Every Single One: The Politicized Hiring of Eric Holder’s Education Section
Over the last two weeks, PJMedia has published a series of articles about the hiring practices of the Civil Rights Division at the Obama Justice Department. Today’s installment relates to the Education Section: this Section has enormous power over issues such as race-based preferences in college scholarships, decades-old desegregation orders, and the federal response to racially motivated violence that plagues American schools.
Recently, the Obama administration concluded that school discipline is often racially discriminatory merely because black students are disciplined at rates higher than their overall percentage in the population. The division has launched a campaign that undermines basic American traditions of right and wrong by attacking school discipline. When you read the radical backgrounds of lawyers in the Education Section below, you’ll see why.
The PJMedia series has demonstrated that, rather incredibly, every single one of the career attorneys hired since Obama took office has a fringe leftist ideological bent and nearly all have overtly partisan pasts. Every single one. The left still doesn’t get it: they brazenly think this is perfectly acceptable. They don’t understand that attorneys who don’t have a militant agenda are also capable of enforcing federal civil rights laws, even if they represented defendants. That’s what good attorneys do, ethically. Acting Assistant Attorney General Loretta King rewrote hiring guidelines in 2009, resulting in hiring committee members being forced to toss any resume that did not describe a radical background.
King didn’t believe that lawyers who represented defendants in civil rights cases also have expertise in the law. What they lacked, of course, was the correct ideological and partisan fervor. And so resume after resume hit the trash can, unless the applicant was a committed leftist.
With solid reporting that is gleaned in large measure from the resumes the Department of Justice released only after being nailed with a federal lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act, each of PJMedia’s articles has demonstrated with greater and greater clarity the hypocrisy of attacks on the Bush Civil Rights Division. The legacy media has, so far at least, ignored the stories. Just as was the case with the outrageous dismissal of the New Black Panther Party lawsuit. Indeed, predictable corners of the legacy media have served as government mouthpieces on this issue. The public won’t be so easily hoodwinked.
PJMedia launched its series last week with a piece by Hans von Spakovsky on the Voting Section, which I elaborated on the next day. These radicals will be enforcing election law in 2012. PJMedia Washington Bureau Chief Richard Pollock then followed with a remarkable piece on attorneys hired into the Civil Rights Division’s immigration shop, a section formally known as the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices. One attorney there chained himself to a tree for days in a protest, and another was sanctioned $1.7 million by a judge in a prior stint at DOJ before being rehired. Von Spakovsky authored the latest segment, which focused on the Division’s Special Litigation Section.
Eleven new attorneys have been hired into the Education Section since President Obama entered the White House and Eric Holder took office.
Anurima Bhargava: Ms. Bhargava was hired as the new chief of the Section after working for the previous six years at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. Although her days were likely busy there, she managed to find time to make a $250 contribution to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. She also produced the “Jazz for Obama” concert back in October 2008.
During her tenure at the NAACP LDF she litigated cases across the country seeking to defend and expand the use of racial preferences and racial quotas in public secondary schools and universities. One of the highlights of her work was her coordination of the filing of amicus briefs and other advocacy efforts in support of two Supreme Court cases in which liberal coalitions insisted that local schools be permitted to assign public students to different schools on the basis of race. Fortunately, the Supreme Court rejected this argument as unconstitutional.
In remarks to the United Nations Forum on Minority Issues (yes, such a waste of time and money really does exist) just before joining the Justice Department, Ms. Bhargava described how imperative it was for schools to promote “integration and social cohesion” by considering race, language, immigration status, and religion in placement decisions. Imagine what your communities would be like if courts actually permitted government bureaucrats to engage in such racial engineering.
One wonders if she has even read the Constitution. This woman is running the Education Section.
When it comes to the rights of non-traditional minorities, like whites, Ms. Bhargava’s ideology of inclusion begins to crumble. Indeed, after the Bush Civil Rights Division negotiated a consent decree with Southern Illinois University to end racially discriminatory paid fellowships for which white graduates were told they were not eligible based on their skin color, Ms. Bhargava publicly blasted the decision as “hinder[ing] the legitimate efforts of colleges and universities to create equal educational opportunity.”
And some deniers still think this Justice Department will enforce the law to protect all Americans from racial discrimination.
