Acting White: Affirmative Action Harms Minority Law Students

When I first saw that the Civil Right Commission was going to weigh-in on this quantitative study of affirmative action impact, I thought, “Its about time somebody showed some interest”. I, for one, have spent tens of hours sloshing through UCLA Professor Sander’s study and counter-rebuttals, as well as the disproof’s his Stanford Law Review article has inspired. However, my enthusiasm quickly waned as I realized that partisan politics have long-since taken over the position of any given commission. Anything the current Republican-swayed group says needs to be considered with a jaundiced eye, as would also be the case under a Democratic president.

Regardless as to which side you take, whether that affirmative action admission results in a ‘mismatch effect’ or not, both sides repeatedly agree that blacks are increasingly suffering inside, and outside, of higher education, as the result of current affirmative action. What is amazing is that all sides seem more intent on arguing the emotionally charged cause of the failure, rather than acknowledging their agreement that the failure itself calls for something ‘new’, which the whole country can rally behind.

Whether the current affirmative action is ineffective because the majority no longer supports it, or that it is an implementation that has exhausted its efficacy, is of no real consequence. As a solution, it is history and we need to replace it with something better. Racism will always be with us, but as I look about, I submit that economic-based classism rules our lives. We need affirming programs that support poor citizens gaining the skills to be competitive in their contributions. Our progress must be about making new opportunity, rather than arbitrarily redistributing it. These new programs would undoubtedly scoop up those same poor blacks the current programs are forsaking, regardless of which argument leads the un-winnable ‘why’ debate.

So then, who will lose out if we replace current affirmative action with ‘new and improved’ programs? Concisely, the losers will be rich kids, black and white. Each will get less of a boost for simply being rich and/or being black. Legacy programs maintain the status quo, where rich white kids fair the best, and where rich black kids too often ‘skate’ on initiatives that they really should not qualify for, based on their available resources.

What poor kids need, both black and white, are tailored skill-building programs that launch them properly into competitive mindsets and arenas where they get to ‘sink or swim’ along with everyone else. We must move past our racist fears that blacks cannot perform on par with whites, when given the opportunity. But mostly, we must reject the bait of the rich who are happy for the lower economic classes to argue and fight on lose-lose racial battlegrounds crafted to maintain the status quo.

James C. Collier

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Cancer Rates Pegged to Vitamin D Levels

First, the bad news…

ACS publication Cancer Facts & Figures for African Americans 2007-2008.

• Prostate cancer is 2.4 times more deadly for black men than for white men.
• Breast cancer is 1.4 times more deadly for black women than for white women.
• Colon cancer and breast cancer rates are declining more slowly for blacks than for whites.
• By the time black Americans find out they have cancer, their cancer is at a later stage than for newly diagnosed white Americans. There are fewer treatment options for later-stage cancer.
• For all major cancers, black Americans are less likely than whites to survive five years after diagnosis -- even when their cancers are diagnosed at the same stage.

Now, the good news…

“Study Shines More Light on Benefit of Vitamin D in Fighting Cancer"

Researchers at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, conducting a first-of-its-kind meta-analysis study, estimate that 250,000 cases of colorectal cancer and 350,000 cases of breast cancer could be prevented worldwide by increasing vitamin D, especially in locations north of the equator. This represents a whopping 50% reduction. Researchers added that 150,000 of the preventions would occur in the US.

This is the first study to recommend optimal levels of vitamin D blood serum, which goes by the name, 1,25-hydroxyvitaminD3. The optimal levels correspond to 2,000 International Units (IU) per day of vitamin D3.

“The researchers underscore their call for prompt public health action to increase intake of vitamin D3 as an inexpensive tool for prevention of diseases that claim nearly one million lives each year world-wide.”

Well folks, there you have it (again), take vitamin D and live!

