college-educated, but yet hourly-waged, workforce, paying off this debt seems nearly impossible.

US education is in a rat-race for wearing the best brand, even when that brand is just flat-out over-priced and a bad deal. Expect it all to crash eventually. There will come a time of ‘adjustment’, where schools, government, and banks are forced to return to operating budgets and loan amounts that match what students can reasonably repay. Expect that on the way there, schools will close or shrink, banks will write down bad loans, government will rescue and make rules – and the people will complain and sober to the truth.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: The Student Debt Train Wreck, Financial Aid, Student Loans, Bankruptcy, Acting Black, Acting White

Gary Coleman: 1968 - 2010

Perhaps Mr. Coleman lived longer because of fame, but only he can say if he lived better. RIP.

James C. Collier

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#13 Blacks and the Likability Paradox

Blacks often talk about what’s in somebody’s heart, particularly White hearts. “The problem with the 1964 Civil Rights Act was that White folks didn’t feel it in their hearts”, say Black historians. So what is it with the Black need that people like them deep down? It seems as though the group is constantly looking for their Sally Field “You really like me!” moment (which BTW ain’t never coming). Frankly, I always thought being liked was overrated. Liking or disliking someone is a discretionary choice, whereas obstructing their freedom is a violation of the US Constitution. Keep your damn feelings, just give me my rights.

Now switching up the gears, for all of the demand to have Whites genuinely welcome Blacks into their hearts, Black folks also seem hell-bent on generating dislike. This is illustrated by the ‘keepin’ it real’ model of dealing with folks. If Blacks don’t like someone (and this is often) they are compelled to show it, without restraint. Out of my face! No perceived slight, however small, is ever ignored. Benefit of what doubt, you say? Don’t hide your feelings in order to feed your family, or secure your future. White folks suck it up, yes. Asians? Definitely. Black folks, they keep it real till' it all goes wrong, and then they line up at unemployment, with kids in tow. This is the likability paradox.

James C. Collier

Blogger Post Scriptum: "R, even with 500+ postings I am still learning that sometimes musings don't translate to my intention. In hindsight, "Blacks and" postings should be on light topics only (like 21" rims). It is difficult to do more serious topics their justice in so few words going into the weekend. Mea Culpa to my readers."

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Looking At Disparities Through The Lens of Race

How properly could someone assess your life by taking a glance at the clothes in your closet? Can these garments tell the significant events of your life? Do they say when you got married, had a baby, graduated from college, got promoted in your job, retired, had surgery, or became a grandparent? The answer is no. Clothes, shoes, and hats are impermanent and tell us little. From a biological perspective, our skin and its coloration suffers the same fate. It comes in many varieties, but tells us almost nothing about our underlying differences.

Not a week goes by that I do not read an argument by an often-professed race-realist presenting that the intelligence-related disparities we witness between Blacks, Whites, Asians, Latinos, et al, must be genetic in origin, via ethnicity, since intelligence is more than 50% heritable (percentage of expression of traits directly from genes). In these arguments, the inference of empirical results always trumps the lack of supporting physiological evidence. The discussion typically focuses on IQ, standard test scores, school grades, graduation, and finally, on general behavior.

We all live each day looking through the race lens, but no one is more fanatical than the race-realist. Ardent realists, dedicated students of disparity, ignore the most obvious challenges to their argument that ‘race drives differences’. They ignore that skin coloration is impermanent and by far the most genetically labile organ of the human body, meaning it quickly changes based on the environment, and absent mutation. They ignore the skin’s profound sensitivity and responsiveness to sunlight intensity, and how quickly it must lighten or darken to protect healthy reproduction. They also ignore that skin coloration is of no value in determining phylogenetic relationships (evolutionary history of an organism group) among modern human groups.