Shortly thereafter, she was ironically honored for her aggressive battles to prevent state referendums (i.e., real democracy at work) opposing racial preferences. Once again, rights for me, but not for thee.
Her prior work experience includes a fellowship with the ACLU and service as the field director for the election campaign of ultra-liberal Democratic Congressman Steve Rothman of New Jersey. In addition, she remains a member (along with the militant Lani Guinier) of the Advisory Board of the Center for Institutional and Social Change, whose must-see website is testament to the detached dribble of left-wing activism. The group states that “through a multi-level systems approach, [its] research develops the capacity to sustain and ‘scale up’ initiatives aimed at building the ‘architecture of inclusion.’” It adds that its “collaborative projects develop frameworks, strategies, and roles designed to maximize the impact and influence of initiatives that advance full participation, innovative public problem solving, and institutional reimagination [sic!] — a set of linked goals we refer to as ‘institutional citizenship.’”
Now Ms. Bhargava gets to impose that Orwellian “institutional citizenship” on the rest of us from her new perch in the Civil Rights Division.
Amazing! Nothing short of amazing. Holder and his minions are just shameless. I’m not surprised that they would politicize the Civil Rights Division in this way; after all, every Democratic administration has done the same thing. What is remarkable is that they continue to criticize the Bush Civil Rights Division to this very day. The hypocrisy is almost unparalleled, even by Washington standards.
Amazing?
Whats so amazing?
The Government is full of Hard Core Lefists. Or Rinos.
Top to bottom, side to side.
Talk to the whack-jobs on your local school board.
See what kind of left wing fuzzy feel good nonsense they believe in.
What kind of Union entitlement mentality they have.
What kind of P.C. horseshit they’re indoctrinating your kids with.
97.5 % chance they’ll have a zero tolerance policy for an action figure in a book-bag
(with a “weapon” in his hand!) yet a simultaneous cover-up of any racially motivated
Black Flash Mobs stomping on the white and asian kids.
Its who they are, how they roll.
There are millions of these people at every level.
Theirs is the only ideology allowed in our schools anymore,
and their ilk is particularly interested in “government service”
while the rest of us have bills to pay, mouths to feed, and real businesses to run.
The ruling class is what it is.
Corrupt. Inflexible. Lefist.
Has been for as long as I can remember
I’m supposed to be amazed?
Yes,Root, this is truly amazing. This highly polished and effective strategy has been employed world wide since at least in the 1870s but is never seen as an infiltrate and subvert strategy of the Bolshevik revolution. It is not done in ignorance and misunderstanding
Like any vine, this spirit must have something to climb on. In our case it has been the Democrat party that has been the more vulnerable but also the Republican by inheritance who did not inherit the principles that launched the party.
From the spiritual standpoint it is based on unbelief that our Constitution is based on the immutable laws of our creator so they do ignore the discipline of sound doctrine.
AS a farmer you learn the discipline of seasons and varieties, soil and weather and what you need to do to get the best yield. That all applies before you convert anything into cash.
These Liberals have no concept concerning the difference between substance and cash, believing that they are all one and the same. Therefore their preferred strategy will always result in poverty and famine.
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LOL fix your spam filters.
Amanda Downs and Kathleen Schleeter no longer work for the Civil Rights Division.
Good sleuth work. If anyone reading this has “enlightening” information on these characters, anonymously write in here. I only wish I had something to add …
6 or 7 of the Section’s attorneys have left the Section within the past year
Since when is working for a legal aid or defender organization or doing pro-bono work considered “fringe leftist” activity?
Agree..I see those positions as vital to the efficient and fair operation of our justice system rather than “radical” activity.
So a lefty administration hires lefty lawyers. And?
How many righties did Bush hire?
You are completely missing the point, Ragnar. This administrtion has hired EXCLUSIVELY left wing lawyers for these career civil service positions. The Bush Administrtion hired individuals from all across the political spectrum. More importantly, though, the Bush Administration was pilloried in the media, by congressional Democrats, and by DOJ’s internal affairs unit for having the audacity to hire some conservative lawyers. Yet when this administration is engaging in conduct far worse than what the Bush folks were even accused of doing, the media goes silent. That is the real outrage here. It’s difficult to tell if your question was serious or if you are simply posting to parrot those who blindy deny what is happening. For now, I will give you the benefit of the doubt and respond respectfully to your rhetorical questions.
