March 10, 2008

Obama is perfect pseudo-African American Harvard AA admittee

Back in 2004, the NYT reported:

“While about 8 percent, or about 530, of Harvard's undergraduates were black, Lani Guinier, a Harvard law professor, and Henry Louis Gates Jr., the chairman of Harvard's African and African-American studies department, pointed out that the majority of them — perhaps as many as two-thirds — were West Indian and African immigrants or their children, or to a lesser extent, children of biracial couples.

“They said that only about a third of the students were from families in which all four grandparents were born in this country, descendants of slaves. Many argue that it was students like these, disadvantaged by the legacy of Jim Crow laws, segregation and decades of racism, poverty and inferior schools, who were intended as principal beneficiaries of affirmative action in university admissions.”

By Gates's and Guinier's standards, Barack Obama should be the perfect example of the wrong kind of person to get affirmative action: his father was an elite immigrant (Obama Jr. was both a Harvard legacy as well as affirmative action admittee) and his mother was white. The Honolulu preppie's exposure to African-American culture came through watching Soul Train on TV.

My vague impression is that African immigrants tend to be descended from the slave-dealing classes of the days of yore. (I vaguely recall that Gates ran into some of this while filming his PBS series on Africa -- the educated Africans he mostly conversed with in Africa with tended to be the descendants of the people who caught and sold his ancestors to the white man).

I wrote in VDARE.com in 2004:

The personal motivation of Gates, who has risen to be (as he likes to joke) “the head Negro in charge” of African-American studies in this country, is straight-forward.

He’s one of the few members of the black academic elite whose background is typical for the average middle-aged African-American. Gates’ father was a millworker in West Virginia.

The background of Guinier, whose nomination to a high post in the Clinton Administration was famously killed by Clint Bolick's skewering her as a “quota queen,” is more complicated. She is exactly the kind of dubious affirmative action beneficiary she is protesting.

Guinier looks like she could be the late Gilda Radner’s half-sister because her mother was Jewish. Her Jamaican-born father Ewart Guinier was a prominent Communist Party USA labor leader. Much of her career has been an extrapolation of themes from his life. For example, she advocates the kind of complex multiple voting schemes that helped the CPUSA elect two New York City councilmen during her father’s heyday, before the CIO expelled his union for being a Stalinist front.

So, Guinier's old-fashioned Communist upbringing has helped make her more sensitive to class unfairness than is fashionable on the left today, where race trumps class.

Of course, Barack Obama has done pretty well for himself with all the affirmative action breaks he has received. In contrast, his wife Michelle, who is from exactly the kind of all-American working class black family that Gates and Guinier would prefer that preferences go to, has somewhat floundered about, wasting her admission to Guinier's Harvard Law School, quickly dropping out of the legal profession and devoting most of her career since to being a political insider getting paid for diversity make-work. So, maybe there's a good reason that Harvard has largely given up on traditional Michelle-style American blacks in favor of Barack-style exotic newcomers and blacks who were raised by whites.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

50 comments:

J said...

and he may be on his way to become the perfect pseudo African American president...

Anonymous said...

"So, maybe there's a good reason that Harvard has largely given up on traditional Michelle-style American blacks in favor of Barack-style exotic newcomers and blacks who were raised by whites."

This is the kind of stuff that should sink an empty suit like Obama. In a way he is simply a clever opportunist using the gaps which the farcical and superficial media, driven by irreconcilable and wholly unpractical liberal ideologies, has presented him. The MSM like to pride themselves that they can create the president. But they are so mindless about it that it eventually has to blow up in their faces. We are still waiting for the day that the MSM really disintegrates. We thought the internet was doing this, but the MSM is as strong as never before. What’s going on here?

Anonymous said...

To be fair to Obama, he didn't need any of the breaks to get where he is. He's a victim of AA stigma but not a beneficiary of the preferences.

Anonymous said...

I once knew a very able, young, light-skinned "black" from the Caribbean. He was unpleasantly arrogant, perhaps because he knew that his future was to go to the USA and get any job he asked for.

Anonymous said...

"but not a beneficiary of the preferences."

