AS CROSS-RACIAL ADOPTIONS BECOME COMMONPLACE, HANDWRINGING SEEMS TO HAVE INCREASED: We’ve come a fur piece since the 1980s, when the President of the National Association of Black Social Workers declared at a Senate hearing, “We view the placement of Black children in white homes as a hostile act against our community. It’s a blatant form of racial and cultural genocide.” Congress didn’t buy the argument. Noting that Black children had been languishing in foster care, because adoption agencies were hesitant to allow white families to adopt them, it first passed the Howard Metzenbaum Multi-Ethnic Placement Act of 1994 and then it strengthened that Act with Inter-Ethnic Placement Provisions of the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996. These statutes essentially prohibited federally funded adoption agencies from discriminating on the basis of race.

These days, cross-racial adoptions happen frequently. But I’ve started noticing more and more and still more worrying about possible downside consequences. What happens to a child when nobody in his family looks like him? Won’t it be traumatic? I guess that view is just one more sign of the times.  As race becomes less important, people worry about it more.

A generation ago they used to laugh about adoption agencies of the generation preceding, which had gone out of their way to match the hair and eye color and adopting parents and children. This was thought to be excessive. Now the worriers seem to have come full circle.   This is not to say that adopted children don’t have thoughts about their origins.  But this would be so no matter who adopts them, and the way to handle it will differ enormously from child to child.  I would put the current attention the issue is getting in the category of “first world problems.”

By the way, as recently as 2003, Randall Kennedy wrote that his experience with the National Association of Black Social Workers was that its members hadn’t changed their minds.  They did change their rhetoric.

VOLOKH CONSPIRACY TEMPORARILY BLOCKED BY NORDSTROM’S WIRELESS AS A “HATE AND RACISM” WEB SITE:  Eugene Volokh says, “The culprit was apparently the blacklist run by a company called Brightcloud; I asked [the Nordstrom media relations people] to review their categorization of our site, and within a few hours we were unblocked.”

This nevertheless gives me the willies.  Conservative and libertarian bloggers could, of course, wait until things get worse before they start to get really upset.  But by then, of course, it will be too late, since we won’t be able to communicate with anyone anymore.

EDUCATION MYTHS PERPETUATED: The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ most recent significant offering is entitled Report on Public Education Inequity in an Era of Increasing Concentration of Poverty and Resegregation. Alas, like many such reports, it perpetuates several destructive myths. For example, it suggests that school districts with high concentrations of minority or low-income students get fewer actual dollars per students than the average school district. Nope. While pockets of underfunding exist, low-income and high-minority school districts tend to get somewhat more money than the average school district on a per-pupil basis (though they get less per-pupil than some mostly-small, mega-wealthy school districts). This “fewer actual dollars per pupil” myth needs to be corrected; it gives rise to unnecessary resentments. It’s hard to have an honest and productive discussion about how schools should be funded, when people are being led to believe that things are worse than they are (and that racism is to blame). I am certainly willing to entertain the possibility that schools with high concentrations of low-income students need more money than the average school. Indeed, I’m inclined to believe it.  But I’m not willing to start from the notion that more money for schools is the primary thing that’s needed to solve the nation’s educational problems.

My Dissenting Statement to the Report on Public Education Inequity in an Era of Increasing Concentration of Poverty and Resegregation tries to deal with some of the realities of school finance. Among other things, it makes the point that the relationship between funding and student success is pretty tenuous. (E.g. Washington, D.C. schools are both the highest spenders and the lowest performers.)

I’m not sure I can fix all that’s wrong with schools today.  But I least I can point out when the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is on the wrong track.

HATE CRIMES LAWS ARE A BUST:  Robby Soave reports on what he learned at Friday’s hate crimes briefing before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.  Soave wasn’t just a journalist there; he was also a witness.  Indeed, he was the only witness in the all-day briefing who argued against these problematic laws.

ARKANSAS JUDGE ISSUES TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER AGAINST POLITICAL AD ALLEGED (BUT NOT YET PROVEN) TO BE LIBELOUS:  Uh … I thought judges weren’t supposed to do that.  More significantly, First Amendment guru Eugene Volokh agrees.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO L. FRANK BAUM (1856-1919), author of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  The poor guy never got to see the movie.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION DOESN’T QUITE CONVENE:  On this day in 1787, what became the Constitutional Convention was supposed to convene in Philadelphia.  But it didn’t.  There was no quorum yet.  Things didn’t get off the ground till May 25th.  In the meantime, there was plenty of time for food, librations and informal discussion at the Indian Queen Tavern.

GET WELL SOON, MELANIA:  In hospital.

THE CRAZY LEFT MIGHT BE SMALLER THAN IT SEEMS: For decades, the same group has been turning up over and over again–often with the same individuals and usually with the same lawyers.

Here’s what’s new this week: A Sacramento County Superior Court Judge declined to drop felony charges against a leader of the so-called “Antifa.” The individual—47-year-old Yvette Felarca–was involved in a riot between approximately 300 Antifa types and 30 Alt-Right types in Sacramento in 2016. At that event, she was caught on video punching out one of the attendees. Unlike others in positions of authority, the Sacramento District Attorney wasn’t willing to ignore it.

Felarca was the subject of a fawning blurb in Newsweek back in September.  This was during the period the media thought Antifa activists were the good guys, here to save us from the fascist right. By now, I think they’ve figured out the Antifa is at least as fascist as anything on the right—or at least I hope they have. But it shouldn’t have taken them (or anybody else) so long. Felarca is a member of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary (a Detroit/Oakland-based organization that calls itself “BAMN”). Alas, I’ve been dealing with BAMN for more than 20 years now. During the campaigns for California’s Proposition 209 in 1996, the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative in 2006 and the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative in 2010, this violent offshoot of the Revolutionary Workers League was always there, often engaged in violent and disruptive activity. We just had to work around them. Mercifully I’ve never been in physical proximity to any of them, but my colleagues in these campaigns haven’t always been so lucky.