The bigger problem during the Bush administration is that they hired conservative attorneys who completely lacked relevant experience and passed over attorneys with applicable experience who they “feared” were more liberal. All your “investigation” has done is shown that the DOJ is hiring attorneys with experience.
What part of “right out of law school can’t you read?
Those people are hires through the DOJ’s Honors Program, which has been in existence for decades (through various administrations). It is the only way new attorneys can get positions in the DOJ. Even these people who came in through the Honors Program have more civil rights experience than some of the people who were hired under the Bush administration.
It’s so amusing to read these comments from Anonymous (who is likely an attorney in the Division). First of all, his/her comment just assumes the fallacy that so many on the Left accept, which is that conservatives are somehow unqualified to work in the Civil Rights Division. It is exactly that attitude which has caused the Division’s current leadership to hire exclusively liberal lawyers (whether experienced or Honors Program). As Mr. Adams stated in his article, “the left still doesn’t get it.” They simply cannot accept the fact that both conservatives and apolitical/non-ideological civil litigators are as equally qualified to do this civil rights work as anyone who has spent their career in some left-wing advocacy organiztion on a moral crusade. Sure, the Bush administration hired some conservatives. But they also hired lots of lefties. The same cannot be said of the current Division. And that’s why your argument is so fundamentally mistaken and why these articles are exposing the incredible hypocrisy of this administration.
Conservatives are qualified if they have civil rights experience. Too bad the Bush adminsitration wasn’t hiring those conservatives.
I just love the myopia of the Left. Folks, the work of the Civil Rights Division is not rocket science. It is not incredibly complex. It is mere civil litigation. Any general civil litigator can learn it and do it. Talk to any big firm commercial litigator and they will tell you that they are a generalist. The only reason liberals insist on hiring only those attorneys with civil rights experience in the Civil Rights Division is that they want moral crusaders, individuals who will feel themselves unbound by the strict limits of the law. I’d take a top notch litigator over some activist on a mission any day of the week. How sad that the Left doesn’t get this.
You’re missing the point. As a tax payer, I don’t want the Civil Rights Division to hire just any “general civil litigator” who is unfamiliar with the relevant law and legal issues and needs to “learn” to do her job. Can you or the authors of these articles name one person with 3-5 years of experience litigating civil rights cases who applied for a job in the Civil Rights Division in the last two years and did not get selected for the job … just one… conservative, or otherwise? The fact you seem to be overlooking is that experience in the relevant field makes a person qualified and, to put is in simple terms, not many conservatives choose to specialize affirmative civil rights litigation, and remember the Civil Rights Division was not established to do defensive litigation.
Anon…
Yes, you DO want them to hire more generalists, because that provides a much broader base of legal knowledge. The one’s listed above specialized too early to have gained a thorough understanding of the law. I wouldn’t hire any of them to handle any type of moderate to complex legal work. They are actually “trainees” in a sense because they are so limited.
I’ve worked with these types and they have all been very hard-headed, foolishly naive and extremely biased. They wouldn’t listen to the more experienced attorneys (or paralegals) and made extremely poor decisions (or indecisions). Thankfully, the lead attorney reviewed their work and caught the NUMEROUS costly errors. They never lasted long.
Do you really believe that law students learn that much applicable law in law school? NO! That’s just the mere basics. It takes years of general legal work to begin to understand the complexities. THEN you can specialize. When you hire lawyers, as those above with such limited backgrounds, you are creating an atmosphere ripe for bias and abuse.
Think of it this way, would your hire a doctor that has only performed a couple of general surgeries during internship, and the rest of his career was spent on removing ingrown toenails, as a heart surgeon? Nope. Don’t underestimate the long-term effects of biased, inexperienced legal opinions!!!
The socialist way is like a tape worm, penetrate and quietly do your thing without the host ever knowing. Over the years infiltrate every area possible without showing yourself and slowly control the host with no outward signs there is anything wrong. These insidious bastards like the tape worm use time as there weapon and over the years they slowly control the host regardless of it’s intentions. There is only one way to eradicate the socialist tapeworm, isolate it, make it redundant, then start a parallel department free of disease and parasites.
Oh, no! If we give minorities civil rights… everybody will want them! How preposterous!
Poor troll. It is tough when reporting does not fit the narrative.