I'd have to disagree with that: The fact that the press treats him with soft white gloves shows how he is a beneficiary of AA. Would the NYT dare to run a piece similar to that on McCain against Obama? Would they run a piece similar to the smear against Ron Paul? Of course not, and guess why?

Anonymous said...

Steve, have you seen this video set to the Cake song "Building a Religion"? I thought it was brilliant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xtNr5-up0U

If the link is truncated, as sometimes happens in blogger comments, just search Obama and Building a Religion on youtube.

Anonymous said...

"He's a victim of AA stigma but not a beneficiary of the preferences."

Do we know his LSAT? I'm pretty sure he benefitted. He's just an example of a beneficiary who isn't obviously mismatched or unqualified, like Michelle Obama. Obama seems to be good at seeming like a smart fellow. But what about actually producing something proving his smarts (like Mitt Romney did time and again)? Like legislation. Or academic research. Or meaningful private sector employment. Obama's campaign's success is in fact plainly predicated on his race. Can you really imagine people gushing about his eloquence if he wasn't black? About his ability to inspire (he does inspire, people are inspired by the idea of a black president)? Is it at all conveivable that a cult of personality would sprout up around a man like Obama if he was just another privileged white guy who went to Harvard Law? I just don't see it.

Anonymous said...

Michelle Obama is wasting her time?

She's pulling down $300K.

Please, God, allow me to waste some time in this fashion.

Anonymous said...

"Anonymous said...

Steve, have you seen this video set to the Cake song "Building a Religion"? I thought it was brilliant."

That was pretty good. And disturbingly accurate.

Anonymous said...

anonymous: How do Obama's qualifications stack up against Edwards'? In both cases, you have good-looking, well-spoken lawyers with little relevant experience, talking a good game, and causing a certain amount of swooning on the part of their supporters.

Obama has been more successful than Edwards. Maybe that's because he's being treated better because of being black, but it's not obvious to me--he's also a better speaker than Edwards, and he's taken more moderate positions. In both the primaries and the general election, being black gives him some advantages (some attacks against him will backfire), but also some big disadvantages (if he is seen to be primarily the black candidate, he loses, because blacks are a minority in the US; contrast this with Hillary's courting of the female vote).

Unknown said...

"In contrast, his wife Michelle, who is from exactly the kind of all-American working class black family that Gates and Guinier would prefer that preferences go to, has somewhat floundered about, wasting her admission to Guinier's Harvard Law School, quickly dropping out of the legal profession and devoting most of her career since to being a political insider getting paid for diversity make-work."

Unfair criticism. Studies show that half of all law school grads aren't working as lawyers 5 years after graduating.

"So, maybe there's a good reason that Harvard has largely given up on traditional Michelle-style American blacks in favor of Barack-style exotic newcomers and blacks who were raised by whites."

Fair observation.

Anonymous said...

“They said that only about a third of the students were from families in which all four grandparents were born in this country, descendants of slaves. Many argue that it was students like these, disadvantaged by the legacy of Jim Crow laws, segregation and decades of racism, poverty and inferior schools, who were intended as principal beneficiaries of affirmative action in university admissions.”

"Many" may say that, but the U.S. Supreme Court has said otherwise: that using the above as the basis of an admissions policy is illegal. You have to pretend that what you're doing is somehow for the good of all students, hence the "diversity" pretense.

Anonymous said...

Clyde Wilson at Chronicles remarks that if Obama were white we'd never have heard of him and if he were all black he wouldn't be nearly as popular.

So in an odd and ironically race-conscious way, yes, he is an AA beneficiary.

neil craig said...

I think the idea that the blacks of Africa who stayed home were likely to be smarter is improbable.

Firstly, as s Scot living in Europe, I detect no evidence that we, or particularly our aristocracy score better than the descendents of migrants in the US.

Secondly the best evidence for black IQ differences is the fact that black Africans consistently score about 70. Indeed Afro-Americans score significantly higher - often assumed to be due to racial admixture, as they should if it is genetic.

An explanation is that those Africans who settle in America are beating a very high barrier & therefore only include the high end of the curve. The other is that "slave culture" has indeed had an enormous lasting effect & that it is a greater effect than genetics.

