http://www.navytimes.com/news/2011/06/coast-guard-academy-head-stosz-targets-diversity-060911w/ Her policy implies that the skin color of a swab determines whether or not they need a few extra days to acclimate....? How absolutely wrong-headed, hypocritical, and insulting. Pay particular attention to the fifth paragraph.... Am I missing something here?
Political correctness and ethnic sensitivity training. Be careful, it's a 198 slide .ppt and I keep getting sent back.
Are the "extra days for minority students to acclimate" needed because minorities are stupid and incapable? - That is what they are saying with this policy, minority students cant hack it because they are inferior. If they want to end discrimination, they should start by ending discrimination. Get rid of all these stupid ethnic months. Get rid off all the racial and gender questions on applications and exams. Your a first year CG academy student (or any other academy student for that matter), Hack it or pack it. No special treatment, perfrom to the standard or GTFO! you get no special treatment. Only then, will all of the graduates and everyone else know they are equal. "I have a dream that my four little childeren will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." - Only took one day for CG academy admiral to piss all over that one lol. - The funniest part is, she did it to end discrimination lol.
Ugh. What's sad is I am barely surprised enough to summon up sufficient righteous indignation to comment on this lunacy. Save us, Zombie Martin Luther King Jr.! Come back and stop the maddness!
Your point is my EXACT argument against affirmative action, etc. These self-righteous liberal idiots think we're small-minded bigots for not wanting to give minorities "extra help" while they are too obtuse to realize that their policy goals basically have the subtext that these minorities are stupid, incapable and inferior to the rest of us white folk. So they are too dense to realize that the ideologies they seek to destroy are, in fact, UNDERLINED by their political goals. Morons....
I have no idea about what percentage of minority students wash out of the CGA (if you do, please share it), nor do I know the "whys" on what caused the washouts, but I'm guessing the policy to have them aboard a few days earlier is simply an easy, low-cost way to try to manage that. If many of them said in their exit interview "I didn't understand the Academy was going to be like X", there are easy ways to ensure that they do gain an understanding. What I do know is that the Coast Guard has struggled in the number of minority officers and enlisted personnel. As long as we get funding through Congress, and as long as Congress has requirements to increase our minority numbers, you are going to see diversity programs in the Coast Guard. I would love to live in a world where we had an unlimited stream of cash with no questions asked, but that world is not the USA at the moment. Also, the fifth paragraph says that struggling students will be given resources to assist them. Why is this a big deal? I'm guessing the other three service acads have programs to assist struggling students (which is a pretty good idea, when you figure how much cash it costs to educate the students). Slow down, cowboy. Again, you probably don't know the minority washout rate, nor the reasons for minorities leaving (just guessing), but the reason for this program is to lower that washout rate. In OCS and in Boot Camp we have had issues with minority students passing the swim test - are these people "inferior"? Nope; many just didn't have access to pools growing up. So programs are in place to develop their swim skills. This "special treatment" might get your goat, but it has enabled a lot of otherwise well-qualified people to join our ranks. You know the Admiral's political leanings? From this article?
How about stopping all quotas, and just having what is fair. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY. No "we must let in X percent of group Y no matter how many concessions we must make to them". Oh wait, I'm probably going to be called racist/sexist/orientationist/classist or so some other bad -ist.
And quite honestly, a vast majority of we minorities want exactly that. I didn't need extra days at OCS to "acclimate" nor do I need extra swim instruction because its perceived that black people can't swim. Affirmative action is bullshit....I want to get promoted/accepted/placed, etc. because of my skills, past experience and performance. Not because I'm some mark in some book somewhere that defines that they need to have X amount of minority students or officers in such and such program. I think its complete bullshit and we see it calling us stupid as easily as you guys and everyone else does. I really don't get why in this day and time we need to continue having these kinds of programs. Diversity awareness programs to learn about other cultures and backgrounds, I believe is cool, but should also be expanded to EVERYONE (not just those of us who are darker in skin color). I remember getting into a fight in college because some kid basically said that if it werent for affirmative action, I wouldve never gotten in anyways and that I'm too dumb to graduate and make it. Stupid thing to fight over, but it pissed me off at the time.