Minorities rights exist…the same rights exists for all except now that we are all equal the justice department needs to make sure that certain folks are “more” equal than others (to paraphrase a famous book line).
Laura,
I challenge you to share your facts regarding minorities without rights. Who are these people? What rights do they lack?
Umm…stupid comment alert!
The nerve of non-minorities wanting to be treated equally. GASP!!!! How dare whites expect to be given as much rights as say…minorities with less education or less experience than we have? What would happen to our world if we hired people based on their experience and abilities instead of color? Fairness? Oh my….the thought is so disturbing.
I think giving minorities a free ride through college is more than enough of a help up…they can deal with the normal competition all the rest of us have had to deal with for centuries.
Rather than criticizing what organizations an attorney belonged to in law school, the focus of your concerns should be directed at the Section and Division management that make the policies and decide what investigations are conducted and what lawsuits are filed. Line attorneys have no power.
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
http://www.amptoons.com/blog/files/mcintosh.html
Classic Marxists Critical Theory, deconstruct and debase all things so that every minuscule aspect can be proven to support a presupposition based merely on rage.
The show of envy, blame, victim hood, finger-pointing, denial of self responsibility, entitlement based on greed oozes from your insatiable desire to destroy those that you arbitrarily determine to be oppressive windows your dark souls and selfishness.
The meme of white guilt is laughable. I suppose whites in Africa would say the same thing. My how horrible are those Muslims and Asians also. Everything I see a picture of their society I don’t see social justice for whites…or blacks either. Gee they must be as evil as old white slave owner male America. I wonder if Asians in Iceland walk down the streets feeling safe…OHHHH!
Whose oppressing Somalia, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe…what part of Africa has the only prosperous country?
My family is owed by blacks because we came from Ireland and fought and died for blacks…as did over 1/2 the country, never owned a slave, we were treated poorly and rose above it without crying about it. The vast majority of people that came to the USA came after the civil war your blind hatred can make distinctions though. You want me to pay retributions? I want my GGpa to be paid for dying also so how about ponying up you ingrate.
Get a clue…here’s wisdom…people learn how to treat you by observing how you treat yourself.
Exactly!!!!
Hey, what about those of us with American Indian blood? Wouldn’t we be owed for our ancestors’ lives and stolen lands before some other group? We were here first – before Mexico, etc.
How far back do we keep going? Which enslaved race/culture do we stop at? Oh, wait…I forgot, only one race has ever been enslaved or mistreated…how stupid of me to forget those twisted facts. I’ll have some naive, misguided, untrained ACLU lawyer remind me.
One would think that “solid reporting” would yield fewer errors.
Anonymous said
Those people are hires through the DOJ’s Honors Program, which has been in existence for decades (through various administrations). It is the only way new attorneys can get positions in the DOJ. Even these people who came in through the Honors Program have more civil rights experience than some of the people who were hired under the Bush administration.
You can’t hold a coherent argument…first you complain Bush passed over the qualified to hire less qualified, so i pointed out that Holder has hired many right out of law school, so now you say that’s OK the program has been in existence for ages…are you bipolar?
Or more like do as I say not as I do
You’re just not reading thoroughly. The only people who are straight out of law school at the DOJ (during any administration) are those who are hired through the Honors program. Every administration gets its chance to hire people thorough the Honors program, so every administration hires people straight out of law school.
The problems for the Bush administration were related to both Honors and lateral hires. They were passing up applicants with civil rights experience for those who lacked civil rights experience, because the latter were viewed as more politically conservative.
This is such a hilarious web site!!! It proves why I don’t read Right-wing nonsense. I got a good laugh out of the profiles and the comments, including the profile of my close friend, one of the hires at the DoJ, who is an incredibly intelligent, moral and freedom loving individual. Folks need to stop watching Fox News and the like and get out and meet some minorities and working class Americans. The world isn’t that scary if you’re willing to live in it!
You said:
” …. the profile of my close friend, one of the hires at the DoJ, who is an incredibly intelligent, moral and freedom loving individual….”
By who’s standards are you judging morality?
Stop using Fox News as a stalking horse and try to engage in intelligent debate.