The infinitely complex brain, in the alternative, is perhaps the least labile of our organs and has evolved universally, including at least one 'leap', in homo sapiens over tens of thousands of years, and millions of years over the span of humanity (genus homo). I have yet to hear an objective argument from realists reconciling these two physiological extremes, brain versus skin, in human evolution. Minus any such reconciliation, it is scientifically unforgivable to conclude much of anything about brain genetics and race-based outcomes, as viewed through today’s ‘extremely near-sided’ lens of skin coloration.

Researchers continuously look for evidence of inter and intra-group changes in our brains. Mutations have certainly occurred, and on rare occasion have ‘stuck’ (become positively selected). In the case of Ashkenazi Jews and sphingolipid disorders, we know precisely what constitutes evidence of a physiological change that might show itself in intelligence disparity. But in no case has science proved more than a normal distribution of intelligence across the species covering the most recent 50,000 years of brain evolution and travel about the globe. Trying to deduce today’s accumulation of disparate test results through the constantly changing and impermanent lens of race is as futile as searching in a clothes closet.

Various ethnicities certainly reflect different measured intelligence, but the genetic variation/distribution driving these differences occurred, by virtue of a basic time-line analysis, most substantially while waves of advancing dark-skinned homo sapiens were migrating from Africa. Skin color, as we see it today, is an extremely limited analytical tool for looking into the past, or explaining the present.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Looking At Disparities Through The Lens of Race, Race Realist, Genetics, Bell Curve, Acting Black, Acting White

Stipple Minute: Phillip Corbin Mansion, Oak Bluffs, MA

I took a photo of this home fifteen or so years ago, before it burned (1994) in an accident. The owner, software guru Peter Norton, rebuilt it almost exactly as it was.

James C. Collier

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Rand Paul’s Right to Refuse Service to Anyone

Tea Party darling Rand Paul kicked a bit of dirt onto himself the other day when he challenged the 1964 Civil Rights Act as “too broad”. Specifically, Paul thinks that businesses should be able to discriminate in who they serve. For those too young to remember, before 1964 it was common for establishments in parts of the country to refuse to serve Blacks. Paul has since been trying the wipe the stupidity from his lips, but it ain’t gonna be easy on this one. He said it, and he believes it.

I can still remember, as a kid on our vacation to Yellowstone, my Dad telling me to keep an eye out for a Best Western Motel, because he knew they would serve Blacks. Even here in California, I periodically still see signs in the windows of businesses that say, “we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone”, and I wonder ‘what the hell are they thinking?’. To be fair, the establishment is often owned by an immigrant who came to this country after 1964, and is minimally educated to the DMV code, much less the US Constitution.

I once approached the immigrant owner of one of my favorite eateries to say, in a friendly manner, that US law granted him no such ‘right’ of refusal, as his sign indicated. He was inclined to brush me off until I stated that if someone complained about his behavior as indicated by the sign, the city had the actual ‘right’ to pull his business license and close him down (here). He removed the sign.

My point is that while Paul may be one racist idiot to many, he is not so far away from the sentiments and ignorance of many Americans – and this should give us pause and concern.

James C. Collier

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#12 Blacks and Swagger, Obama too

In the first place, what is swagger? Objectively, swagger is a calculated display, and waste, of resources designed to communicate supremacy either to the competition or an object of desire. Rich guys, like billionaire Larry Ellison (Oracle), throw away money in plain sight, so that everyone knows that there is more where that came from. Ladies look like the display windows at Neiman’s, while they are buying groceries. Athletes strut to show muscle strength and readiness even when no threat or competition exist.

Different ethnicities have their versions of swagger. White guys wear their hair a certain way, Black guys do the same. But swagger starts at puberty and, I have just found, is best observed at co-ed high school track meets (including my son) where the young swaggees are wearing skimpy uniforms and embroiled in physical competition. These meets are a veritable gold mine of unadulterated swagger, White to Black, male to female, freshman to senior.

All colors of the boys have the basic swagger of walking on their toes (metatarsals), to show off their instant readiness to ‘Usain Bolt’ to some finish line into the first place spot light. The top tier girls wear tight everything, letting nature show itself off. More pronounced toe-walking and tight clothes equals speed, if you check the results. The kids add to this flair by wearing their accessories in the manner of professionals, Nike preferred.