On the 3rd hand, if this were true, it might still suggest affirmative action is a bad thing. A cultural & economic problem with slavery is that it provides no benefit for enterprise - neither does affirmative action & so is prolonging dependency culture

Anonymous said...

"Can you really imagine people gushing about his eloquence if he wasn't black?" A fair point, but then many people say "eloquent" when all they mean is "fluent". Like Mr Kerry; he was fluent in that the words flowed out. He was ineloquent, in that they seemed to bear no meaning. To this furriner, the second most obvious advantage that O has is his voice. Mellifluous. When the alternative is that crooked scold, no wonder people will consider supporting O.

Anonymous said...

Apropos of nothing:

Since we’re no longer allowed to use Barak [redacted] Obama’s original middle name, we need a replacement.

The first two that popped into my mind were “Mary” and “Nancy” but I’d rather not make him replace all his monogrammed hankies.

“Hillary” is much too butch for him.

But if you’ve ever seen the plurally eponymous movie, “Heather” has the perfect air of rich, spoiled, airheaded social-climbing fashion-plate.

So how about from now on, we refer to him as Barak Heather Obama?



In a few weeks, he’ll be begging people to start calling him “Hussein” again.

Anonymous said...

Steve Sailer: By Gates's and Guinier's standards, Barack Obama should be the perfect example of the wrong kind of person to get affirmative action: his father was an elite immigrant (Obama Jr. was both a Harvard legacy as well as affirmative action admittee) and his mother was white.

I'm not so sure that Obama Sr ever spent any time at Harvard.

Freedom's Enemies indicates that Obama Sr didn't get to Harvard before 1963, and that he left Harvard for good, by June of 1963, to return to Kenya and join the Kenyatta government.

So if Obama Sr was ever enrolled and sat in any classes at Harvard, it couldn't have been for much more than a few months, unless he returned to Harvard many years later and resumed his studies [or unless Freedom's Enemies has the timeline wrong and Obama Sr arrived at Harvard much earlier than 1963].

Anyway, I think that both the idea that Obama Sr received a degree from Harvard, as well as the idea that Obama Sr was "legally" married to Stanley Ann Dunham [with a "valid", necessarily polygamous marriage license from some entity like the State of Hawaii], may be myths.

There certainly does not appear to be anything on file at the Harvard library which would indicate that Obama Sr ever filed a Master's Thesis or a PhD Dissertation:

http://lms01.harvard.edu/F/?func=scan&scan_code=AUN&scan_start=Obama

Anonymous said...

Anonymous: Do we know his LSAT? I'm pretty sure he benefitted.

I agree.

The handful of times I've seen him challenged [such as during the Naftagate press conference, or over the question of Eliot Spitzer & the illegal alien driver's licenses in New York State] - when he is forced to stray from message - Obama quickly becomes flustered and loses his cool.

[And I think that all of you people who are endowing Michelle Obama with an IQ in the 115-120 range are just far, far wide of the mark - go look at all the grammatical errors in her senior thesis which Spengler dug up in his essay last week. Michelle is a dolt, with a heart of coal.]

Yes, it's true that Obama is facile [or can give the appearance of facileness, in the right circumstances], but, remember, Cassius Clay ["Mohammed Ali"] appeared to be quite facile in his interviews with Howard Cosell, but, in reality, Clay had a score of 78 on his 1964 Army IQ test.

Anonymous said...

She's engaged in honest ethnic graft and politics. Well, honestly dishonest in the great traditions of Daley's Chicago. Are we better off when Harard lawyers create indecipherable financial instruments on Wall Street that will soon sink our economy?

Truth said...

"In contrast, his wife Michelle, who is from exactly the kind of all-American working class black family that Gates and Guinier would prefer that preferences go to, has somewhat floundered about..."

IF she's "floundered about" making $390,000, someone please place a fishhook in my mouth.

"I once knew a very able, young, light-skinned "black" from the Caribbean. He was unpleasantly arrogant,"

Once huh? I think you are qualified for a research position in a Washington think tank.

"Would they run a piece similar to the smear against Ron Paul? Of course not, and guess why?"