You all believe your own BS! I’ve supervised government lawyers from the Ivy League and from close cover before striking U. Law school is at best a trade school these days and most lawyers right out of school are as culturally and historically illiterate as a “communications” graduate who attended school on a football scholarship. Further, few of them know jack about case preparation or presentation. In other words, you’re buying a certain amount of analytical method and, usually, some writing skills. It makes them worth hiring because those skills do distinguish them from the general run of contemporary college graduates.
In any event, the greatest skill they seem to come out of law school with is insufferable egotism. They spend three years telling each other how much smarter they are than non-lawyers. Frankly, I’ll take some guy or woman who had a real job and went to law school at night then spent some time as a PD or low level prosecutor any time over some “honor” student who please the lefty law professors. Oh, and the first thing any Republican should do on taking office is fire every lawyer s/he has an arguable legal right to fire the very moment his/her hand comes off The Bible.
I would urge you to get out and meet the real minorities – you and your friend would have a MAJOR attitude correction. Morals? Working with any of those organizations listed is NOT moral, tell that lie to someone who hasn’t worked for them. They don’t care about the poor or minorities, they don’t care about truth or facts. They ONLY care about maintaining the power of the elites. It’s all a game and your friend is part of it. If not, she would have left in disgust.
Let’s see…what did I learn about these programs? They lie, lie, lie:
How dare schools provide factual data that clearly indicates black students create most of the problems in school when the percentage of black students goes above 20%? Forget how black group psychology takes over and they become thugs – acting like pack animals and urging each other on to “one up” each other. I know, let’s just hide that well-known fact and blame it on the few white administrators. They HAVE to be causing the data errors! Those mean whites are putting the blame on those poor, misunderstood black students. If those white students would stop making black students beat them up, steal, cheat, use extremely foul language or call white’s racial names, the data would show the truth. Doesn’t matter that the white kids were minding their own business when these events occur OR aren’t even around. Their white, they deserve it. Let the great, liberal attorney fix it and feel better about herself for righting a non-existing wrong.
Yep, that’s just a small part of what I learned about those loving leftist lawyers (I’m gagging at this point). The rest was how arrogant, obnoxious and totally lacking in reality these types of attorneys are. All because they refuse to see the truth that is right in front of their face. They have to believe whites are evil and they have to believe that blacks aren’t getting a fair shot. Forget truth, forget facts, forget the injustice they are creating for millions of hardworking, black loving white people.
Morals my ….. Then she needs to get a real job and work with real people.
You clearly lack morals, because that’s one of the most racists things I’ve heard today.
You are a vile and hateful person. By demonstrating your overt racism and white supremacy by referring to black children as “thugs” and “pack animals,” you make it clear that our nation’s civil rights laws are still very much needed.
And you made the point! Thanks so much for your ignorance on what is actually racism or morals.
As said, facts don’t matter. A group of black kids acting as a unit, creating fear and havoc in a school aren’t thugs or acting like a pack? Tell that to the ISD police and all the administrators having to deal with this very issue.
By the way, those descriptions are FROM a BLACK COUNSELOR’S psychological opinion based on group behavior of young blacks in schools today, even in upper middle income neighborhoods.
And that’s the entire point. Even black administrators are trying to get the facts out, but dear old liberals hide them behind “racism”.
So, now black administrators are racists for providing facts?
Here’s a fact liberals are missing: You can’t fix a problem until you understand what is at the core of the issue. Hiding the misbehavior of a group of children behind “racism” will NEVER help these students rise above such behavior. And liberal attorneys know this and live for it.
The worst kind of racism? Hiding the truth about a group of people in order to keep them down and angry, instead of lifting them up!!!
This is so backwards it’s laughable. This comment shouldn’t be dignified by a point-by-point response.
I’d be shocked if there wasn’t bias. They are hired because those in power right now believe this is the right ideology. I even understand them wanting to expand the power under such a system. What I’m furious about is the lack of checks and balances in expanding this power. How do I fight back?
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/library/dewey/john-dewey-pragmatism-and-progressive-education
When Perry takes Bernanke out behind the barn, I hope he saves some energy for Holder. And he need not stop with those two.
I literally got so physically ill while reading on the bus with my Kindle about these repugnant parasites, sleazebags, and traitors infesting our once-decent DOJ that I had to put the Kindle down twice before I could finish it. I feel like I need a bath now.
