If dei is slain at colleges they must still fight legacies (nepotism) and affordability (need merit based scholarships) to allow real opportunities for deserving students.
Still have the problem of Marxist professors but smart students can overcome that
James: Yes, but, what are "deserving students"? I submit that it is not the business of highly selective universities to admit students based on which ones "deserve" admission, but on which ones meet or exceed certain objective standards, and also show extraordinary promise. Life is competitive. Also, legacies (as in legacy students) are not necessarily a bad thing. The problem arises when the legacy is not up-to-par, intellectually, but still gets admitted, due to nepotism. I went to college with many legacies (I was not one). Those that I knew, personally, turned out to be accomplished and highly successful in their own right.
Amen. Real life is competitive. Every kid needs this drilled into their skulls full of mush until they understand that. Home should be a kid’s only sure “safe space”, where love and understanding, with appropriate touches of reality and firmness, should be the order of the day. Yesterday I applauded our daughter for the way she and our son-in-law are raising their five, verbally nominating her for Mother of the Year. She laughed, saying that her youngest would challenge that nomination on that particular day. In my eyes, that means she is doing things right.
Traditionally, letting in the Legacies who can pay is what allows financing the scholarships for students who merit them. We need to get government completely out of student loans, although Defense can offer some scholarships with a payback (i.e. ROTC).
For the most part, scholarships should be for those good enough in a real field to have a reasonable expectation of performing (making money) at it.
A lot of people go to college today who should not. They are wasting their time and our money.
Charles Murray (of "The Bell Curve" infamy) addresses your point on the vast expansion of the college-bound (but nowhere near college-capable) over the last half-century. His 2008 "Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality" is a must read, especially Chapter 2. (The book is freely available online in PDF format).
Murray's Four Truths are:
1. Ability varies.
2. Half of the children are below average.
3. Too many people are going to college.
4. America’s future depends on how we educate the academically gifted.
The power of "the light of day" cannot be denied. "Didn't Earn It" is in retreat in most areas...at the moment. However, personnel is policy, especially in DoD. If the election goes the wrong way, the personnel won't change, and neither will the policy(s) regarding DEI and other readiness destroying directives from on high. Pass / fail / life / death career fields such as pilots, combat arms leaders, and surgeons MUST be selected on merit vice a quota of immutable characteristics that put qualification at the bottom of the selection criteria list (if it is considered at all). BIG election, VERY BIG.
Aviation Sceptic: To put it in an evolutionary perspective, in the wild, DEI is not a survival trait. Any exceptions are due to chance and the ability of people to deceive themselves or others.
I'm surprised at you, Sal. You're declaring victory before the battles have even been fought. We're only slightly behind Europe, Canada, and Australia/NZ in their headlong flight into social engineering and government control of culture and citizens' allowed responses to the globalist imperative.
Publication of The Bell Curve, back in the 1990s, caused outrage among some special interest minority groups because - to the extent its collected peer research might be heeded and acted upon - the rice bowls of these groups would be overturned and emptied. In academica, it was darkly rumored that, if any participating scientific individual sought to add to such research in a peer reviewed manner, their private bits would atrophy and fall off, and their paycheck would cease, no more grants from the scientific power structure would appear in their faculty mail box. I remember, from reading that book, among much other data and analysis, there were IQ bell curves for various prominent flavors of population groups. the IQ profiles of each group - expressed by these bell cuves - were ranked and the list - starting with the highest IQ and descending - was as follows: Asian, Jewish, Anglo (including latin), and black. I is encouraging to see, by your column today, that the asians are now getting a fair shake at Harvard.
"It is a book about events at the two ends of the distribution of intelligence that are profoundly affecting American life. At one extreme, transformations in higher education, occupations, and federal power are creating a cognitive elite of growing wealth and influence. At the other extreme, transformations in occupations and social norms are creating a cognitive underclass."
And here we are in 2024. Now we are to the point that are own underclass is insufficient for the elites. We must allow the world's underclasses to cross our borders unimpaired.
Meanwhile the Left retreated and regrouped and came up with a new act with Clinton, Obama and Biden. Not just here but in the UK, too with “New Labour.”