I would guess because Ron Paul is not a glorified Casino Shill (as are ALL THREE of the people in the running to be president.) They have not run any peices on Hillary either, and she is married to one of the biggest criminals in the history of American Politics. Oh, and guess what, she's white.

"Do we know his LSAT? I'm pretty sure he benefitted."

How, pretel would you be "pretty sure"? and how do you know he was not more legacy (i.e every other Ivy league president), same as his wife than A.A?

"But what about actually producing something proving his smarts (like Mitt Romney did time and again)?"

Or like the current president every time he makes a speech.

"Is it at all conveivable that a cult of personality would sprout up around a man like Obama if he was just another privileged white guy who went to Harvard Law?"

Is it conceivable that the cult of personality would sprout up around a man like Clinton or Bush if they didn't have southern accents? I dunknow, ask John Kerry or Michael Dukakis.

Anonymous said...

Look into my eyes, what do you see?
Cult of personality
I know your anger, I know your dreams
Ive been everything you want to be
Im the cult of personality
Like mussolini and kennedy
Im the cult of personality

Neon lights, a nobel prize
The mirror speaks, the reflection lies
You dont have to follow me
Only you can set me free
I sell the things you need to be
Im the smiling face on your t.v.
Im the cult of personality

I exploit you still you love me
I tell you one and one makes three
Im the cult of personality

Like joseph stalin and gandi
Im the cult of personality

Anonymous said...

Firstly, as s Scot living in Europe, I detect no evidence that we, or particularly our aristocracy score better than the descendents of migrants in the US.

That's a completely incomparable case.

The argument at it's crudest is that the Scots who sent themselves to America as immigrants did so because they were smarter or had more gumption than those who stayed behind, whereas the Africans who got sent to America as slaves were less intelligent or just slower runners than the Africans who caught them and sold them as slaves; and that in both cases at least part of the difference was heritable.

I don't find this theory particularly persuasive, but it's necessary to understand it to be able to shoot it down.

Unknown said...

"Barak Heather Obama?"

No, Barak Heather Obambi.

togo said...

The argument at it's crudest is that the Scots who sent themselves to America as immigrants did so because they were smarter or had more gumption than those who stayed behind

Weren't many of the early Scots settlers(?) sent to the colonies as indentured servants?

Anonymous said...

Geraldine Ferraro:

*If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.*

Okay, so that's probably true, and it's not new information. What's "new" is that Ferraro is a Democrat saying it. I point this out only to draw attention to the mad frenzy of condemnation that occurs in the comment section of dailykos:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/10/174538/523/145/473771

The strong consensus is that Ferraro is a racist and that Clinton should condemn her, etc. Which of the following things is racist:

1) Forcing blacks out of certain jobs.

2) Saying that blacks are inferior.

3) Publishing statistics related to differing qualities in races.

4) Discussing the effect of someone's race in the eyes of others.

Ferraro was doing the latter. The zeitgeist seems to be moving in that direction--ANY mention of race that isn't completely bland, or completely advantageous to blacks, is racist.

togo said...

Found various links on white indentured servants and convicts sent to colonial America:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-0507(194205)2%3A1%3C40%3AISNLOS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5

http://www.revisionisthistory.org/forgottenslaves.html

http://www.stratfordhall.org/ed-servants.html
(...)
Transported convicts, both men and women, were sold to plantation owners as another form of labor. One-fourth of the British immigrants to the colonies were covicts. Most of these convicts were male, young, unskilled, and poor. The usual crime was grand larceny. Generally, the only people exiled were those judges felt could be rehabilitated. Convicts performed the same type of work as indentured servants but were less trusted. Their length of service was usually longer than that of indentured servants. Like indentured servants and slaves, convicts frequently ran away. Political prisoners also were shipped to the colonies. Most of these were convicted following religious persecutions.
(...)
http://www.pricegen.com/resources/servants.htm
(...)
This arrangement was spelled out in a contract—called an indenture—in which the emigrant agreed to work without compensation for a fixed term, typically four or five years. Servants often entered into such contracts freely but sometimes merchants and ship captains, in a practice called “spiriting,” kidnapped impoverished children and youths, forcing them into an indenture.[3] Shiploads of these volunteers and victims disembarked in colonial port towns and along river banks, where ship masters sold them to plantation owners and others who needed workers. These strangers became the servants’ masters and literally owned them for the duration of their contracts.[4]
(...)
Indentured servants resembled other groups of colonial migrants, including African slaves and transported convicts. Indentured servants, in fact, often were called “white slaves.”[7] All three groups experienced mistreatment. The groups also differed. Convict servants were the only group whose emigration and unpaid labor were penalties imposed for criminal behavior.[8] Whether indentured servants were voluntary or forced laborers, their indentures were temporary, unlike the Africans, who were enslaved for life
(...)

