THOUGHTS FROM THE AMMO LINE

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/11/281612.php

Ammo Grrrll knows the supply chain has not made even the slightest dent in the surplus of DELIBERATE, WILLFUL IGNORANCE. She writes:

There is no shame in ignorance per se. If you don’t know something, you can ask elders, mentors, parents, teachers, older siblings, pastors, or a librarian and find a variety of answers sufficient to come to a conclusion, make a decision, or do further research.

But as I learned when I was a crossword puzzle fanatic, it’s not what you don’t know that hurts you the most. You can simply leave the squares blank until you work the “down” clues a bit. What hurts you the most is what you know for sure – put in ink! – that is dead wrong. You will be sprinting headlong down the primrose path of error for as long as it takes you to correct the place where you got it wrong. Doh!

If you’ve messed up the New York Times Saturday puzzle, insisting on sticking with your wrong answer may lead to a somewhat wasted afternoon, but it is hardly a disaster. However, if you are building a bridge or erecting hundreds of multi-story condos on sand, much more is clearly at stake. And what is MORE at stake than the futures of a whole race of children?

Wouldn’t you think that the “leading intellectuals” of a historically disadvantaged group would look around them, carefully note what habits of mind lead to success, and urge everyone within their sphere of influence to emulate these habits?

Louis Armstrong was taken in as a young boy by a Jewish family in New Orleans (the Karnovskys). He wrote and spoke very movingly about the attitudes and habits that contributed to Jewish success even in the face of horrendous bigotry. He made some invidious comparisons between the black and Jewish approach and outlook that did not endear him to the black community. And, of course, they called him an Uncle Tom.

Ah, but there’s no lucrative hustle in advising character-building in spite of disadvantages, is there? You don’t get on CNN or PMSNBC or get your book ordered by every college in America by urging self-discipline, hard work, learning a skill, staying in school, showing up on time, not using or selling drugs, not being a criminal, and not making babies you have no ability to care for or support. And you certainly don’t get $10 million dollars from Jack Dorsey!

For at least forty years the leading lights of the black community (except for the conservative ones who are ignored, or vilified) have advocated the worst possible actions, strategies and habits of mind. If they had deliberately set out to harm the black community, and especially its young people, they could not have done a better job.

I have mentioned before here that our foster son got two A’s and two B’s one quarter in high school and his black friends informed him that he was “acting white.” The next quarter he got 2 Ds and 2 Fs. He was Honduran, charming and handsome, with a distinct Spanish accent, but lovely cafe au lait-colored skin and he desperately wanted to identify as “black.” He told everyone he was from Jamaica, not Honduras. The losers, the thugs, the gangstas, the cretins – the cool guys — were where he sought acceptance.

With an astonishing lowering of standards even 30 years ago, tutoring by a variety of sincere, sweet white girls, (who mostly just did his homework…), superhuman efforts of the Roseville, MN teachers, and a not insignificant role by his foster parents, he is an actual high school graduate. Think about that. He could just barely read and write English and he was likewise functionally illiterate in Spanish. He could not do math at all. But he has a legitimate high school diploma, not even a G.E.D. And then consider the 50 percent of black students who cannot meet those minimal standards or even show up. Suggesting they turn in homework is racist.

And so the latest thing in the California Education Racket is that there will BE no homework assigned, no reason to show up on time or at all, no tests that you can’t take over. And over. As the disembodied voice says on the British subway says, “Mind the gap” — meaning you can trip on a gap between the door and the subway car. Well, the “gap” between white and (primarily) black students has been unbridgeable for at least four decades. In fact, it gets worse, not better. And we can’t have that. So instead of demanding more of lazy, unmotivated, undisciplined students, we will demand even less – if such a thing is possible – and assert that achievement itself is racist.

Linear thinking is racist. Math is racist. Getting the “right” answer is racist. Punctuality is racist. Planning ahead is racist. Doing well on obviously racist tests is racist; if the tests were NOT racist, then black people could do better on them. (Racist NBA superstar David Robinson embarrassed his entire race by getting a 1400 on his now-verboten SATs.) Punishing criminals is racist. Declaring criminality to BE a crime is racist. Bail is racist. Even trying to HELP black people is racist because white people who do so have a “savior” complex.

Is there no sane black “leader” (not a Conservative, who, by definition, is NOT a leader…) who can see what the message is here? I don’t know how Larry Elder, Thomas Sowell, Candace Owens, Jason Whitlock, Glenn Loury and other unfamous black conservatives cling to their sanity. Let me spell out the Left’s advice to blacks: Every attitude and behavior that can possibly assure a healthy and productive future is “white” and, therefore, off limits. But that’s OK. Because everything you need to know about yourself is the color of your skin. That’s not only your “hole” card, but your entire hand, your All-Areas Backstage Pass.

When our biological son – who, thankfully, turned out to be a hard-working, responsible adult — was a young teenager, he was no more ambitious than the average hormone-crazed slacker of any color. He would not infrequently arise late in the summer afternoon and be as hungry as a bear coming out of hibernation. Down about 12 stairs was a refrigerator packed to capacity with various foods, much of which required no preparation. However, his default plan was often to call, “Mo-o-o-m, can you make me something to eat?”

Imagine his disappointment when Mom was performing in San Diego or Newark. On one occasion, when his father came home from work and discovered that he had not fixed himself anything to eat all day, he said, “Son, an animal that has food 20 feet away and is too lazy to get it is not long for this world.” He grew up. And now does most of the cooking for his family.

The vast majority of angry, entitled, severely miseducated BLM types know almost nothing and what they do know is wrong. The idea of learning from someone of any color who knows more than you has not only disappeared, but is now “racist.” Their “leaders” are determined to teach them affirmatively NOT to succeed, but to be permanent wards of the benevolent state, wasting their time and efforts protesting against nonexistent racist incidents, lying about history, toppling statues, worrying about garage door nooses and removing racist rocks.

Well, most of the Confederate statues are gone now. Did that convince the 70 percent of unwed fathers to marry one of the mothers of their offspring? Did it inspire some young black man to aspire to dental school or a plumber’s apprenticeship instead of joining a drug gang? The sad truth is that if a magic wand could be waved over the land to erase any and all negative or “racist” thoughts in the minds of white people, not one thing would change. We aren’t the problem; so we can’t be the solution. No matter how hard we try to be “Less White” in order to level the playing field.

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