Racialist Thinking Behind the Times

to answer Councilman Jackson’s question, the reason black enrollment is down is clearly partly due to being outcompeted by Asian students, but more ominously, it is the due to the continued erosion of the poor minority family due to liberalism over the past generation and a half.

Bite your tongue, Mr. Cusack! Don’t you realize these things are supposed to be governed by the latest politically correct statistics, then set in stone forever? I thought conservatives were supposed to be opposed to change. The average academic liberal has them beat by a country mile.

Good points Andrew. However, as to why Hunter College High School is not treated in the article, Hunter differs from the other three schools in that (a) Hunter is not under the jurisdiction of the NYC Board of Education (CUNY governs it, thus its statistics may be separately reported) and (b) the competitive admissions for Hunter are at the 7th grade, rather than 9th grade level.

Steve, that’s very interesting. I must confess I did not know that. There’s an argument then that since CUNY is now a state, rather than municipal, university that admissions to Hunter College High School should be broadened beyond the Five Boroughs.

Gabriel: As an inhabitant of the fine province of British Columbia, you no doubt are quite familiar with the competitive nature of Asian immigrants.

Andrew,

Some highly competitive schools have certain types of geographic quota, for example, only allowing a maximum number of students from one high school; or a certain number of people from each state or other subdivision of a state.

Clearly this will not give you “the best of the best”, but as I am sure you well know, the very “best” students academically are usually, with few stellar exceptions, complete duds as virtuous human beings.

I always believed in the “Gentleman’s C”. It keeps you sane.

We’ve often referred to Cusack as the Gentleman’s C personified.

As a student at Hunter, I know that indeed, the black and Hispanic population at our school is limited to a handful of kids, most of whom were accepted to Hunter College Elementary School at the age of four or five. I note this because at this age the school wasn’t looking for the sort of competitive, academic type that it does for the high school. Even if this quality was a requirement, it would be extremely hard to find and identify in the undeveloped brain of a child in Pre-K.
In the Class of 2011, for example, I believe one African-American student was accepted from outside the elementary school, and no Hispanic students.
I thought that an insider’s point of view might be interesting.