Anonymous said...

"How, pretel would you be "pretty sure"? and how do you know he was not more legacy (i.e every other Ivy league president), same as his wife than A.A?"

Well, to put it delicately, the numbers are just against the possiblity. Now, the vast majority of blacks who get into Harvard Law are very intelligent and committed students. But the vast majority of these students (85-90 percent) would not get into Harvard were it not for their race. That's why elite colleges are among the biggest supporters of AA, because there would be an obvious paucity of URMs if they could not (or chose not to) discriminate. I suspect that if Obama was in the minority of students who could have realistically attended HLS without AA he would have made that clear by releasing his records. However, it is clear Obama did well in law school, where exams are blind graded, so that really means something. I'm still doubtful he would have been admitted on the merits, but it's clear from the record he wasn't outmatched by his peers.

"Or like the current president every time he makes a speech."

I'm not much of a fan of our current president. But he isn't stupid. He has the same speech issues inherited from his father, worsened, I think, from an inability to deal with stress. And he was for most of his time on this planet been an uncurious party boy. Those are his problems. Anyway, I do not get the relevance of this response to my comments.

"Is it conceivable that the cult of personality would sprout up around a man like Clinton or Bush if they didn't have southern accents? I dunknow, ask John Kerry or Michael Dukakis."

Clinton never had anything close to the cultish following we see surrounding Obama. And Bush? Please. Kerry's problem wasn't his home state or his lack of a southern accent. He ran a shit campaign. The man was fundamentally unlikable. And speaking of southern accents, what's with Obama's faux black preacher thing he does now and then?

Anonymous said...

"Unfair criticism. Studies show that half of all law school grads aren't working as lawyers 5 years after graduating."

A lot of those lawyers are lawyers that never managed to pass the bar exam. Or if they did pass, they never got a good paying job. With an elite education, a lot of other doors open, so it's common for people to leave law. But I'd suspect the average HLS grad to be less likely to leave the field than the average lawyer. Tho I could be wrong. Finally, I don't think Sailer meant to imply Michelle had to stay in law to be a success. I think Sailer's point is that she never practiced law nor did she do anything impressive outside of the legal field. She's some diversity crony at a hospital and made six figures doing who knows what. I'd be interested to find out what she actually did to earn her paycheck, wouldn't you? My guess is it wasn't terribly difficult. But, hey, maybe diversity coordinators do some really impressive work.

Anonymous said...

Anon I think you hit the struggle (Ferraro vs. Kos) to define culture in uber-PC terms. The pushback of course has already begun via Southpark (the N***er guy episode). Don Imus is back on radio. Mark Furhman is on Fox News making more than he did as a cop. It's only a matter of time before Richards is back on TV too. [My guess is Richards was trying to be "edgy" and copying Dave Chappelle and came off hateful and ugly.]

PC depends on a sissified, feminized speech code which is why women love it (particularly the ladies of the View) and why men will always HATE IT. Deep gender differences.

Part of the pushback in the culture wars is the deliberate vulgarization of culture. When Britney or Lindsay get out of their cars "commando" to get publicity, people accept that there are no boundaries. So Daily Kos and the PC police are pushing that rock uphill. It's always "edgy" to say what's on your mind including racial and cultural differences.

Anonymous said...

My vague impression is that African immigrants tend to be descended from the slave-dealing classes of the days of yore. (I vaguely recall that Gates ran into some of this while filming his PBS series on Africa -- the educated Africans he mostly conversed with in Africa with tended to be the descendants of the people who caught and sold his ancestors to the white man).