James C. Collier

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N.F.L.’s Vick Accepts Plea Deal in Dog-Fight Case

N.F.L.’s Vick Accepts Plea Deal in Dog-Fight Case - NYT

I know little of Atlanta football super-star Michael Vick, other than his recent troubles and plea bargain for professional dog fighting. So all I will say is that any owner who gives someone a $130 million dollar contract with $37 million guaranteed, should have a few guys planted in said super-star's ‘posse’ to warn of possible behavior that might sink the ship. If the Atlanta ownership had any savvy at all they should have considered this outcome and saved all of this mess, at the cost of a few additional Benjamin’s. On the other-hand, if the owner is insured against Vick’s self-implosion, then ‘what the hell’.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Africa in America

My daughter’s best friend from her earliest school days is the child of Muslim immigrants from Libya and Yemen. For those who are geographically-challenged, Libya is in North Africa, while Yemen is a stones-throw away just east of Ethiopia. The family is part of a larger family, mostly of women, brought here by a patriarch who opened a grocery store and made good on the American dream.

The children and grandchildren of this old man, who has since retired to Yemen, have done well for themselves, beginning with education and ending in marriage to Muslim men vetted from the top – and herein is the rub. The top down view prizes men from Africa, of any color, who are Muslim, and rejects Black American men as the most unacceptable of suitors. It seems that Black American men are viewed, as a rule, as lazy and unmotivated by our North African brothers.

When I first heard of this thinking and behavior of my good friend, I was offended. But on the other hand, I have studied and written about stereotypes and why they survive and prosper as useful shortcuts to helpful and painful truths, depending on where you sit. I concluded that the battle of the black man is not the same everywhere, although most would have it so.

African immigrants in America, lead by their males, win the coveted spot of most highly educated demographic in the US, with nearly 50% earning college degrees. This accomplishment is beyond that of Asians; is two-times greater than whites; and four times greater than American-born Blacks. Black American men hold the opposite title of achieving the least of any US demographic, except for Native Americans.

Now, as I place myself in the old patriarch’s shoes, I see that my fight is not his fight, unless he chooses it so, and he is an old man from a very different place. The origins of the problems of America’s Blacks are not of their own doing, but I can hear the old man of Northern Africa whispering a light tone so we might strain to hear him say, ‘the problem may not be of your doing, but the solution lies only in you’.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: NPR News & Notes

The wonderful people at National Public Radio (NPR) saw fit to invite me onto one of their dailies, News & Notes, for a blogger round table discussion on black topics in the news. The host, Farai Chideya, a fellow Harvard alum, does a great job of ‘herding cats’ around issues of interest. Here is a link to the program, if edutainment is what you seek – and it was indeed quite ‘spicy’ as the producer Devin Robins describes it.

My goal was to not make a big fool of myself or my blog, and I am happy to say I almost achieved it. Really, I was OK except for a brief moment when my hearing-aid seemed to quit working, and I don’t even own one. We were having sound disruptions in the Cal Berkeley studio, but I cannot say this is the cause of my lapse. The question lobbed to me was about class conflict between black women and men, relative to marriage, and I think the danger of it threw a circuit-breaker in my head(phones). The answer that failed to come out was that professional black women who marry blue-collar black men should be prepared to live with the clinking of mimosa glasses and beer bottles. For some this trade-off is fine, for others it will be too much.

The other bloggers on the program included La Shawn Barber, a very sharp, no nonsense woman who does not mince words or conclusions when it comes to what ails black folks. Some of my detractors have lumped me in with her and I now consider this a compliment. The third blogger was LN Rock, of African-American Political Pundit, a re-poster of black blogs who has a penchant for pouring gasoline on himself and lighting a match, as he did today.

LN distinguished himself in two ways, first by declaring that post-Katrina New Orleans would eventually be 100% black-free, as the result of conspiring whites. Farai’s amazement could not be contained. He followed this with the accusation that black women who marry non-blacks are traitors and that I must be married to a white woman because I support black women marrying whoever they want, including white men. At the risk that he will no longer pilfer my blog, I will say he has a set of knuckles growing out of his forehead.

Nevertheless, I thought the show was a great chance for a live ‘dust-up’ of the issues of the day. The N&N team seem like a hustling bunch, with good instincts for what matters to people. I look forward to more opportunities like this, knowing that there is always the risk of the late hit out-of-bounds, by bloggers who shall not be named.

ADDENDUM: Regarding Interracial Marriage...

"A survey in the United States found that, in every age category, available black women outnumbered available black employed men by two to one; they outnumbered black employed men, with earnings above the poverty line, by at least three to one (Crowder and Tolnay 2000)."

James C. Collier

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Acting White: What Kind of Black Are You?