In hindsight, UniParty has been in charge since Reagan was shot. He did some good, and especially working with Thatcher helped put an end to the Soviet Union, but otherwise the plan was Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton-Bush from '84 to the end of Jeb's second term in a few months. I don't know if Chelsea was ever envisioned, but Obama jumped further Left too fast after spanking Hillary, throwing a wrench in the works for all of them
That quote was put in the Captain's Standing Night Orders by the commissioning Captain of my FFG. It stayed there for the 4 years I served aboard under 3 Captains. If we were only allowed 1 mantra, that'd be a good one.
I'll believe that when I see the discrimination lawsuits commence, be summarily thrown out of court, and the plaintiffs assessed the full legal costs of the defense.
The retelling of the stats is both slanted and confusing. Let's look at it holistically.
In the base period, By comparison, the past four years of incoming freshmen were a combined 13% Black, 2% American Indian/Alaskan Native, 15% Hispanic and 1% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. The previous four classes were 41% Asian American and 38% white.
So the majority (whites and Asians amounted to 79%. Checks his paper, that means the minorities are maybe 21% to 31% due to double counting.
Whereas after the changes: This year's freshman class at MIT is 5% Black, 1% American Indian/Alaskan Native, 11% Hispanic and 0% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. It is 47% Asian American and 37% white. (Some students identified as more than one racial group).
majority 84%, while minorities would be 16-17% depending on how you count.
The MSM outragers speak of a drop from 31% to 16%, whereas counting it otherwise yields 21% dropping to 16%
Most significantly they cherry pick two different ways to do the math to yield the biggest outrage. In the base, they add the minorities directly yielding 31%, but in the new period, they add the majority at 84% and impute the minorities as 16%
Where exactly do these masses of white Hispanics come from? Spain?
The vast majority of Central and South American countries are comprised of various mixes of the descendants of European whites, indigenous peoples (Amerindians), and African blacks.
Absurd. Check the polling methodology, race is self-selected by the respondents from among White, Black, Asian, or "Other". And the vast majority of these "Hispanics" say they can be identified by SIGHT alone as "Hispanics." Oh, really? I guess it could be some kind of badge they all wear, the low-rider cars they all drive, or the boss tats they all sport...
I'm not big on "style"—rationality, science, data, and reality are more my kind of thing. Plus, I don't care much about getting in trouble...with anyone.
Accordingly, you seem to have a tendency to skim the surface of things without going deeper to understand their significance or veracity. Like the Ford "announcement" and your interpretation that it ended the company's support of DEI. I posted the company's website page which directly contradicts your assertion, and a deeper reading of the Ford CEO's actual "policy change" (to which you failed to provide a link, see below) shows it to be window-dressing of the typical variety meant to fool the naive and unwary—looks like it worked.
Yes (mostly Spanish and Italian, I believe), though for a shorter time than you might think. Like other countries with significant European-descended populations, Argentina is undergoing rapid demographic transition and shows the inverted population pyramid typical of such decline. Older and even reproductive-age Europeans are rapidly dwindling in number compared with more fecund native, African, and other immigrant populations mostly from nearby countries. National TFR is 1.39 (2022) whereas replacement level is approx. 2.1. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Argentina
Note as well that national demographic data can obscure, though rarely completely hide, the reality on the ground. Immigrants, for example, are MUCH more likely to settle among areas of earlier immigrants in large and mid-sized metropolitan areas rather than assimilate with natives in small towns, villages, and rural areas. This "clumping" effect magnifies the impact immigrant populations have on a country, such as Sweden where Malmo and areas of Stockholm have very substantial foreign-born populations (first- and second-generation) while the overall number of immigrants relative to native Swedes countrywide is fairly low. The same effect can be seen in Ireland, the major cities in England, and the outer suburbs (banlieues) of major French cities.
Where immigrants make up substantial numbers in various Western jurisdictions, they also quickly achieve local political power and representation for their group in more powerful bodies due to the nature of democratic political practices (at least for the present). Consider the political heft of Arab-Americans in Michigan and Minnesota and their influence on Americans' thinking about (and political positioning on) the Israeli-Hamas War.
Unless you are a hispanic jew like Supreme Court Justice Cardoza, in which case you are a jew first and only and your geographical heritage and familial language matters not to those deciding what puts the "H" in hispanic.