-Steve S.


I remember that too. He was talking to some West African royalty and they proudly displayed a picture of their distant Portuguese ancestor. Gates was clearly disturbed, but the Africans, who were blacker than he is (the Portuguese fraction must have been very thin), didn't seem to have any hang-ups about it.

Anonymous said...

The YouTube photo of Obama with a cigarette dangling from his lips reminded me of nothing more than Sammy Davis, Jr. of Rat Pack fame. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Pack

Obama is the essence, or so it seems, of cool.

He's not a hostile black, like rap stars or ball players.

He's the "nice young man" who moved in down the street.

Truth said...

" I suspect that if Obama was in the minority of students who could have realistically attended HLS without AA he would have made that clear by releasing his records."

again, double standard here. How many presidents release their records?

"I'm not much of a fan of our current president. But he isn't stupid. He has the same speech issues inherited from his father,"

Yes, the issue inherited is called stupidity. Our president was asked the other day what he thought about Americans paying more than three dollars a gallon for gas, and he replied "Where?".

"Kerry's problem wasn't his home state or his lack of a southern accent."

Really? Then why haven't we had a president from the most populous, most powerful, arguably most important region in the country in 48 years?

Anonymous said...

He graduated mcl (top 5%) from Harvard. The grading of exams is blind. For even average Harvard students, mcl is out of reach, no matter how intensive their effort.

Obama is extraordinary smart. He would succeed without AA.

Anonymous said...

Ewart Guinier was a Harvard guy. Lani got in on the Alumni ticket: (I don't believe the "one Negro scholarship" story. Almost every Harvard class since 1900 has had five to ten African-Americans.)

"As one of three daughters growing up in the Guinier’s pre-civil rights household, she watched her father recover from much greater political rejections. When he entered Harvard University in 1929, the university denied him financial aid because only one Negro could receive it at a time, and someone already had filled the quota. Two years later, Ewart Guinier dropped out of Harvard for lack of finances. His daughter, Lani, recently told this story and described her father as the victim of a "quota of one."

After dropping out of Harvard, Ewart Guinier joined the labor movement. During the 1940s as secretary-treasury of the American Public Workers Union (APWU), Guinier fought for and won the first skilled positions ever held by black employees at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Because of his union work and his association with Paul Robeson and other individuals accused of being Communists, he became the subject of a congressional investigation. These McCarthy Era investigations by the Senate Judiciary Committee for "un-American and subversive activity" would destroy both Guinier and his union.

In the early 1950s, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, APWU’s parent organization, expelled it for being "communist controlled." After his union work, Guinier graduated from law school and passed the New York Bar, but was denied admittance because of "bad character."

Politically and professionally abandoned, Ewart Guinier sold real estate¼Lani says they struggled throughout her childhood. Her mother, Genii Guinier, white and Jewish, taught her daughters to see themselves as "bridge people." She raised them in the black world of their father, teaching them how to "endure slights, racial or otherwise," without becoming angry, a lesson Lani Guinier learned from her mother well.

Her reaction to rejection by her law school buddy, President Clinton, has been calm, reasoned and sane. She continues to express confidence in the President even as she tells her side of the story.

Two of her ideas, "cumulative voting" and the concept of a "supermajority" lie at the heart of the controversy. Today as Guinier speaks and writes about these ideas, she is convincing more and more Americans of better alternatives... other than race conscious districts...for opening up our democracy so that individuals within minority groups may participate and present their views democratically.

For example, in Mobile, Alabama, after finding deliberate discrimination against black voters, a federal judge approved a settlement that required a supermajority of five to pass legislation on the city council consisting of four white members and three black members.

In Chilton County, Alabama a judge used the concept of "cumulative" voting as a remedy in a voting rights case. In this case, the judge ordered all candidates for the county commission to run at-large instead of by districts, with each voter casting as many votes as there were positions. So if any individual voters felt strongly about a particular candidate, they could cast all their votes for that candidate. In Chilton County, this system produced the election of not only the first black to the county commission, but also a woman and a Republican in a predominately white, heavily Democratic county.

