NORMALLY I DON’T CELEBRATE “DEATH DAYS,” BUT …: Frederick Douglass, the great abolitionist, orator and advisor to Presidents, was born a slave and never knew his exact birthday, so his death day is the only thing we have.  It was on this day in 1895.

Among his many insightful statements:

“No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.”

“Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.”

“Everybody has asked the question, and they learned to ask it early of the abolitionists, ‘What shall we do with the Negro?’ I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us.”

He was probably 77 when he died.

IT FEELS WEIRD THAT I HAVE TO KEEP SAYING THIS, BUT I GUESS I DO, SINCE PEOPLE KEEP GETTING IT WRONG: A fairly recent report of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights asserted that schools in poor and minority neighborhoods receive less money than other schools.  As I think I showed in my dissent to the report, the truth is different: Schools at both the high and low ends tend to get more resources; it’s those in the middle that tend to get less.

One could argue that schools with low-income students need more resources than schools with middle-class students. But it would be nice to have an honest debate about that rather than one full of misinformation designed to outrage people.

DID PAT CADDELL FORESEE TRUMP’S VICTORY?:  We are in “pre-revolutionary moment,” he said in 2015.

THE AURORA, ILLINOIS SHOOTINGS: Some have complained that shooter Gary Martin should never have been able to acquire a gun given his prior conviction and numerous arrests. (His Mississippi conviction for aggravated assault evidently failed to come to light at the time he purchased his gun (i.e. an existing law failed). Interestingly, he was later denied a concealed carry permit on account of his record ….)  I’ll leave it to others to sort out the facts here.

Here’s an issue I haven’t seen discussed yet: The EEOC discourages employers from conducting criminal background checks on job applicants and requires employers to hire felons unless they can show “business necessity” for not doing so. Under the agency’s logic, the refusal to hire a felon is a form of race discrimination, since such hiring practices have a “disparate impact” on African Americans.

Many employers have been bullied, against their better judgment, into taking a chance on a job applicant with a criminal record. I don’t know whether the EEOC’s policy had anything to do with the Henry Pratt Company’s decision to hire Martin. What I do know is that the EEOC’s policy is wrongheaded. Yes, integrating ex-convicts back into the economy is important.  But there are better ways to do it than coercing employers into hiring someone they would prefer not to hire.

DON’T WORRY, THEY CAN CITE OTHER CASES FIRST: A Washington Post writer is concerned that, in the future, Smollett’s will be “the first example skeptics cite when they say we should be dubious of victims who step forward to share their experience of racist hate crimes or sexual violence.” This, she argues, will cause “irreparable damage” to the “communities most affected.”

She needn’t worry. Alas, skeptics have many examples to choose from: Tawana Brawley, the Duke lacrosse team, the University of Virginia fraternity, the Covington boys, the University of Michigan woman who claimed a man threatened to burn her hijab. Here’s another one and a few more.    Here’s a bunch more. And still more. I am sure that with minimal effort you can find others.

Somebody needs to start worrying about a different kind of “irreparable harm”–that being done to our social fabric by false accusations—especially those that aren’t found out … or those that receive huge publicity in the media until it turns out that they are false and then are quietly forgotten.

We are not a perfect country. Now and then ugly things will happen in 2019—though knock me over with a feather if they involve nooses, the KKK, or screams of “This is MAGA country.” But impressionable young people and immigrants are being convinced that Americans are far worse people than we actually are. Without a more realistic sense of the dangers of ordinary American life, we will all eventually lose our freedoms and our fortunes. Public trust is a precious thing.

THE JUSSIE SMOLLETT STORY: CNN reports the latest in the unraveling.  UPDATE:  Here’s the Daily Mail story.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Kurt Schlichter brings perspective:

OH DEAR:  OCASIO-CORTEZ THINKS NEW YORK SHOULD TAKE THE “$3 BILLION” IT WAS “WILLING TO GIVE AMAZON” AND INVEST IT IN THE LOCAL COMMUNITY.  She doesn’t realize that was money Amazon was going to bring to the area.  New York was simply agreeing not to take it away.

CORNELL STUDENTS SCANDALIZED BY 90-YEAR-OLD’S USE OF WORD “NEGRO”: This is the kind of stuff that makes me wish it were legal to spank the little brats.

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION IS CONSIDERING CUTTING BACK ON DISPARATE IMPACT LIABILITY: That’s good news. If you want to understand how Title VII got “interpreted” to prohibit disparate impact liability—despite overwhelming evidence that Congress did not intend such a result when it passed Title VII—read this amicus curiae brief. I am working on a more comprehensive article on the subject … but it’s not ready yet.

IS IT STILL THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OVER AT THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR?:  Paul Mirengoff discusses.

A WELCOME CHANGE:  Trump Administration considers action on disparate impact liability.

A FRAUD ON THE PEOPLE OF WASHINGTON STATE: In 1998, Washington voters adopted Initiative 200 (or “I-200”) by a wide margin (58%-42%). Its operative clause states, “The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting.”

These days, like California’s Proposition 209 on which it was based, I-200 is honored only its breach in some areas. But it has been reasonably effective in the area of public contracting in particular.

Now comes the effort to repeal it. Last week the Washington Secretary of State certified for the ballot an initiative (“Initiative 1000” or “I-1000”) which, if passed, will bring back race and sex preferences in public education, public employment, and public contracting. But it does so in a sneaky and fraudulent way. It retains I-200’s operative clause. It even expands it:

“The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin, age, sexual orientation, the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability, or honorably discharged veteran or military status in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.”

