Florida Pass Plan for Racially-Based Academic Goals: An Objection

Florida is an awesome state that is known for many good things. Out of nowhere, the state is beginning to get a reputation for dumbness. Accepting that students from different races should have different academic goals due to their different skin color is not only blatant racism, but also a contravention of basic human rights (Feder, 2012). One (1) millimeter under our human skins, every human being is the same and academic talent is not something that can be used to differentiate us. Despite the fact that students from other races, especially Blacks and Asians have shown a consistent poor performance in standardized tests, thinking that the problems have to do with race is just being out rightly wrong, lazy, misinformed, racist and above all, inconsiderate.

What is the essence of passing examinations? It is to secure a nice future through nice careers that are in accordance to the wish of the student in question. Blacks and Asians are a seriously demoralized lot (Dunning-Lozano, 2016). They don’t have role models to look up to since our employment systems are skewed against these races. For instance, a look at Trump’s cabinet is a confirmation of this. There is only one black person and zero Asian. Where do we want these kids to draw motivation? They are simply telling us they are aware that despite their hard work, they know they will end up somewhere in a corner coffee shop serving coffee. They therefore don’t put any effort.

The state of Florida is simply blind on this, and a blind person cannot show the way to other blind people. Other states that care about the welfare of their kids of color should not attempt replicating this law. Instead, they should seek to understand why the performance is low in some races and address it from there; not engaging in racial bigotry as suggested by Jaffe (2017).

References

Dunning-Lozano, J. L. (2016). Race and opportunity in a public alternative school. Race Ethnicity and Education, 19(2), 433-460.

Feder, J. (2012). Affirmative Action and Diversity in Public Education: Legal Developments. Congressional Research, 1-27.

Jaffe, E. F. (2017). Now Is the Time: Class-Based Affirmative Action in the 21st Century. JCR & Econ. Dev., 30, 239.