Do not count Lani Guinier out. She is walking in the path of her father, Ewart Guinier, who rehabilitated his damaged career before his death in 1990. Harvard University hired him as a full professor in 1969, while his daughter, Lani, was there as a sophomore on full scholarship. Shortly after signing on at Harvard University, Guinier received reconsideration from the New York Bar and was admitted to practice law. Washington D.C. has not seen the last of Lani Guinier.

Anonymous said...

ssumapWhere do we put the large number of free Blacks (over 7,000) who owned slaves in pre-Civil war America? See Black historian Carter Goodson's research and published books on this group. Fortmer slaves who owned -- probably one of the great PBS stories never made and never to be made.

Anonymous said...

Obama and Michelle have been hyped way beyond their real abilities by a press which is desperate to stick it to whitey. So assume O. becomes prez: he will then suffer what all those suffer who are over their ears into a task into which they got into for a wrong reason. And in the end we have another failed prez, this time an AA prez. In the long term I guess this will serve to discredit the entire AA industry. Perhaps we should look at this in the long term.

I know for sure a bunch of people who are enjoying this: the whites in Rhodesia and South Africa. Ha ha white US suckers, now you can also taste what it's like to live under an oppressive black government which will take your away your money, ruin your schools and universities, degrade public services, the army and the police, and release criminals on the streets.

Anonymous said...

"He graduated mcl (top 5%) from Harvard. The grading of exams is blind."

mcl at HLS is limited to top 10% I believe. But, yes, he did very well and didn't need AA to succeed. That doesn't mean he would have been admitted to HLS without AA.

"again, double standard here. How many presidents release their records?"

I don't know, I recall Gore and Bush releasing their SAT scores. Kerry I think refused to do so. That's the recent history.

Anonymous said...

The Harvard Alumni Directory lists both the Obamas thusly:

Mr. Barack H. Obama II ( HLS 1991 )


The Honorable Barack Obama II

Registered on: Dec 26 2005
Date Of Last Visit: Dec 26 2005
Profile last updated: Aug 5 2007


Personal
Prefix: The Honorable
First Name Barack
Middle Name H.
Last Name Obama
Personal Suffix II
Preferred Mail Name The Honorable Barack H. Obama
Last Name at Graduation Obama
Name at Graduation: Mr. Barack H. Obama II



Harvard University Academics
Degree: Doctor of Law
Class Year: 1991
School: Harvard Law School
Honorary Alum No

+++++++++++++

Mr. Barack H. Obama ( GSA 1965 )


Mr. Barack Obama

Registered on: Not registered
Profile last updated: Aug 4 2007


Personal
Prefix Mr.
First Name Barack
Middle Name Hussein
Last Name Obama
Preferred Mail Name Mr. Barack H. Obama
Last Name at Graduation Obama
Name at Graduation Mr. Barack H. Obama



Harvard University Academics
Degree Master of Arts
Class Year 1965
School Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Concentration/Department Economics
Honorary Alum No

Anonymous said...

"Truth" is AWOL on all non-Obama threads. So either he is a self-styled black intellectual or on the Obama train.

Truth said...

"hat it's like to live under an oppressive black government which will take your away your money, ruin your schools and universities, degrade public services, the army and the police, and release criminals on the streets."

Wow; nobody told me! OBAMA'S BEEN PRESIDENT FOR 30 YEARS!!!!!!

neil craig said...

Ralph & anon an awful lot of Scots emigrants went as a result of what is known as the Clearances. The local landowner shipped them off after putting them out of their houses by force (he could make more money from sheep). Not quite as involuntary as slavery but close & certainly unlikely to select for any sort of success.

The Clearances are an exceptional example but while there may be some truth to the American belief that the most enterprising went west it is equally arguable that it was the "huddled masses" atb the bottom of the pile who had no option because they had nothing to lose in Europe.

You are on better ground saying that genetic separation acrossAfrica means the qualities of West Africans, where the slaves came from, are not likely to be closely related to Obama's Kenyans. Moreso since in primitive societies people often spend their entire lives within a days walk of their home villages 7 it is known that African genetic diversity is actually larger than other continents. This is one of the pieces of evidence for an African origin for mankind.