There’s more swagger in the glamor events, the sprints. I suppose this is because running speed is the most basic of all competition. You run to get what you want, and away from that which wants you (for a meal). The boys have fancy haircuts and sunglasses, the girls get the fingernails and hair looking like they are headed to the club after the meet. The 3000m winner, a White kid, had a bit of well-earned swagger, but I think he has already seen too many swagger-less Kenyans, so he was dialing it back.

Finally, no swagger discussion is complete without recognizing Obama’s swagger. He walks like those kids. He is on his toes, like he is ready to bolt at a moment’s notice, toward or away from a threat - I’m not sure. I can’t think of an earlier POTUS, except Jack Kennedy, who had this particular physical manner of communicating readiness. BusinessWeek claimed (last week) that Wall Street is liking O-man, despite concerns, so he's still in the race even with the 'help' of FOX NEWS.

I’m not sure if it is racist to expect this from him, or to like it, or, god forbid, to have been jazzed by it at vote time. Is primal influence legitimate in this complex world? Perhaps, but it exist nonetheless.

Check out Swagger360.

James C. Collier

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Stipple Minute: "Girl And Cheetah"

Stipple drawing of photograph by Canadian Gregory Colbert.

James C. Collier

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Arizona Challenges Ethnic Studies

If you live in a country where ethnicity has, at times, identified individuals for legal, moral and ethical mistreatment, are citizens not allowed to educate to the history and facts of the mistreatment? Would this right not persist even though the descriptions of the mistreatment might reasonably invoke spirited discussion of the events and encourage organizations of change?

When I speak on this blog of propensities within the Black community to disproportionate violence, I do not feel good. But the propensity to violence is the truth that needs the spotlight for the benefit of all. Similarly, minorities, as well as Whites, need to learn the evidence of mistreatment of ourselves, whether by race, age, or sex, also to advance.

I may misunderstand it, but the Arizona initiative (here) banning ethnic studies education that might contribute to animus seems to ban study of factual events on the criteria that they might be painful. While this pain might include anger, fear, or resentment, it is nonetheless stemming from actual events. Should Germany ban studies of the Holocaust because of the emotion that it brings, or that students might organize in some fashion to insure that it never happens again? Pathways of ‘moving on’ do not necessarily mean dropping the discussion.

The greatest reason for ethnic studies is the propensity for the majority, in any place, to paint history in biased colors. What is often left out of the curriculum is that which is painful to remember, particularly for the historical majority. If that history, based on current events, encourages a call-to-action for change, then all the more reason to avoid it, or not, depending on your stance. Prohibiting the teaching of history because of the way it might be interpreted is a violation of our fundamental freedom.

I look forward to the day when ethnic studies will not need a separate status. However, until we can embrace it’s teaching, pain and all, along with all of our history, it will merit extraordinary support.

James C. Collier

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Lena Horne: 1917 - 2010

James C. Collier

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Ann Arbor’s Blacks-only Field Trip vs. Outrage

The reason that the job of a leader is lonely is because a leader must not play favorites, less the disfavored rise up and spite him. Our constitution does a good job in demanding that the citizens of these United States get treated equally. Over the years, more work has gone into seeing that White men following these laws of our land, and now we can add Ann Arbor’s Dicken Elementary School Principal Mike Madison to that list, with a twist.

It seems that Madison is Black, and recently authorized a Blacks-only field trip, for a science class to hear a speech by a rocket scientist, who (you guessed it) happens to be Black. White class members were excluded from the trip, on the basis of their race. Madison’s goal was to expose the Black children to new possibilities for their futures. He may have done this, but he also exposed himself as a racist idiot.

Who is he, as the chief-educator for the entire school, to suggest that there was not mutual benefit available and responsibility to all the kids who might hear the inspiring words of a rocket scientist? Who is he to direct that resources, provided for the benefit of all the students, should be directed to educational programs for a select group? What kind of strategy for closing the achievement gap for Black kids includes limiting educational support for non-Blacks?

