Woke? Wake Up!

A WAR

In New York, the challenge is to find the best ways to get rid of racism.

But first the Democratic Party, in total control of both the city and the State, must deal with the war within the party for supremacy.

In a Monarchy the only way to unseat a King or Queen is through a war or assassination. “The King is dead, long live the King” usually sums it up.

In a political party which dominates the landscape in every direction, the younger people looking for a “way in” must get the Old Guard out and can use the ballot box to make some gains.

Helped by a 40 year old organization with almost no public profile at all – the Democratic Socialists (Bernie Sanders knew them and used the term…but that’s Bernie) – the ‘new kids’ made some gains – they ousted Congressman Joe Crowley in Queens…Congressman Eliot Engel in the Bronx, State Senator Jeff Klein in Riverdale.

But the ballot box takes time and the young set is impatient.

And so they take a chapter from a very old book which suggests that men are all Bubbas like former President Bill Clinton. (The idea works. Girls become women not at puberty but when they realize that all men are Bubbas if not all the time but eventually)

And so a political operative who is all but invisible suddenly tells us that Andrew Cuomo, New York’s Governor for life, kissed her without seeking permission…and the flood gates open. And then Scott Stringer…yes that Scott Stringer, as hapless as his Mayoral primary TV spots, falls into the “bubba” trap.

Remember politics is a blood sport…anything goes…our only friend is a dog.

Now what does this have to do with ridding systemic racism in New York?

Recognition that the “woke” ideas being spun lack fundamental knowledge, simple, basic common sense and reality. They sound good. They fit into slogans but they are death traps in the name of progress.

DIVERSITY

The focus now is on two significant areas where racism seems predominate: criminal justice and education.

Let’s look at crime first. The numbers are way up…nightly shootings are commonplace all over the city but mainly in those areas around NYCHA housing. Sometimes the bullets miss…sometimes they kill or wound. But the shootings continue night after night.

Before we heard “defund the police” – a slogan from the organization Black Lives Matter after the public murder of George Floyd – the De Blasio Administration tried to close Riker’s Island the destination for suspected criminals unable to provide bail to keep themselves out of jail while awaiting trial or a plea deal. Clearly the overwhelming numbers involved were poor people of color..

The effort failed when the solution was to build jails in each of the boroughs to replace the overcrowding and criminal and violent activity known to exist at Riker’s. The boroughs said No.

And so driven by the fact that those at Riker’s were almost always poor and black or brown and seeing that as an example of systemic racism, the ‘woke idea’ pushed the NY State Legislature and NY City Council to get rid of the cash bail system entirely and simply give suspected criminals a ticket with a date to return to court.

No sooner were they arrested, then they were released for all misdemeanors and a select number of felonies.

This decision is coupled with a fierce desire to all but strip the Police of its authority and power: removing a billion dollars from its budget, cancelling an entire class of rookies, eliminating certain elements of a policeman’s personal immunity against prosecution from any citizen who thought his actions unnecessarily violent or simply unfair or incorrect; ending overtime pay. These actions have all but stopped the normal activities of the NYPD as is obvious from the rising crime statistics. Of course this is denied but it has happened before.

Have these decisions followed months of a careful analysis of NYPD activities and training? No.

Have these decisions followed an analysis of Police work in certain dangerous activities like traffic stops and investigations, dealing with domestic disputes and handling the potentially violent actions of the mentally ill? No.

Have these decisions been based on a careful analysis of the actions and statements of an incompetent Mayor and an impotent Police Commissioner? No.

These were the politically expedient actions of a knowledge-deficient State Legislature and City Council acting on the noise generated within a political party which has had nothing much to say for years and remains little but an ancient corrupt structure carefully guarding its territory like a Monarch under siege.

Sadly, those who would replace it have neither the knowledge or experience to develop new answers that are beyond slogans and have genuine possibilities all in the good cause of getting rid of racism.

If you think these knowledge deficient responses to racism hurt rather than improve the criminal justice system just look at what they have also done to our public education system.

THE WRONG DIRECTION.

Let’s sum up the value of NYC’s education system this way: even before the closing of schools because of Covid-19 and the obvious end of any real education this past year, NYC’s public education system was failing and is still the most segregated system in the nation.

If more than three-quarters of your graduating classes are not prepared for higher education or a decent job, what kind of education have they received? The question answers itself.

And so what happens when an entire system fails and the woke ideas of the ‘new kids’ come into play?

They find a way to ignore the facts they are unable to improve and focus on an area where they see little but racism and take it from there.

And so why aren’t there more black and brown students in our six specialized high schools…Stuyvesant, Bronx High School of Science and Brooklyn Tech…among them and in the gifted and talented groups in elementary and secondary schools throughout the city?

Why must attendance at these schools be based on a single test which most black and brown students are not prepared to take?

Why are so many Asian students in these schools and programs and seem to dominate far beyond their numbers in the system?

These are the obvious questions and all have obvious answers but the most difficult question is this:

What can be done to help the essentially poor students get the education and additional help they need to genuinely qualify for these schools and programs?

And the woke answer to these questions is…End the gifted and talented programs in all city schools.

End the taking of that Entrance Test

Close the six specialized high schools.

The battle over these schools has raged for the past several years.

Much has been made of the extra preparation made by Asian parents to help their children score highest on this test. Much has been made of the advantage that so many white and Asian children have by attending special gifted and talented programs in their earlier years.

When former Liberal Party Mayoral candidate Tom Allon met with then Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza, another super hire by the City’s insufficient Mayor, his suggestion that additional special schools be developed especially to serve the needs of the poorly prepared black and brown students…and that the gifted and talented programs be increased to include them as well, Carranza, who makes a career of skipping from one school system to the next every couple of years, ignored the suggestion with no counter suggestion of his own…other than to close all the gifted and talented programs and the special high schools as well.

And so once again, an answer to attempting to end systemic racism in our public school system turns in the worst direction as if dumbing-down schools is the only way to achieve genuine equality.

Is this thinking a genuine attempt at important change or simply fool’s gold? Let’s ask those running for Mayor of New York in an election decided this November. What do we hear?

Much is made of expanding Pre-K programs for four year olds to include three year old children and yet NOTHING is done to actually study whether these programs are anything more than baby-sitting; nothing is done to learn whether the necessary teacher-child ratio of one teacher for every four children exists; nothing is done to learn whether teacher aides are in classes and what educational preparation they have and finally whether those teaching in Pre-K have an education in early childhood learning which is NOT THE SAME as kindergarten …though it is believed that most kindergarten-trained teachers are teaching in these Pre-K classes.

No studies. No one checking. No one paying attention. Nothing.

One wonders what the political call for quality child care means when that same call for quality education has failed. And whether calls for quality after-school programs matter when what is happening in schools is so dismal.

We will look at the Mayoral race in detail but what we see now is that the Democratic candidates in the game are looking at woke answers and not at those which require study, expertise and the ability to deal with the hard realities and difficult choices that take real work.

So far it is not inspiring or even encouraging.