Once I was beyond my knee-jerk offense to this question, I was able see the progress that it also represents. Seeing different blacks, especially in America, is a challenge for people, including the native-born among us. Blacks are traditionally viewed and presented as a monolith, one-size fits all category - a distillation which simply cannot accurately represent the diversity of the group.

Recognizing different blackness is critical, in my view, as it allows us to trace sub-groups of people, cultures, behaviors, histories, while making important distinctions reflected in different rates of progress and advancement. This unevenness of result occurs even while we live under one ‘societal’ system. The success of recent African immigrants in attaining college degrees (28%), the highest of any group including white males, is just one example of differing behaviors and results, which beg scrutiny for the benefit of trailing blacks.

As an aside, I recall that my 80 year-old mother, while visiting England and Italy, was very annoyed that Africans whose paths she crossed, failed to acknowledge her in any form compared to blacks in the states. She reluctantly accepted my explanation that black-skinned people are not all the same. However, she was amused that white Americans, to whom she was normally invisible, sought her out as a ‘friendly face’ in a sea of distant Europeans.

To take it a step further, we think of Africans as one people, but to native Africans the idea of this is absurd. Science tells us what these people already know, that in no other place on the planet is genetic diversity, that which lies beneath the skin, greater than in Africa. Skin color is an adaptive genetic trait dictated by latitude – or amount of sunlight – and inasmuch, it is malleable and useless as a genetic identifier.

So do not just ask me what kind of black I am, take it a step further to get to know me. Caribbean blacks for instance, a minority among minorities, joke about how many jobs they hold simultaneously in their quest to get ahead. But if you bump into a black undergrad in Harvard Yard, there’s a 50/50 chance they or their parents are from the islands or Africa. Joke perhaps, and laughing all the way to the bank too.

James C. Collier


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Acting White: Is Obama Black Enough?

Everywhere you read, you see the same question, “Is Obama Black Enough?” I thought if I ignored the implied suggestion, that it would go away, but like a bad penny, it just keeps coming back. It seems to be some coded inquiry whose answer will determine if black voters will be able to flip the switch for him in 2008. Unfortunately, the answer also threatens to sink the necessary white support he needs.

In the old days all a Black person required to pass the test of blackness was 1) look black, 2) marry black, 3) aspire to individual and group advancement. But somewhere along the line, the wires were crossed. You can look Black, which Obama does. You can marry Black, which he has. But being a highly-educated, self-responsible, over-achieving leader frankly scares the hell out of a lot of Black folks.

The pathologies of inferiority and under achievement have become so ingrained in Black minds that members are immediately suspect in the event that they break, or aspire to break the pattern, even as a Democrat. The tools of compliance begin with how we look and speak, and end with where we are going, or would profess to lead others. This is Barack’s true political nemesis.

Obama wants black people to feel empowered, not by the guilt their words induce in the behaviors of whites, but rather by the development and exercise of skills and abilities that contribute to our entire betterment. Black vs. white achievement is not a zero-sum game, regardless to what racism has tried to teach us.

The question of Obama’s blackness allows too many people to hide the real questions about themselves which they are afraid to ask, or have answered. Once those questions are addressed, the only thing we will care about, in the voting booth, is if the candidate, man or woman, black or white, can lead us where we truly need to go.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: What is Cheating? Part II

Like the late, great Ray Charles and his Georgia, I continue to have cheating on my mind.

It dawns on me that no single propulsion factor is more responsible for the advancement of human societies than is cheating. The search for unfair advantage is far more enticing than fair play, having humans dominating all manner of competing species, from microbes to blue whales, and leaving only each other to contend with in the end. But as ardent animal-rights activist often say, the ability to dominate other species should not be an unquestioned right, should it?

Control of cheating is more reasonably an attempt to manage the risk of humankind’s overly aggressive nature as it pursues advancement. If the scientists at the Manhattan Project, who fashioned the atomic bomb the US dropped on Japan in WWII, were unfettered cheaters in their quest, New Mexico would likely be an uninhabitable glowing hole in the ground. Cutting corners is risky business.

If cheating was not in our DNA, humankind’s evolution could conceivably have been set back tens of thousands of years. On the other hand, if cheating goes unchallenged, the level of mayhem we would likely bring upon ourselves could just as easily define it as the tool of our early demised, rather than our longevity.