Are American Whites a monolithic bloc? I don't think so. I am mostly Welsh-American, and know Irish-, Italian-, Danish-, German-Americans, Cajuns, Okies, Goobers, Rednecks, Lon Gislanders, Texans, Ozarkers, Crackers, etc. Groups with a superiorizing self-identity tend to be clannish and exclusionary. We don't want to be call a sub-set. Call us a minority. Where are our set-asides as genuine minorities?
It’s hard to know exactly what changed because of the mixed race identifiers. It would probably make more sense to have a one to one relationship where mixed race applicants just get assigned the darkest skin color they claim and it all adds up to 100%, but they don’t give us that.
Also, MIT has always been known as one of the least affirmative action ivies because it’s STEM forward rather than humanities/law/finance forward. STEM has so much less room for incompetence than squishier fields.
I'm a farmer so a regular visitor to Tractor Supply by necessity only because it's a one-hour drive to a better store, Agri-Supply. My local store was a constant frustration with things like losing titles to machinery, always out of items like oil and grease, plus rude and neglectful employees including the two who had a loud and angry argument in front of customers. I had no idea the root cause was the parent company's DEI policy putting incompetent people in charge. In the last few weeks i have noticed a change at the store - employees willing to help, and the grease and oil racks are finally fully stocked.
Maybe corporate leaders across the country took a lesson from the Bud Light debacle and realized that Bud is never going to get that market share back. So perhaps they decided to serve their customers and move product in lieu of buying into trendy ideas. We can only hope.
"Feel that? That is the wind at our backs. More. Faster.
There will be setbacks, a few defeats, some incomplete victories—but the tide has turned…maybe."
An excellent point worth remembering and a perfect way to close the article.
The first sign of victory (or even avoidance of defeat) is not the time to let up on the throttle.
Midway is often referred to as the turning point of the Pacific War, but I tend to think of Midway and Guadalcanal as bookends on the turning point. Midway was, to misquote Churchill, not the beginning of the end but perhaps the end of the beginning, while Guadalcanal (and possibly the larger Solomons campaign) was certainly the beginning of the end.
Students v. Stanford may turn out to be the Midway of our DEI culture wars, having stopped the onrushing slide, but there is more work to be done. Even should the explicit DEI hiring, teaching, and marketing practices have reached their high water mark and begun to ebb, there is every reason to believe they will simply be driven underground, with the true believers continuing to hire and inculcate but without crowing of their successes.
Avocado green refrigerators and affirmative action. LOL. Love it! Agree! Keep up the Press!
I think Sal is spot on about DEI but unfair to avocados.
Who doesn't like guacamole? Coloring household appliances in avocado green enamel paint was unfair to avocados.
Avacado, burgundy, wood paneling, and shag carpeting! That said, from a naval perspective the 70's gave us some great ship and aircraft classes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl8OxM512E4
Ideal SCOTUS is all Clarence, all day, all year!
If dei is slain at colleges they must still fight legacies (nepotism) and affordability (need merit based scholarships) to allow real opportunities for deserving students.
Still have the problem of Marxist professors but smart students can overcome that
James: Yes, but, what are "deserving students"? I submit that it is not the business of highly selective universities to admit students based on which ones "deserve" admission, but on which ones meet or exceed certain objective standards, and also show extraordinary promise. Life is competitive. Also, legacies (as in legacy students) are not necessarily a bad thing. The problem arises when the legacy is not up-to-par, intellectually, but still gets admitted, due to nepotism. I went to college with many legacies (I was not one). Those that I knew, personally, turned out to be accomplished and highly successful in their own right.
Amen. Real life is competitive. Every kid needs this drilled into their skulls full of mush until they understand that. Home should be a kid’s only sure “safe space”, where love and understanding, with appropriate touches of reality and firmness, should be the order of the day. Yesterday I applauded our daughter for the way she and our son-in-law are raising their five, verbally nominating her for Mother of the Year. She laughed, saying that her youngest would challenge that nomination on that particular day. In my eyes, that means she is doing things right.
Time to end tenure.
Traditionally, letting in the Legacies who can pay is what allows financing the scholarships for students who merit them. We need to get government completely out of student loans, although Defense can offer some scholarships with a payback (i.e. ROTC).