This is simple. If, in seeking more White players in the NBA, a White principal made a Whites-only field trip to meet Phoenix Sun’s star basketball player, Steve Nash, who is White, Blacks would not hesitate to express their outrage. So put me on the record for some Black outrage at Principal Knucklehead. If my kid were in that school, Madison would need to explain to the school board why he should get to keep his job. Period. Story (here).

James C. Collier

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Growing Up White

When I saw this I immediately thought I should start my own stuff-black-people-would-like-to-do-but-can't blog. I can just imagine what my parents would say if I had ever decided to disrupt a pro baseball game by running around the field like a kid who just downed his first half-a-beer. But in this case, there was a rotund taser-toting Philly cop with his own ideas.

Rather than continuing to chase the seventeen year old in circles, the chubby cop took aim with the electrodes and dropped him (here). This was prior to needing to call in his own ‘dunkin-donut-code-blue’, or worse, having to self-tase his big butt back to life. In fairness to the cop, who was reviewed and cleared of using excessive force, recent of these joy-runners have proved themselves armed and dangerous toward on-field personnel.

What’s kinda’ funny, besides seeing the kid crash and burn from the shock, is to consider that prior to hopping the barrier to the field, the youngster called his dad and asked permission for the stunt. The dad curiously said, “I don’t think you should.” Now, my pops would have said something a little stronger like, “I’m gonna’ whip your ass for even thinking about doing something so asinine”. But hey, my old man was old-school.

Furthermore, if my folks came to bail me out, after such a stunt, I would suggest that it’d be safer for me to stay on ‘ice’ for a few days until dad’s BP (blood pressure) came down to triple digits.” In contrast, the offender’s father wasn’t too bothered, except for the tasing, saying his son was ‘just a teenager having fun’. I guess growing up White still has a few advantages.

James C. Collier

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Harvard Law Student Kicks Up Racial Ruckus

Third-year Harvard law student, and Law Review editor, Stephanie Grace, has caused a poop-storm of controversy by putting in writing her views that state, “I absolutely do not rule out the possibility that African Americans are, on average, genetically predisposed to be less intelligent”.

It seems that she spoke out six months ago in an email follow-up to a private dinner conversation. One of the email recipients - Yelena Shagall - recently decided, for yet known reasons, to ‘out’ Ms. Grace. In any event, there’s a whole lot of damage control going on from all sides, including the law school Dean, Martha Minow, who is under consideration by Obama for the high court.

It is not so much what Ms. Grace said, but rather that she was so evidently having a conversation that is not allowed. To correct her, what is absolute is that we are not allowed to talk, in any forum, about the possible origins of an intelligence gap that seems to influence/explain the performance gap we experience, between White and Black.

The fact that Blacks score, on average, one standard deviation below Whites on IQ test and under perform on a myriad of standard empirical measures, across all education levels, establishes a basis, however incomplete, for Ms. Grace’s statement. This incomplete basis stands, and will remain as the ‘best case’ line of reasoning in the censored mouths of all, until the point which it is openly and critically debated. For this debate to happen, people like Ms. Grace must not be crucified.

Factors of intelligence are genetic, indeed, but not in the negative manner implied by this layman banter of terms. Good science to-date provides that nothing about having black skin genetically predisposes anyone to less intelligence. However, the correlation of black skin and lower measured intelligence does indicate that normal human distributions of intelligence could reasonably pre-date ethnicity, in expression. That these differences may be expediently visible through today's lens of race, while having other origins, is the missing piece of the puzzle, blocked by not encouraging open scientific dialog.

Differences of race, at and beneath the surface, have occurred in concert with other key events in recent human evolution (last 10,000 years). The proper assignment of cause and effect demand a critical analysis of event time lines, particular with respect to evolving homo sapien brain physiology, and including what evidence we have of recent brain mutations (genetic disorders) that might explain the pronounced disparities we see, or errantly think we see.

James C. Collier

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