So I suppose the take-away is that we should look at cheating as a necessary behavior to our advancement, but one that has increasing drawbacks, relative to the degree that it is left unchecked. Because explaining this conclusion to my kids would be damn near impossible, I am back to square one – telling them not to do it, or there will be trouble. They will undoubtedly ignore me, but with a hoped for restraint that propels them to better, longer, more productive lives. Perhaps.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: What is Cheating?

With the home-run record falling in recent days, there has been lots of talk about cheating. A day does not go by without some instance or accusation that edges right up to the point of fitting someone for an orange jumpsuit or a cushy up-state pen. Funny thing - lying about cheating figures to be worse than cheating itself, ala Martha Stewart. But what is cheating, really?

I define cheating as the ‘inevitable pursuit of unfair advantage’. If fair advantage can be characterized as the result of some combination of natural ability and diligent pursuit, then unfair advantage leverages un-natural ability and less-than-diligent pursuit. Pretty simple.

Everyone cheats - some better and more often than others, but it is a human trait. The argument with Barry Bonds is not whether he is a cheater, but whether he is a ‘good’ cheater. He says he is, most agree that he is not. A good cheater is someone whose cheating is not so obvious, while a bad cheater gains a lot of muscle near the twilight of his career and starts bashing homers like a crazy-man, when he should be signing autographs at fifty-bucks a pop at Las Vegas cards shows.

Michael Jackson is a bad cheater, along with all his other problems. He turned his skin white, thinking, I suppose, that no one would notice this cheating? Sorry Jacko, we noticed. But perhaps if everyone had access to changing their skin color, then we would not think of it as cheating or ‘race’ treason, but just discretionary ‘enhancement’.

When we step back, it seems that accusations of cheating peak as technologies of unfair advantage disperse into the realm of the franchise, away from the clandestine and exclusive shadows of the rich. Curiously, no one is suggesting the US get an asterisk next to its distinction as the greatest country of the modern world. After all, the founding fathers cheated (didn’t they?) when they bought stolen people to help build the joint.

Germany and Japan could protest US greatness, but then again I think they cheated to – if you ask the Jews, the Chinese, or Koreans. Baseball pitchers are notorious cheaters, with spitters, sand paper, vasoline, etc. Green Bay Packer Jerry Kramer, in his book Instant Reply, described hall-of-famers Dick Butkus and Alex Karras as world-class football cheaters.

Hey, Babe Ruth could have been a cheater for all we know, and he does not seem like the kind of man who would have passed-up an unfair advantage. I think Aaron was fair and square, but he may have just come along in between cheating technologies, and was forced play it straight.

In any event, cheating is what we do, just like lying, or pleasuring ourselves. So we should all take a deep breath and stand down. Only time and their health will tell us if Bonds or Jackson are good cheaters or fools who made devilish deals only to suffer down the road. In the meantime, play ball!

James C. Collier

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Journalist Chauncey Bailey : 1949 - 2007

A few days ago, Chauncey Bailey, a long-time SF Bay area print news professional and editor of the Oakland Post, was gunned down in broad daylight on an Oakland street. The police have since arrested the alleged gunman, who worked at a north Oakland Black Muslim bakery, an organization whose criminal activities had attracted the journalistic attention of Bailey.

Many others have, and will continue to write about the career of Bailey. As with anyone in the public spotlight, there will be various views on his professional work. He was not above ‘breaking a few eggs’ to get the stories that he thought needed public viewing – not an uncommon trait of good investigative journalism.

A few months back, I had the pleasure of meeting Bailey under an unusual arrangement, but one that spoke to his professionalism. A reporter from the very left-of-center East Bay Express, Will Harper, showed up at our company offices to interview our CEO. Calling himself ‘the bottom-feeder’, his reputation told us to expect the worse, whether he got his interview or not.

But fortunate for us, Bailey also sat in on the interview, as did I. He was there to encourage a fair and honest representation of the dialogue. He accomplished that, as much as possible, with people who equate journalism with bottom feeding. In the end there was nothing to investigate, but it was Chauncey who was key to upholding a higher standard of journalism.

May he rest in peace.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Jena Six

On July 30, an all-white jury in Jena, Louisiana found black high school student Mychal Bell, guilty of aggravated second degree assault and conspiracy, related to injuries to a white student. The assault was the culmination of events following black student desire to sit under a heretofore ‘whites-only’ shade-tree at their school.