The only thing I can conclude from this is that we don't know. The assumption of geneticly lower IQs doesn't fit the differences between African (& Afro-Carribean) achievement vis a vis US-African but the assumption that it is all cultural doesn't fit the generations of history of either continent.

Still solving questions like that are where science is at its best.

Anonymous said...

"PC depends on a sissified, feminized speech code which is why women love it (particularly the ladies of the View) and why men will always HATE IT. Deep gender differences"

What color men like what kind of non-PC speech?

Anonymous said...

You have a lot of faith in the "blind grading" at Harvard Law. I recall an easy end around. Appeal your grade. Then it is known who you are ... nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

Wonder why a law review president never wrote a note or comment for the HLR? Hhhmmm.

Anonymous said...

So BHL Sr got a Master's in 1965?

Truth said...

""Truth" is AWOL on all non-Obama threads. So either he is a self-styled black intellectual or on the Obama train."

Thats' because on non-Obama threads, you people are just the slightest bit more intelligent. Therefore you are less in need of my mentorship.

"So BHL Sr got a Master's in 1965?"

That's what the post say* Sparky. And his son is a US citizen. Aint life grand?

*Poor grammar intentional

Anonymous said...

"You have a lot of faith in the "blind grading" at Harvard Law. I recall an easy end around. Appeal your grade. Then it is known who you are ... nudge, nudge, wink, wink."

And you are highly biased to believe his GPA was boosted to mcl through appealing. How many dozens of times do you estimate he must have appealed to achieve such a high distinction? How extensive do you believe is the conspiracy at Harvard to manufacture a black mcl?


"That doesn't mean he would have been admitted to HLS without AA."

There is a grade and LSAT correlation. He very likely scored in the 170s. This is Harvard Law School, not Yale Law School. They would have taken white Obama.



Tsk. Tsk. Some of you are putting up hard resistance, denying Obama has preeminent brains.

Why?

Anonymous said...

"There is a grade and LSAT correlation. He very likely scored in the 170s. This is Harvard Law School, not Yale Law School. They would have taken white Obama."

I wouldn't be shocked if he scored this well. I'd just expect if it were so we'd already know it. Also, if Obama scored above 170, because that is absolutely stratospheric for a black (only 29 blacks scored above 170 on the LSAT in 2004), he almost certainly would have been accepted to Yale. So why didn't he go to Yale? Best guess is he didn't go because he didn't get in (although some do choose HLS over Yale), which is a strong presumption against Obama scoring over 170.

Just my thoughts. I'm not trying to say he's stupid. Clearly he is not. I just doubt he would have been admitted to HLS under a colorblind system.

Anonymous said...

neil craig - the Highland Clearances were deliberate ethnic cleansing following the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion to destroy the Scots Highland Clans, at the time the only major remaining tribal people in Europe, and a perennial threat to England. The clansmen who went to the American colonies retained their monarchic allegiances which they, ironically, transferred from the Stuarts to the Georgian monarchs, and fought fiercely on the Royalist/British side in the War of Independence/American Revolution. These were pretty high ability people, certainly comparable to the average Scot.

Anonymous said...

Yangmeister sayeth: And you are highly biased to believe his GPA was boosted to mcl through appealing. How many dozens of times do you estimate he must have appealed to achieve such a high distinction? How extensive do you believe is the conspiracy at Harvard to manufacture a black mcl?

Yo Yangster:
Competition occurs at the margins. Why do you think Bill Belichick (an ole econ major) goes to all that trouble to steal a few signals? 5 or less appeals would do the trick easy ... there aren't that many courses. Harvard U and Harvard Law are pretty desperate to find qualified Non-Asian Minorities for anything. Maybe that's why the admission process isn't blind eh?

Why does a Harvard Law Review president never write nothing for the HLR?

Why doesn't BHO release all his academic records?

Wake up and smell the frothy hot espresso!

Anonymous said...

Did Obama receive preferential treatment? For those still interested, Mickey Kaus quotes Obama as saying he doesn't know. Suggestive, I think, that Obama did not score over 170 on his LSAT, as one commenter above suggested.