This blog will be a jumble of observations about human nature.
My first recognition of this factor was from the book "The Bell Curve". Ask yourself how many of your closest friends are college graduates? For people who are college graduates 90% of their friends are also college graduates. For those who are not college graduates, it is just the opposite. This tends to point out that we do "flock together" based on our "feathers".
If you are not Jewish, how many times have you sat for dinner in a Jewish household? The answer for 99% of us would be "zero". How about you? Ask the same question about Blacks, Asian, Indian or Latins and I think your answer would be the same. We need to look deeper into this situation if we really have a concern about the unity of our country.
The first place that I look is for places where there is a good "mix" of different groups is our public schools. The mix is not as good as you would think because our public schools are organized and located by zip code. The other thing that is clear is that zip code areas are also structured by economics with high priced home in one area and low priced homes in another. They are also organized by urban and suburban. The bigger the city, the more chances that the public schools are divided by race or economics. The conclusion for me is that the public schools do not appear to be a major part of the solution of "mix".
As strange as it might sound, I think that "businesses" do more for full integration than most people may think. Look at it this way. Business hire people based on their ability or merit, not race or any other thing. This means that businesses are more likely to have a good mix than almost any other structure. The only problem with businesses is that many racial groups tend to vary significantly in terms of education and technical skills. If businesses were to select workers on a basis other than merit most would find this cure worse than the disease. What is your experience in this area?
In an effort to help solve our mix problem, many have focused on our colleges and I think that is good, but has been a shallow effort. The student loan program has been a bust as far as I am concerned. It has gotten more minorities into college, but their majors have still focused them into areas where integration is not needed, like the social sciences.
Under the economic growth policies of President Trump it helps integration in ways that have not been recognized. With a shortage of workers, business are focusing on hiring workers who have previously been out of work. Those with jobs are being promoted and all of this works to promote the mixing that I pointed out above. Job training is clearly "merit" based which is the only truly fair system. Merit however, does not come for free. One has to work hard and make an effort in areas that might be difficult. No one in business is keeping anyone back so let's start focusing there rather than on government?
PS--If a Black person wants more White friends, then they should become an engineer. If they prefer Black friends, they should study political science. Simple isn't it?
My first recognition of this factor was from the book "The Bell Curve". Ask yourself how many of your closest friends are college graduates? For people who are college graduates 90% of their friends are also college graduates. For those who are not college graduates, it is just the opposite. This tends to point out that we do "flock together" based on our "feathers".
If you are not Jewish, how many times have you sat for dinner in a Jewish household? The answer for 99% of us would be "zero". How about you? Ask the same question about Blacks, Asian, Indian or Latins and I think your answer would be the same. We need to look deeper into this situation if we really have a concern about the unity of our country.
The first place that I look is for places where there is a good "mix" of different groups is our public schools. The mix is not as good as you would think because our public schools are organized and located by zip code. The other thing that is clear is that zip code areas are also structured by economics with high priced home in one area and low priced homes in another. They are also organized by urban and suburban. The bigger the city, the more chances that the public schools are divided by race or economics. The conclusion for me is that the public schools do not appear to be a major part of the solution of "mix".
As strange as it might sound, I think that "businesses" do more for full integration than most people may think. Look at it this way. Business hire people based on their ability or merit, not race or any other thing. This means that businesses are more likely to have a good mix than almost any other structure. The only problem with businesses is that many racial groups tend to vary significantly in terms of education and technical skills. If businesses were to select workers on a basis other than merit most would find this cure worse than the disease. What is your experience in this area?
In an effort to help solve our mix problem, many have focused on our colleges and I think that is good, but has been a shallow effort. The student loan program has been a bust as far as I am concerned. It has gotten more minorities into college, but their majors have still focused them into areas where integration is not needed, like the social sciences.
Under the economic growth policies of President Trump it helps integration in ways that have not been recognized. With a shortage of workers, business are focusing on hiring workers who have previously been out of work. Those with jobs are being promoted and all of this works to promote the mixing that I pointed out above. Job training is clearly "merit" based which is the only truly fair system. Merit however, does not come for free. One has to work hard and make an effort in areas that might be difficult. No one in business is keeping anyone back so let's start focusing there rather than on government?
PS--If a Black person wants more White friends, then they should become an engineer. If they prefer Black friends, they should study political science. Simple isn't it?