Upon review of the facts, as we know them (and this is not easy) it appears that the entire town, from school leaders, to the students, to the district attorney and including law enforcement, have lost their collective ethnic minds – or probably never had them. Unfortunately, the Jena Six boys are destined to pay the most significant price for the town’s resulting cognitive and behavioral meltdown, which began with three hangman’s nooses.

To cut to the chase, once the townsfolk hostilities entered the arena where people were grabbing their guns and getting knocked unconscious, someone should have realized that charges would eventually follow, and be serious. It may very well be racism that had this game of ‘musical chairs’ stop on the lives of the black boys, but no one should have been surprised – certainly not the black parents or the boys themselves. Why sacrifice your kid to remind us that the world is not fair?

Now America may, once again, be ‘surprised’ and embarrassed that racism is still alive and well. Some of us may indeed double our efforts, locked arm-in-arm with our favorite Reverend, to bury racism next to the N-word. But the truth remains. Ignorance is all that is required for people to square-off. And there is a lot of ignorance in this country about how we arrived at our present calamity.

To add salt to the wound, it seems that young Bell’s court-appointed attorney put up no real defense of the lad – certainly grounds for appeal. I guess the NAACP was too busy planning the next symbolic funeral instead of trying to save these kid's real futures.

I can only hope for a measure of divine intervention in Jena that somehow recovers the opportunity these people could have, if only their brains worked properly. However, it seems that I am probably asking too much.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: When Race is NOT the issue.

Today I took my daughter to see Barry Bonds try to tie the home run record of Hank Aaron. The record will eventually fall, but not this day. However, the afternoon did give me motivation to catch-up on the latest discussions of Mr. Bonds, steroids, baseball, and racism.

I have seen numerous headlines asking whether Bonds is being subjected to a double-standard of behavior vis-à-vis white players who have alleged to, or admitted to, use of performance enhancing drugs.

I have also heard blacks say that if Bonds gets an asterisk by his name in the records books, so too should Babe Ruth. The logic here, which I needed help to comprehend, was that Ruth set the record during a time when blacks were barred from the majors, therefore all the records of that time are suspect in similar fashion.

Regarding the asterisk defense, I would say that everyone knows that Ruth never faced the likes of Satchel Paige, arguably the greatest pitcher in the Negro Leagues, for reasons having nothing to do with either man, but rather the times. Baseball history will forever suffer the consequences of those times. But beyond this loss, sometimes the times should simply rest in peace. Put the shovel away, declare victory and move on.

Regarding the Bond’s double standard, it’s too bad that race goes so well with every argument. If we do not like someone who is black, it must be because we are racist, or self-hating, no matter what form of behavior that person presents to the world. Race is like the joker in a deck of cards, it trumps everything to the point of uselessness.

I have said it before; I am no fan of Bonds because he is as bad a sportsman as he is a great hitter. Blackness has nothing to do with it. I do not think anyone should have to pretend to like him or lay off him in any way, in some guilt-induced attempt to prove they are not racist. This would be insulting.

I think the absence of Aaron himself, a classy guy if ever there was one, says it all about the validity of this record breaking event.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Harry Potter and Black Boys

My 12 year old son is a Harry Potter maniac – and has been from the start. I have always looked upon this as a sign of his healthy development, but his fascination takes on even greater significance as we consider the disparities between black and white and how they are reinforced. We have encouraged him to have heroes of all types, especially color. To do anything else would be to limit the dream engine powering him towards all that he can do and be in life.

However, my son is not like most black boys. He is so fearless of the accusation of ‘acting white’ that he would gladly stand in a line for hours to buy the latest Potter book, movie ticket, or a high-tech wizard’s wand. Less we worry, he is truly agnostic, having pursued Star Wars, and Jedi Samuel Jackson’s Mace Wendu costume, with a vengeance. A white kid in his school pointed out on Halloween that Harry Potter was white, to which my son replied, ‘so’.

We are bombarded daily, including this blog, with the differences between black academic achievement and the rest of America. Black males graduate at less than 70% the rate of whites for a myriad of reasons, including the notion that boyhood emulation of non-black heroes, athletic or academic, is somehow not right for black kids. Well this is definitely a position to re-consider. The boy doesn’t want to be white, he just wants to turn his sister into a hamster, for heaven’s sake!