But it then defines “preferential treatment” this way:

“‘Preferential treatment’ means the act of using race, sex, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation, the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability, and honorably discharged veteran or military status as the sole qualifying factor to select a lesser qualified candidate over a more qualified candidate for a public education, public employment, or public contracting opportunity.”

Nobody has ever used race, sex, color, etc., as “the sole qualifying factor” for anything. If race had been the sole qualifying factor in Grutter v. Bollinger, that would have meant that every single African American gets in and no Asian or white does. It’s a ridiculous notion. The point of I-200 is that the listed factors should neither count against a person nor in his or her favor.

Another section of the proposal makes it clear that the original I-200 is being eviscerated:

“Nothing in this section prohibits the state from implementing affirmative action laws, regulations, policies, or procedures such as participation goals or outreach efforts that do not utilize quotas and that do not constitute preferential treatment as defined in this section.” 

If somebody in Washington State wants to give the people of Washington the opportunity to repeal I-200, they should be clear and upfront about it.

Here in California, Proposition 209 is responsible for increasing college GPAs, college graduation rates, and STEM degrees for African Americans.  There is no reason to believe that the same thing didn’t happen under Washington State’s I-200.  It needs to be more more strongly enforced rather than repealed.

THE PROPOSED EMPLOYMENT NONDISCRIMINATION ACT (“ENDA”) EXAMINED: ENDA, which is expected to receive attention in the House of Representatives this year, would make it illegal to discriminate in employment on the basis of sexual orientation (narrowly defined) or on the basis of gender identity (broadly defined). I’ve written about some problems with the bill. Even those generally sympathetic to the goal of outlawing employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation might want to consider them.

(Update: The piece linked to above doesn’t deal with the religious exemption issue.  For that, see generally here.)

WHY DON’T WOMEN LIKE NICE GUYS?: Yale women demand admission to fraternities that they allege sexually harassed them.

GLENN LOURY, JASON RILEY, MICHAEL FORTNER & OTHERS: Black scholars challenge Progressive narratives in Barriers to Black Progress Forum:

“There are stories out there. And one of the stories is that [an] unrelenting, overbearing white supremacist society won’t give black people a chance,” Brown University Professor Glenn Loury said. “And I ask them, do you believe that seven in 10 black children born to a woman without a husband, that fact, is due to an unrelenting white supremacy?”

Video here.

UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA PROFESSOR SUES STATE FOR NOT INSURING TRANSGENDER SEX REASSIGNMENT SURGERY: Meanwhile, there is the story of Jamie Shupe. Just last September, Shupe was being celebrated in the New York Times as a transgender woman. A few weeks ago, however, Shupe decided to resume living and identifying as a man. Fortunately for Shupe, I don’t think he’d had any surgical interventions.

Something tells me there will be more stories like Shupe’s in the coming years. Surgical interventions will make many of the stories tragic for those who later regret their inability to have children.  Those who spend years of their lives shot up with hormones not normal for their bodies may pay a price too.

UPDATE:  Note that Jamie Shupe’s decision to resume living as a man (which I believe took some courage) is evidently not considered newsworthy in the mainstream media.  That’s predictable.

TODAY IS THE 172^nd ANNIVERSARY OF THOMAS EDISON’S BIRTH: President Reagan issued a proclamation in 1983 making Edison’s birthday Inventors’ Day and urging that it be celebrated with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

I would celebrate by thinking happy thoughts about Edison while  purchasing light bulbs on Amazon. But, alas, here in California, buying light bulbs over the internet is a very unpleasant chore. When I try to check out I find the light bulbs I chose are forbidden to residents of the Golden State.

A PEDOPHILE ON THE RESERVATION:  With commentary by Powerline’s John Hinderaker.

NEW YORK TIMES FINDS WAY TO BLAME GOP FOR VIRGINIA MESS:  “Virginia Political Crisis Grows for Democrats and Republicans.”

INVENTOR OF THE PLOW THAT BROKE THE PLAINS: On this day in 1804, John Deere was born.

IT’S THE DEMOCRATIC WAY: Georgetown students to vote on whether to tax themselves to pay slave reparations.

SEN. SHERROD BROWN RECOMMENDS: … that we all read Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow:  Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness to learn how racist our criminal justice system is.

Here’s my recommendation:  Read my essay that discusses how real racists used to ignore crime in African-American neighborhoods, because they didn’t give a d*mn.  I worry that the “debate” over criminal justice reform has become very one-sided.

SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY HIRED THE FORMER UC-DAVIS VICE CHANCELLOR FOR STUDENT AFFAIRS AND CAMPUS DIVERSITY TO BE THEIR PRESIDENT: This is what they are getting for it.

“ONE WORD: PLASTICS”: One this day in 1909, Belgian-born Leo Baekeland announced the invention of Bakelite at a meeting of the New York Section of the American Chemical Society, thus beginning the Age of Plastics. Bakelite was the first plastic to retain its shape at high temperatures. It was used for telephones, auto parts, electrical appliances and lots of colorful jewelry.

“ASSIMILATION” IS A DIRTY WORD: The outraged reaction Tom Brokaw got to his suggestion that Hispanic immigrants should work to assimilate into mainstream American culture was predictable. Alas, the federal government’s official policies have helped create our current anti-assimilationist culture. Here’s just one example.