For the most part, scholarships should be for those good enough in a real field to have a reasonable expectation of performing (making money) at it.
A lot of people go to college today who should not. They are wasting their time and our money.
Charles Murray (of "The Bell Curve" infamy) addresses your point on the vast expansion of the college-bound (but nowhere near college-capable) over the last half-century. His 2008 "Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality" is a must read, especially Chapter 2. (The book is freely available online in PDF format).
Murray's Four Truths are:
1. Ability varies.
2. Half of the children are below average.
3. Too many people are going to college.
4. America’s future depends on how we educate the academically gifted.
Thanks; I'll look for it:) Mike Rowe and Victor Davis Hanson discussed this a bit on their recent pod cast as well
Thank you for reminding me about that video. I've saved it, but it got lost in the pile—too few hours in the day.
Mike Rowe is always worth listening to.
The power of "the light of day" cannot be denied. "Didn't Earn It" is in retreat in most areas...at the moment. However, personnel is policy, especially in DoD. If the election goes the wrong way, the personnel won't change, and neither will the policy(s) regarding DEI and other readiness destroying directives from on high. Pass / fail / life / death career fields such as pilots, combat arms leaders, and surgeons MUST be selected on merit vice a quota of immutable characteristics that put qualification at the bottom of the selection criteria list (if it is considered at all). BIG election, VERY BIG.
Aviation Sceptic: To put it in an evolutionary perspective, in the wild, DEI is not a survival trait. Any exceptions are due to chance and the ability of people to deceive themselves or others.
I heartily approve of your photo today - as USS Decatur (DDG 73) was commissioned on this day in 1998.
V/r CO #7
I'm surprised at you, Sal. You're declaring victory before the battles have even been fought. We're only slightly behind Europe, Canada, and Australia/NZ in their headlong flight into social engineering and government control of culture and citizens' allowed responses to the globalist imperative.
You must be new here.
I don't entirely disagree with his comment. How many times have I commented that we're about 20 years behind the RN?
Publication of The Bell Curve, back in the 1990s, caused outrage among some special interest minority groups because - to the extent its collected peer research might be heeded and acted upon - the rice bowls of these groups would be overturned and emptied. In academica, it was darkly rumored that, if any participating scientific individual sought to add to such research in a peer reviewed manner, their private bits would atrophy and fall off, and their paycheck would cease, no more grants from the scientific power structure would appear in their faculty mail box. I remember, from reading that book, among much other data and analysis, there were IQ bell curves for various prominent flavors of population groups. the IQ profiles of each group - expressed by these bell cuves - were ranked and the list - starting with the highest IQ and descending - was as follows: Asian, Jewish, Anglo (including latin), and black. I is encouraging to see, by your column today, that the asians are now getting a fair shake at Harvard.
Have it on my book shelf. Hardback, 1st edition, no dust cover. While at the time the critics were focusing on the inequality component, the authors were really trying to warn us of the downstream effects. From one of the authors 1995 op/ed: https://www.commentary.org/articles/charles-murray/the-bell-curve-and-its-critics/
"It is a book about events at the two ends of the distribution of intelligence that are profoundly affecting American life. At one extreme, transformations in higher education, occupations, and federal power are creating a cognitive elite of growing wealth and influence. At the other extreme, transformations in occupations and social norms are creating a cognitive underclass."
And here we are in 2024. Now we are to the point that are own underclass is insufficient for the elites. We must allow the world's underclasses to cross our borders unimpaired.
CLOSE WITH, ENGAGE, DESTROY.
Excellent article. Encouraging, but of course the zampolits still lurk. Good to see Reuben James saving Decatur--courage indeed!!
I thought Decatur had been canceled.
Not on my watch!
Diversity means pigeonholing people into categories and setting them up against each other.
Equity means payback not equality.
You aren’t included.
Harvard hasn't quite learned yet.
http://www.thedp.com/article/2024/08/former-penn-president-liz-magill-fall-plans
There is a statue in DC - i forget which one - inscribed with the phrase “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”
Our side fell asleep in the 90s following three massive election victories in 1980, 1984 and 1988.
We thought history has come to an end with fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the implosion of the USSR.