It is great that millions of white kids wanted to be like Michael Jordan, and it is perfectly okay for black boys to believe in Santa Claus and want to be like Harry Potter. Tragic is the only word that comes to mind when I think of a kid with no dreams because none seem to fit the color of his or her skin.

James C. Collier

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NAACP Symbolically Burys N Word

NAACP Symbolically Burys N Word - AP

Gestures are good. Saying hello, for instance, to people in an elevator is a nice thing to do. Slowing to allow cars to merge into traffic is another. But some gestures, like burying the N-word are silly, even at the hands of the once mighty NAACP. Not because the N-word is good, for it certainly is not. However, ‘nigger’, or any of its variations, is a vessel of ignorance, regardless of whose mouth it exits, and it is this ignorance that needs a real funeral – not one for show.

Burying the word in a ceremony is no different than putting departed Aunt Sadie’s favorite dress in the ground, while her body lays somewhere unattended and in open-air decay. The ignorance that has blacks and whites using the N-word so creatively, in all directions, sits fully nourished away from the spotlight of the cameras, microphones, and salivating ‘info-tainment’ hounds reporting on its faux demise.

I attended an open-air farmer’s market this past Sunday and in the midst of the organically grown fruits and veggies was the drone of an amateur gansta-rapper whose ignorance was ever-present, without a single utterance of the N-word, the H-word, or any other expletive begging for deletion. I was nonetheless annoyed and embarrassed by what he was saying, as well as how he was saying it.

When the young, thuggishly adorned, man finished his serenade, I was amazed that some people clapped their seeming approval and encouragement. I did consider that their reward may have been to secretly encourage the sweet silence following his finish. In a world where good is bad, and up is down, I would have desperately taken the long-odds that the clapping would tell this kid that he needed to get back to his real future - the books. But no such luck.

Fortunately, I had a back-up plan – an unceremonious exit to my car, organics in hand, where Fourplay was waiting on the CD to take me home.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Vitamin D, Autism, and Learning Disadvantages in Black Children

Hypovitaminosis D is a medical phrase that we should all begin to get use to hearing, as it relates to our health. It is the medical description for the numerous and varied maladies stemming from vitamin D deficiency.

While the medical community scrambles, some would say haplessly, to get the word out on the critical importance of vitamin D, the leading edge of that same community continues to unearth data pointing to its widespread health impacts in whites, people-of-color, and particularly in blacks.

In this latest installment, the implications of inadequate D levels are linked to autism, analyzed by factors of race and latitude – the determinant of intensity of sunlight. Autism, a psychiatric disorder of childhood characterized by marked deficits in cognitive and intellectual development, represents the tip-of-the-iceberg analysis of vitamin D effects on women of childbearing age, pregnancies, and fetal and early childhood development through adulthood.

If autism is, in any part, the worse possible result of epidemic-levels of vitamin D deficiency, showing itself in 6 of each 1000 children (US), how might millions of children and adults manifest lesser symptoms in ways that correlate to D levels from the melanin in their skin and the amount of sunlight they are getting each day? Black children in the US score an average of 15 points lower than white children on the same controlled intelligence tests, for reasons that continue to elude the best psychological and educational research.

So not only are we coming to understand that the higher rates of internal cancers, diabetes, hypertension, et al, in black adults has correlated origin in vitamin D deficiencies, but that black children are likely at the front of the line of getting short-changed in their neurodevelopment, beginning nine months before taking their first breath.

New York City Schools will shortly begin a highly-publicized cash incentive program for coaxing improvement out of under performing black kids, and this may be well and good, but paying kids money to learn when their essential vitamin D levels are slowing them down, like a drag-shoot, makes little sense. The vitamin D levels of most of these kids, like their parents, are so low that they fail to register at all in health screening.

Innovate sure. But, while we are at it, how about wrapping some free vitamin D around a promotional campaign? It's just a cheap pill and our future, regardless of race.

Take D and live! (and get some for your kids, too!)

For more information, check out www.vitamindcouncil.com.

