The Racism of Lowered Expectations

I was raised in an abusive home in which I was repeatedly told how stupid I was or how I would never amount to anything. My adoptive mother had a very cruel and violent streak and she frequently physically attacked me, but worse than the beatings was what she would say.

“You’ll never amount to anything.”

“How can anyone be so stupid?”

“Can’t you do anything right?”

You get the idea.

The irony of her cruel words was that I was an exceptional student. My report card was mostly “A’s” with the exception of handwriting and that was usually a “C”. I graduated high school with a 3.75 GPA and went on to college, to which she also objected. She felt I should find a man to marry so I could start a family and that college would turn me into an atheist.

I graduated with my Bachelor’s Degree (the first person in that family to do so) and then did marry and have children and later went on to get a Master’s Degree with a 4.0 GPA.

A few years later I went on to have a decently successful career in D.C. in advocacy work. I have had a lot of great accomplishments which included international travel and speaking. And I am quite satisfied with how my life has turned out. I have all the creature comforts I could want, including owning two homes, one at the beach. My children have grown up to be good, solid, hard working people with a strong moral compass that is admirable.

For whatever reason, I am not sure when or how, I was able to understand what my mother was telling me was a lie. Maybe it was because of what I was experiencing outside of my home; the praise, the victories, the achievement. They stood in such stark contrast to what I was experiencing inside my home.

But for most children that’s not how it works. They believe and internalize the lies that adults tell them.

The State Legislature of Oregon has determined that children of certain ethnic or cultural backgrounds cannot achieve what their white counterparts can achieve. They passed a bill suspending the state’s “essential skills” requirement for graduation. Those “essential skills” were demonstrated proficiency in math, reading and writing as a requisite for gaining a high school diploma.

The group largely behind this effort, “Foundations for a Better Oregon” said it would bring “equity” to certain communities. The Governor’s spokesperson described those “communities” as Oregon’s “black, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal, and students of color.”

**Side Note: I love how Latinos get three descriptors while everybody else just gets one.

Sounds racist to me.

The Oregon State Legislature essentially became my mother telling any student who is not white that they are too stupid, can’t get anything right and will never amount to anything, so why bother? Just climb on to that lowest common denominator wagon and enjoy the ride.

Geesh! I shouldn’t have used the word “denominator” that’s a “math” term.

In a desperate bid to be “woke” the Great White Man back handed every other ethnicity or culture.

The question is: if there’s a preponderance of kids unable to do math or read or write proficiently by the time they are graduating high school, isn’t it the educational system that’s failing?

The word Proficient is the key. Proficient doesn’t mean you’ve created Einsteins, proficient means you’ve at least taught them enough to get along in the world.

I will admit I was lousy at math. Fine enough to do basic math, understand fractions, use a tape measure, decide if a pound of hamburger was enough to feed six people or not, figure out a percentage, balance a checkbook, carry over to the next column, understand what square feet meant and pretty much everything I’ve needed to successfully move my way through the world. The only reason I got a decent grade in Algebra was that twenty-five percent of that semester was dedicated to punch card programming a rudimentary computer and I had a talent for that. Logic was the key there and I am high in “logic”.

So is the Oregon educational system saying they can’t even teach basic life skills? Forget about Quantum Physics, how about just balancing a check book? That’s pretty important to know even if you do your banking entirely online.

This is an epic fail and it has nothing to do with “race.”

I’d like to see Oregon explain to Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn or Mary Jackson how black kids are too stupid to learn math “proficiently.” Or maybe tell James Baldwin that black kids can’t learn to read or write.

Or take Daniel Alfonso Colon-Ramos, Ph.D., the Dorys McConnell Duberg Professor of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, Yale School of Medicine. He certainly sounds “Latinx” but I could be wrong

Gabriel García Márquez did write that pesky international best seller “El amor en los tiempos del cólera.”

Then not to be outdone by Senator Elizabeth Warren and her “high cheek bones” we have Native American notables such as:

“Astronaut John Herrington was the first Native American to travel to space. Herrington, a member of the Chickasaw Nation, spent over 330 hours in space before retiring in 2005. Mary Ross, the great-great-granddaughter of Cherokee Chief John Ross, was one of the first women in the field of aerospace engineering, beginning her career with Lockheed Martin in 1942. Ingram, who is Navajo, is a professor of chemistry and a research scientist. Burgess, the grandson of a Cherokee medicine woman, has served on the faculty of many universities, including Dartmouth College and the University of Miami.”

Seems to me, changing what will be a requirement for being handed a high school diploma to lowered standards to account for race or ethnicity, so everyone can get a useless participation certificate, is fairly racist and prejudiced.

It’s going back to where I started, if you are constantly told you will never achieve anything, you probably won’t. And if the people who are supposed to be teaching you don’t believe you can achieve, you probably won’t.

Good luck to the parents who have kids in Oregon public schools, you and your kids are going to need it.

Edit Note: Don't you find it ironic that "Asians" are included in this group given how often we hear Asians have an unfair advantage when it comes to admissions at some of our Ivy League Universities?