Ah yes, let us harken back to that Golden Age when Alberto Gonzales could not quite remember who ordered all those attorny generals fired or for what reason, but certainly it wasn’t to get them pursue or drop politically advantageous cases.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/27/AR2007082700372.html
Sorry guys, but John Ashcroft and Anthony Gonzales did a pretty shameful job of firing Attorney Generals for pursuing or not pursuing cases deemed political priorities by the White House. In fact Gonzales resigned when it became clear he had undermined the integrity of the Justice Department. In contrast to that behavior, hiring Civil Rights lawyers who intend to protect the right’s of people most likely to be taken advantage of seems, well, uhm, like the right thing to do.
But I am sure there will be plenty of people so filled with rage and insecurity because a moderate black liberal got elected President by a majority of Americans and is working to protect the average American instead of big corporations, that they can’t see that. Oh well. Enjoy your living in your Fox-Rush world… It seems kinda miserable to me, but that’s your choice. Hope it makes you feel better.
Oh my god, one of the attorneys spent three years with Teach for America. The horror! I get that you guys believe that no matter who wins the elections all branches of government should be run by conservatives sharing your belief system, but now have you concluded that teaching in poor school districts is now some kind of thought crime. You all need to chillax!
You are not moderate and neither is the vast Federal bureaucracy. 80%+ of Federal workers are Democrats, affirmative action hires and liberals. Fire half of them and no one would notice. I see no fairness here for conservatives who want a Federal job. If they get one they have to keep their mouths shut
I’ll ask again, can you or the authors of these articles name one person with 3-5 years of experience litigating civil rights cases who applied for a job in the Civil Rights Division in the last two years and did not get selected for the … Just one?
I think it is appropriate to invoke Adam’s own words to defeat his shallow allegations “None of this is to suggest that liberals should be precluded from working in the Division”…
It is also revealing that Adams clearly has a conflict of interest( jaded ex-employee of DOJ) and he is out of his element( election lawyer not a civil rights lawyer)…
I rest my case…lol,lol,lol
(1) Just wondering, Mr. Adams, whether or not you interviewed any of the lawyers you named in your blog to get his/her side of the story before you published?
(2) I saw an earlier comment that Amanda Downs and Kathleen Schleeter, as well as “6 or 7 of the lawyers in that Section have left the Civil Rights Division”…I am curious — did they transfer from the Civil Rights Div. into another division or did they leave DoJ altogether?
(3) Do you know why either of these 2 female lawyers are no longer with the Civil Rights Div? Is it possible that one, or both, disagreed with the policy decisions that were being made in that Section and therefore chose of her own volition to leave?
1. It is SOP that DOJ does not allow line attorneys to speak with media outlets. So no.
2. Where they went or are was not the point of the story. Why they were hired was.
Obama..the godchild of Ayers-Wright-Marshall-Alinsky….a “moderate”? LOLOL! And this cast of ideological loons, goons, freaks and slimebags of the left are just “professionals?” hey, this isn’t the Soviet Union and you’re not PRAVDA, fake moderate” and “anonymous” DOJ leftwing crackpot.
What Liberals don’t want you to know about black educational issues:
“Findings from this study also indicate that Black students and parents have a strong mistrust of Whites based on cultural transmission, treatment of Blacks in the job market, and collective mistreatment. Because Black parents taught their children to be careful of teachers (whose ideas, words, and actions could not be trusted), schooling was rarely evaluated in terms of its pragmatic function and more often evaluated in the context of Black-White relations. This is a noteworthy finding that involves deeper exploration. Ogbu argues for a pragmatic trust from Black parents and students that would allow these students to overlook race relations and see teachers as knowledge and skills experts and schooling as a means to a future social and economic end. Given that many Black parents are sending their children to school with conflicting notions of attaining academic success while keeping a critical eye on the “keeper of knowledge” (i.e., White school personnel), one could argue that it seems quite logical that Black students’ cynical attitudes toward schooling based on their minority status in the United States negatively inform their academic performance. Ogbu’s notion of a pragmatic trust might be too much to ask of the Black community, given Blacks’ history of mistreatment and “mis-education” in America.