Meanwhile the Left retreated and regrouped and came up with a new act with Clinton, Obama and Biden. Not just here but in the UK, too with “New Labour.”
If we ever do regain our country - and I am not as optimistic as Sal - let’s make sure we keep it.
No more Bushes or Paul Ryan or Arlen Spector or Chris Christie….etc.
In hindsight, UniParty has been in charge since Reagan was shot. He did some good, and especially working with Thatcher helped put an end to the Soviet Union, but otherwise the plan was Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton-Bush from '84 to the end of Jeb's second term in a few months. I don't know if Chelsea was ever envisioned, but Obama jumped further Left too fast after spanking Hillary, throwing a wrench in the works for all of them
That quote was put in the Captain's Standing Night Orders by the commissioning Captain of my FFG. It stayed there for the 4 years I served aboard under 3 Captains. If we were only allowed 1 mantra, that'd be a good one.
https://www.archives.gov/about/speeches/2022/eternal-vigilance
"Guardianship" at the National Archives.
Ford Motor Company today announced the effective termination of its DEI programs.
I'll believe that when I see the discrimination lawsuits commence, be summarily thrown out of court, and the plaintiffs assessed the full legal costs of the defense.
In the meantime, here's the Ford Motor Company's current (as of 2pm EDT 8/29/24) stance on DEI: https://corporate.ford.com/careers/inclusive-hiring/diversity.html
the public and overt termination of its DEI programs is potentially a legal strategy.
Did the existing DEI staff just change job titles, stay employed and continue the same messaging?
numerous colleges have responded to Regents with the same flim flam
The retelling of the stats is both slanted and confusing. Let's look at it holistically.
In the base period, By comparison, the past four years of incoming freshmen were a combined 13% Black, 2% American Indian/Alaskan Native, 15% Hispanic and 1% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. The previous four classes were 41% Asian American and 38% white.
So the majority (whites and Asians amounted to 79%. Checks his paper, that means the minorities are maybe 21% to 31% due to double counting.
Whereas after the changes: This year's freshman class at MIT is 5% Black, 1% American Indian/Alaskan Native, 11% Hispanic and 0% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. It is 47% Asian American and 37% white. (Some students identified as more than one racial group).
majority 84%, while minorities would be 16-17% depending on how you count.
The MSM outragers speak of a drop from 31% to 16%, whereas counting it otherwise yields 21% dropping to 16%
Most significantly they cherry pick two different ways to do the math to yield the biggest outrage. In the base, they add the minorities directly yielding 31%, but in the new period, they add the majority at 84% and impute the minorities as 16%
Asians are a minority group in the US. Whereas most Hispanics are mostly whites in a specific language group.
Where exactly do these masses of white Hispanics come from? Spain?
The vast majority of Central and South American countries are comprised of various mixes of the descendants of European whites, indigenous peoples (Amerindians), and African blacks.
https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2021/11/04/measuring-the-racial-identity-of-latinos/
Absurd. Check the polling methodology, race is self-selected by the respondents from among White, Black, Asian, or "Other". And the vast majority of these "Hispanics" say they can be identified by SIGHT alone as "Hispanics." Oh, really? I guess it could be some kind of badge they all wear, the low-rider cars they all drive, or the boss tats they all sport...
Next time, take a swab—DNA don't lie.
I’m not saying it makes sense. It’s just our style now.
I got in trouble with the census folks once for saying my wife was Asian. She an Arab-American and Lebanon is assuredly in Asia.
I guess immigrants from Spain are a minority.
I'm not big on "style"—rationality, science, data, and reality are more my kind of thing. Plus, I don't care much about getting in trouble...with anyone.
Accordingly, you seem to have a tendency to skim the surface of things without going deeper to understand their significance or veracity. Like the Ford "announcement" and your interpretation that it ended the company's support of DEI. I posted the company's website page which directly contradicts your assertion, and a deeper reading of the Ford CEO's actual "policy change" (to which you failed to provide a link, see below) shows it to be window-dressing of the typical variety meant to fool the naive and unwary—looks like it worked.
(Link: https://apnews.com/article/ford-diversity-inclusion-policy-changes-87b6699276dd940ea7d045ef845c45e4 ) AP but it'll do to give the sense of this sham "announcement."