James C. Collier

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Regrets of a School Dropout

The Regrets of a School Dropout -

Thoughts for Larue Campbell et al,

"In the end, all things being equal or not, success in life is a self-selecting process. As individuals we option ourselves in or out, depending largely on the choices we make on our behalf, regardless of externalities. Those who succeed, do so by ‘hook or crook’, against overwhelming odds. Those who fail can always point to the behavior of others, but also with an invisible wink-and-nod to their own complicity. Advantage over the daunting odds is to be found in innumerable places along the way. For the privileged, it can often be purchased, or arrive as a bestowed right, or legacy, of the past. Whether this is fair or not, is a question of moral debate, but unquestionably it remains how the world operates. For the poor masses, advantage almost always comes through education, acquired with determination, and against systems designed to maintain the status quo, despite contrary rhetoric. In all cases, assimilation is the cornerstone, or lever, to achievement of change for the better."

James C. Collier

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African American Seeks to Prove A Genetic Link to James Madison

African American Seeks to Prove A Genetic Link to James Madison - Washington Post

I do no care if the founding fathers personally held slaves. Whether each owned slaves does not change the fact that they were, individually and collectively, responsible for a system of government and laws that enslaved people, period. Those that did not hold slaves were no better or worse than others, for they all benefited from and enforced the practice.

Furthermore, any offspring of slave women and slave masters, founding fathers or not, deserve no special recognition beyond any other slave offspring of the time. To recognize them as special is to somehow, posthumously, recognize, and thereby reward, these white men who exploited black women in the most despicable of manners.

As for the comparison between George Washington, who is believed to have freed his slaves upon death, and James Madison, whose slaves were sold instead, we must be careful not to read too much into this difference. Slaves were generally affixed to the actual plantation property, and mortgaged along with it. Settling the indebtedness of the estate was the overriding determinant of whether slaves were sold upon the master’s death. Inasmuch as this settlement was carried out by executors, with only a fiduciary responsibility to the estate and debt holders, the slave master’s wishes, whatever they might be, could only come into play after all debts were paid.

I, for one, am dubious of black people who go looking for their white ancestry with the implicit hope of proving themselves worthy of any kind of attention, due to the fact.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: African American Seeks to Prove A Genetic Link to James Madison, Slavery, Founding Fathers, Genetics, Thomas Jefferson, Acting White

Court Limits Suits on Pay Discrimination

Court Limits Suits on Pay Discrimination - Washington Post

There is little doubt in the minds of most women and minorities that they must make a greater effort to achieve pay equal to White males. This is the case whether one is the singular Lilly Ledbetter at Goodyear, or nearly 80 million African-Americans and Latinos.

While protection from racism initiated the 1964 Civil Rights laws, it was good fortune that had sexism tacked on, in a failed last-minute attempt to thwart the act. Nonetheless, the legal protection for the two is the same. On the surface, the recent Supreme Court ruling against Ms. Ledbetter’s discrimination award seems based on a technicality – a 180-day filing requirement - and the prevailing justice’s predictable interpretations. But there is more to it.

If we accept, for the moment, that minorities and women must work harder for the same pay, relative to White males, might we ascertain a measure of how much harder they must work? What of this effort is due to discrimination? Could reasons exist beyond these traditional culprits of gender and race?

This debate begs the clarifying distinction of whether the minority worker is required to produce more output for the same pay, or does circumstance, which we shall review, cause him or her to expend more effort to produce the same result as a White male.

Historical data, compiled by many sources, including the National Urban League, a long-time leading civil right organization, tells us that for every $1 that a White man in America earns, a black man will earn approximately $0.73. Wage disparities exist for males and females as well, with the rate for men being higher relative to women. Under these terms, the Black man earns 27% less than does his White male counterpart, for possessing the same qualifications and performing the same work. However, if we examine what is required to produce the same output as a White male, yielding true equivalency, the question is really about why the Black man, as folklore describes it, is working ‘harder’ than his White peer. In fact, if he is truly working harder, in effort or hours, to produce the same result, would this not describe him as relatively less efficient and therefore deserving of a lower compensation? Alternately, if he consistently produces the equivalent or greater output of a White man, for a similar effort and time, a disparity in wages means the case for racism would exist.