The data also showed that Black students believed they were intellectually inferior to Whites and harbored feelings of self-doubt, hence, they often eliminated themselves from higher-level courses. Also, Ogbu found that teachers’ attitudes and beliefs about Black students contributed to these feelings of inferiority. Even though teachers did not openly say that Black students did not work hard, they implied it in their actions. For example, some teachers admitted not assigning homework in their skills and college-prep classes (lower-level courses), which were primarily populated with Black students, because they believed the students would not do the work. Teachers also expected and demanded less work from these students during lessons than they did from students in their honors and AP classes. The teacher data are consistent with similar findings in the literature related to tracking and beliefs and stereotypes about Black students, particularly in lower-level courses (Irvine, 2003; Oakes, 1985; Nieto, 2004). As mentioned earlier in the essay, these findings raise the question of whether or not Black students’ “low-effort syndrome” is informed by teachers’ perceptions of them or whether teachers’ attitudes toward and beliefs about Black students are informed by Black students’ display of minimum effort. This critical issue, which Ogbu raises in this section of the book, warrants further investigation.” Harvard University, Dorinda Carter
“In the absence of perceiving schooling as a plausible means to achieve social and economic mobility, Ogbu’s findings indicate that some of the Black students identified sports, athletics, entertainment, and drug dealing as alternative mechanisms for achieving the “American Dream.” Hence, people most admired by the Black students were athletes, sports heroes, and famous entertainers (p. 255)…
…Fordham and Ogbu found that some Black students avoided attitudes and behaviors they perceived as “acting White” for fear that these ways would be detrimental to their collective racial identity…His data lead him [Ogbu] to conclude that “Black students in Shaker Heights and probably elsewhere did not reject making good grades per se because it entailed acting White. . . . These students seemed to reject certain attitudes and behaviors that they perceived or interpreted as White, but that were conducive [italics added] to making good grades” (p. 198). These behaviors and attitudes included speaking Standard English and breaking speech rules by speaking Standard English at the wrong times, enrolling in honors and advanced placement classes, acting “smart” in class (e.g., raising their hands to answer questions, always getting the answers right, always completing homework and schoolwork), and hanging out with too many White students who make good grades. Black students were also accused of acting White for reasons not related to academic success but to social acceptance. For example, dressing like White students, having a predominantly White peer group, and participating in sports traditionally dominated by White students (e.g., tennis, lacrosse) were considered “White” behaviors. As a result, many Black students who valued social acceptance by other Black students reported rejecting the above behaviors quite often.
…Ogbu provides a detailed explanation of the reasons Black students give for labeling certain attitudes and behaviors as acting White. These reasons primarily centered around ambivalence toward Blacks who were successful in White institutions or White establishments in society with regard to whether they had abandoned their racial identity. This ambivalence was often applicable to perceptions of Black students who were successful in school as well. Ogbu’s new data raise the question of how the Black community and schools can work to minimize this type of ambivalence and dismantle the perception of certain attitudes and behaviors as racialized.
Finally, this section provides an excellent chapter (ch. 11) on Black parents’ involvement in their children’s education at school and at home. Ogbu’s findings on parental involvement certainly steer this discourse in a new direction by specifically looking at parents’ educational strategies at home and at school (i.e., how the parents went about implementing their educational aspirations for their children). Ogbu found that the overarching “cultural model of pedagogy” of the Black parents was that teachers and the schools should make their children learn and achieve success. Given this ethos, Black parents’ school participation and involvement were dismal among working-class, middle-class, and professional parents. Similarly, parental involvement at home indicated a lack of close supervision of children’s homework, poor coaching on effective time management, lack of shielding from negative peer pressures, and ineffective methods for motivating children to engage in schoolwork. When one considers the community forces simultaneously with system factors, Black student academic disengagement becomes a huge dilemma in U.S. education…” Carter
It is clear that this administration’s goal in the Education Section is to broaden its very limited jurisdiction. The only way to stop the overreaching (Title IX, ESL, discipline) is for school districts/states to fight back and stop settling cases. The attorneys in this section have little to no litigation experience and there is minimal legal precedent to support many of the Section’s positions. Unfortunately, many districts/states do not have the funds necessary to litigate.
Also- Districts pay attention! If you receive a letter from the Section alleging violations of the Equal Educational Opportunities Act you do not have to allow DOJ to visit your District. This is a very important but unknown distinction between the Department of Education and Department of Justice. DOJ refused to tell me why the investigation of my District was initiated…if I had known I had the right to refuse them access to the District..I surely would have.