In Argentina, more than a few are German, Brit or Italian
Yes (mostly Spanish and Italian, I believe), though for a shorter time than you might think. Like other countries with significant European-descended populations, Argentina is undergoing rapid demographic transition and shows the inverted population pyramid typical of such decline. Older and even reproductive-age Europeans are rapidly dwindling in number compared with more fecund native, African, and other immigrant populations mostly from nearby countries. National TFR is 1.39 (2022) whereas replacement level is approx. 2.1. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Argentina
Note as well that national demographic data can obscure, though rarely completely hide, the reality on the ground. Immigrants, for example, are MUCH more likely to settle among areas of earlier immigrants in large and mid-sized metropolitan areas rather than assimilate with natives in small towns, villages, and rural areas. This "clumping" effect magnifies the impact immigrant populations have on a country, such as Sweden where Malmo and areas of Stockholm have very substantial foreign-born populations (first- and second-generation) while the overall number of immigrants relative to native Swedes countrywide is fairly low. The same effect can be seen in Ireland, the major cities in England, and the outer suburbs (banlieues) of major French cities.
Where immigrants make up substantial numbers in various Western jurisdictions, they also quickly achieve local political power and representation for their group in more powerful bodies due to the nature of democratic political practices (at least for the present). Consider the political heft of Arab-Americans in Michigan and Minnesota and their influence on Americans' thinking about (and political positioning on) the Israeli-Hamas War.
Unless you are a hispanic jew like Supreme Court Justice Cardoza, in which case you are a jew first and only and your geographical heritage and familial language matters not to those deciding what puts the "H" in hispanic.
Are American Whites a monolithic bloc? I don't think so. I am mostly Welsh-American, and know Irish-, Italian-, Danish-, German-Americans, Cajuns, Okies, Goobers, Rednecks, Lon Gislanders, Texans, Ozarkers, Crackers, etc. Groups with a superiorizing self-identity tend to be clannish and exclusionary. We don't want to be call a sub-set. Call us a minority. Where are our set-asides as genuine minorities?
It’s hard to know exactly what changed because of the mixed race identifiers. It would probably make more sense to have a one to one relationship where mixed race applicants just get assigned the darkest skin color they claim and it all adds up to 100%, but they don’t give us that.
Also, MIT has always been known as one of the least affirmative action ivies because it’s STEM forward rather than humanities/law/finance forward. STEM has so much less room for incompetence than squishier fields.
I'm a farmer so a regular visitor to Tractor Supply by necessity only because it's a one-hour drive to a better store, Agri-Supply. My local store was a constant frustration with things like losing titles to machinery, always out of items like oil and grease, plus rude and neglectful employees including the two who had a loud and angry argument in front of customers. I had no idea the root cause was the parent company's DEI policy putting incompetent people in charge. In the last few weeks i have noticed a change at the store - employees willing to help, and the grease and oil racks are finally fully stocked.
Maybe corporate leaders across the country took a lesson from the Bud Light debacle and realized that Bud is never going to get that market share back. So perhaps they decided to serve their customers and move product in lieu of buying into trendy ideas. We can only hope.
Milton Friedman is a saint.
"Feel that? That is the wind at our backs. More. Faster.
There will be setbacks, a few defeats, some incomplete victories—but the tide has turned…maybe."
An excellent point worth remembering and a perfect way to close the article.
The first sign of victory (or even avoidance of defeat) is not the time to let up on the throttle.
Midway is often referred to as the turning point of the Pacific War, but I tend to think of Midway and Guadalcanal as bookends on the turning point. Midway was, to misquote Churchill, not the beginning of the end but perhaps the end of the beginning, while Guadalcanal (and possibly the larger Solomons campaign) was certainly the beginning of the end.
Students v. Stanford may turn out to be the Midway of our DEI culture wars, having stopped the onrushing slide, but there is more work to be done. Even should the explicit DEI hiring, teaching, and marketing practices have reached their high water mark and begun to ebb, there is every reason to believe they will simply be driven underground, with the true believers continuing to hire and inculcate but without crowing of their successes.
We have to KEEP PUSHING BACK until the 14th Amendment is a reality, not a crutch.