I remember at my college. If you weren't a white male, you got a scholarship. Seriously. School was trying to shed it's all male WASPy reputation, and women/minorities got money, even if they were crappy students or rock stars. Mattered not. I pulled a 3.85 in Mechanical Engineering, while working 2 jobs, and got $100 one semester for books. Seriously.
Not sure how the Navy does it, but the USCG only gives extra instruction to those who need it, not those we we percieve to need it. We would never force extra swim instruction on you. Reminds me of this Onion story.
Should struggling students get help? Absolutely - however, when the first non-minority washes out/attrites I fully expect him to raise hell because he wasn't afforded the extra days to get ready? How can you possibly defend that policy and keep a straight face? If the CGA is hearing through exit interviews that people weren't not mentally or physically prepared then they (CGA) should look at their summer "seminar" and other feeder programs as well as the quality of information and liaising that is taking place on their behalf. I appreciate the primer on how government funding works - however, I honestly do not think that what she has proposed is legal. I would be very interested to see how this policy would hold up to when examined through the lens of equal protection and the various standards SCOTUS has used to decide similar matters.
That just doesn't seem to the be the case here. It appears that CGA has summarily decided that minorities, because they are minorities, need more help. Unfortunate and undesired effect.
I'm guessing that the CG decided that minorities were being retained at the Academy less than non-minorities, based on tracking data over many years. They then decided that they needed to do something about it, like finding the leading causes. They then decided to try to mitigate it with giving the opportunity to acclimate a few days earlier (among other options). Who knows who actually qualifies to get to New London early...maybe it is open to others, as well. Bet a lot of cadets would NOT want to show up earlier if given the choice, but I can't really speak to that since I was an OCS guy. If minority retention increases it sounds like a win-win to me.
So your service is having trouble retaining men? After all, they've been a "minority" since 1950 according to the US Census. All these "diversity" policies that apply to everyone except white men are sexist and racist. Period.
Lets all just start checking the blocks? Does anything require you to prove your "minority-ness", is there a card you get or something making you an official member? This is how we fix the 'diversity' problem! Poof, goals met, all can hug and feel good about themselves... and we get to maintain the most capable and motivated people driving our warfare platforms. I just love self hypenation. Lets use the most common one as an example: To call yourself just african would sound ridiculous (shit if your that proud, go ahead!), but simply calling yourself american somehow betrays your culture, sense of self or belonging (and oh God, entitlement??)? What, are they going to come up with a new category for 'real african-american', 'black', 'yellow', 'purple', 'germanomanxirish' , what exact blood line percentage makes one african american or the others???? Since its postulated that all homosapiens came 'out of africa', aren't we all actually 'african-americans'? F it, Im checking the block(s) from this point forward. I agree with Morgan Freeman, "the only way to stop racism is to stop talking about it... I'll stop thinking of you as a 'white' man, you stop thinking of me as a 'black' man"...
Yep.. Should not matter if am White/Black/Asian/Hispanic/Martian or Male/Female/UNK. But it does. And the people who are forcing us to say "it matters" are the racist/sexist ones.
You could always be like my South African friend who won minority scholarships to school; the university was less than pleased when they found out he was THE MAN.
I will certainly agree that all of this makes me cringe. I agree that everyone should be given an equal opportunity to excel and we shouldn't pander to certain sections of society just to make our numbers look better. The problem arises with the perception that the CG academy is not doing enough to get minorities interested in the program. Congress and the public have told the CG "You had better get more minorities in the program or we wll do it for you." The way that the CG is going about it may not be the best way but their hand was forced and have to do something. Personnall, I think if people want to be in a military service they will go. But the politics are that the CG is being forced to increase its diversity. I am sure there are better ways to do it they just haven't been presented.
It always amazes me how retarded people are to think that black = African American. A girl I went to high school with would come close to cutting you if you called her that since her family had emigrated from Jamaica a couple generations back. African American she was not.
There was a sportscaster for the last Olympics who was trying to say something about the representation of blacks in track and field there. He ended up saying there were a lot of "African Americans" competing, even though only one was an American at all. I would love to see a white South African immigrant claim a scholarship for being "African American." For that matter, what about all almost all of North Africa--there's a reason that term is ridiculous.