The logical question for a wage disparity analysis is whether the differences we experience are predominantly skills based, and therefore a market-driven response in pay, or more simply they are related to sex, race, or some other non-objective criteria. Central to the study is the point at which skills development disparities reveal themselves, prior to hire, along with the degree to which the employer can accurately assess any divergence and legally act upon it. Organizations act on what they know, or suspect, by either not hiring an individual or hiring and, more reactively, employing that person at a reduce wage over time to reflect any revealed disparity in output, or efficiency.

Studies of school-age children have shown that divergence of skills occurs early and sustains itself through adolescence and into adulthood, at rates comparable to the wages disparities we see. The best measure of this skills disparity is graduation rates, at nearly 30% lower for blacks in high school, and 43% lower for White females versus White males in college (engineering sciences). It is counter-intuitive to expect wage rate disparities in women or African-Americans to be anything other than consistent with this divergence in performance established in early childhood through working-age. Importantly, this data is not saying why the skills disparity develops, just that it is real, and wage disparities are a market response.

The Supreme Court may have chosen a technicality for explaining their reversal of Ms. Ledbetter’s victory, however, our misunderstanding of the origins and relationship between long-term skills development and wage disparity, which the high court failed to illuminate in their decision, is a side-step of the issue. This maneuver will have supporters of each position preparing for a rematch down the road, rather than moving toward better programs to close the performance and wage gap.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Court Limits Suits on Pay Discrimination, Civil Rights, Title VII, Dicrimination, Pay Disparities, Acting White

Pope: Injustices Done in Colonization

Pope: Injustices Done in Colonization - Washington Post

With all due respect to his holiness, the Pope is blowing smoke at the people of Brazil, and the rest of the world, for that matter. The missionaries that brutalized, raped and pillaged all corners of the world in the name of Catholicism, did so with the full knowledge and support of laws tailored by and for their religious expansion.

If the pontiff is really sorry for the sins of his predecessors, I would personally ask why his Church is spending $200 million in Oakland CA, to build a downtown cathedral, with architectural splendor glorifying God, while failing the community the Church is claiming to serve? A community, by the way, whose poor are in crises, not including sexual abuse by Catholic priests under cover of Church leadership.

Less there be any doubt in our minds, a quick trip to Rome educates us to the export business of the Church and the historical and economic benefits received. The city, including the Vatican, is awash in wealth derived from forcing vulnerable communities into their brand of Christianity, including remunerations to the mother Church for the privilege.

There is no doubt that the church should be embarrassed by their past, considering that it claimed to be the moral ‘compass’ at that time, as it does now. The truth, of course, is that the church’s moral authority has been no better or worse than any other organization or sovereignty, in search of selfish fulfillment. In fact, the number of people killed in the name of God has always ranked well ahead of all other second place atrocities of man.

Apologize all you want, but what about the people?

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Pope: Injustices Done in Colonization, Catholicism, Crusades, Sexual Abuse, Priest, Acting White

Finding Ways to Better School African American Boys

Finding Ways to Better School African American Boys - Washington Post

I just drove a black male classmate of my sixteen year-old daughter to his home, after he and my girl worked together on a class project, under the watchful eye of her mother. Our not-so-baby-girl has not earnestly begun dating, so this boy captured my yet-to-be-throttled interest.

He is in the process of transferring to a better school, in academics and sports, so we had something else to talk about, aside from any hidden hormone-driven agenda I might ferret out, accidentally (of course). The fact that the boy was damn handsome, in a geeky sort of way, did not help his case one bit.

Not too surprising to me, I liked the boy. He is smart, serious and funny, respectful, proud, and best of all, he wants to make something out of himself. Now clearly, he was putting on a show for me, but damn if he did not put a very good display of what success in a young black male might present, 3.6 GPA and all.

This boy was so impressive that I introduced the subject of my son, age 12, and some of his growing pains, firmly planted in my backside. Again, the kid stepped up. He gave me some advice, base on his own experience, which I will surely try to utilize on my son.

All this is to say that meeting this kid gave me optimism that I have not felt for a long time regarding what will become of black boys-to-men in this country. He is just one kid, and certainly he is lucky to have parents who care greatly for his well-being. However, I parted with him thinking that this kid will succeed in life, and just maybe my daughter will be fortunate to fall in love with someone like him, when they are ready.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Finding Ways to Better School African American Boys, Same-Sex Education, Crime, Co-education, Mentorship, Acting White