Just one among dozens of examples of BAMN’s willingness to use “any means necessary” was its attempt to intimidate the Michigan Board of Canvassers into refusing to certify the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative for the ballot. BAMN brought in busloads of mostly-teenaged protesters who shouted down officials, chanted “They say Jim Crow, we say hell no,” jumped on chairs, and stomped their feet, flipping over a table in the process. As the director of elections of the Michigan Secretary of State put it, “Never before have I see such absolutely, incredible and unprofessional behaviors from lawyers urging this disruption.” BAMN’s co-chair and attorney saw things differently: “Our tactics win. That’s the bottom line.” (They didn’t win in that case. The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative was certified and passed by Michigan voters. BAMN even took the initiative to the Supreme Court, where in the final round, BAMN lost.)

I find some comfort in the fact that the same few people from BAMN turn up in so many places. Perhaps there really aren’t that many utter nut cases out there.

THE LEWIS & CLARK EXPEDITION: On this day in 1804, Lewis and Clark set off on their fabled expedition from Camp DuBois in Illinois.

The fame of these two adventurers has had its ups and downs. By the late 19^th century, their feat wasn’t quite so fabled anymore. But in 1904, two expositions marking the expedition’s centennial—the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis and the Lewis & Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland—revived interest in them. By mid-century they had become the rock stars of many American History books for school children.

These days the biggest star of the expedition may be Sacajawea. It seems not as many folks like white guys in buckskin they way they used to. But they’re still all rock stars to me.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): I really enjoyed Stephen Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage, about the Lewis & Clark expedition.

WRONG QUESTION, EH?: Earlier this year, by act of Parliament, the English lyrics to “O Canada” went gender neutral. The BBC now looks back and wants to know why there was so much opposition to changing the reference to “all our sons” (which was apparently intended to honor Canada’s WWI dead) to “all of us” (which isn’t).  But that’s the wrong question. The right question is why the new lyrics were changed at all, given so much opposition. The only poll I know of was taken in 2010. At that point three-quarters of Canadians opposed the change. Since when is it a good idea to annoy voters that way?

Here’s a version “O Canada” sung by WomEnchant, which bills itself as “a community ensemble with a feminist and social justice perspective.” It contains the new gender neutral language along with a few other changes.  Canada may see further demands for lyrics alterations.

THE LATE 1940s SAW A LOT OF MAJOR MOVEMENTS OF REFUGEES:  In 1945, there were almost 1 million Jews living in Arab lands.  Within just a few years, that had changed radically.  When India was partitioned, 14 million were displaced. Large centuries-old German settlements in the Soviet Union, Poland and Czechoslovakia disappeared as ethnic Germans, were expelled or deported, fled or died. Only in the case of Palestinians is the refugee issue still alive, says Jeff Jacoby.

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS:  The Logan Act seems silly to me.  But when Trump is suspected of violating it, the FBI swings into action.  When John Kerry violates it by meeting with Iranian “diplomats” in Paris , nothing happens. (And arguably he’s made it a practice of violating it since 1970).

There is a lesson that extends far beyond the Logan Act here:  When law enforcement has a lot of discretion, it gets abused.  Sometimes this occurs because a legislature passes a statute that is intended to give law enforcement discretion.   Sometimes, on the other hand, the statute’s over-breadth isn’t obvious until well after it is passed, and prosecutorial discretion evolves from there.   And sometimes the law is arguably narrow and specific, but over time law enforcement comes to view it as unwise and hence enforces it only when it suits them for other reasons (arguably the Logan Act case).   Too much discretion leads to corruption.  And if it doesn’t ALWAYS happen, it’s close enough to always for government work.

THE LEFT CONTINUES TO EAT ITS OWN: Police were called in to restore order at a legislative town hall in Arlington, Va. on Saturday. Immigration activists calling themselves “La ColectiVa” object to Virginia Delegate Alfonso Lopez (D-Arlington), because he once did a small amount of consulting work for a private company that operates detention facilities for ICE. They want him to apologize, promise never to do it again and return the money.

The officeholders at the meeting appear to have all been Democrats.

“It’s one of the most stressful meetings I’ve been in my 21 years of office,” said state Sen. Barbara Favola (D-Arlington). …

“I’ve been [in office] for 27 years and no one has fought harder for immigrants or immigrant rights than Delegate Lopez,” [state Senator Janet Howell (D-Fairfax)] said.

It’s funny how politicians expect to be loved.

In connection with my work on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, I investigated conditions at two immigration detention centers located in Texas a few years ago. I found the center run by a private company to be quite nice.   The government-run center run by the federal government was decent and conscientiously run too. I wrote about them.

I SHOULDN’T POST THIS. IT WILL ONLY FEED EVERYONE’S HYPOCHONDRIA: But after three years of having a runny nose, a woman has learned that it was not allergies. It was brain fluid.

SHOULD McCAIN RESIGN IMMEDIATELY? OR IS ONE SENATE ELECTION ON THE NOVEMBER BALLOT ENOUGH FOR ARIZONA? If he resigns before May 30, such an election would be necessary. Steve Hayward has some thoughts.

YOUR LAST WARNING:  DON’T FORGET IT’S MOTHER’S DAY TOMORROW: And in case you are wondering who the original “mother” in Mother’s Day was, it was Ann Maria Jarvis (1832-1905) (mother of Mother’s Day founder Anna Marie Jarvis). The elder Jarvis was in fact a remarkable woman. She bore at least 11 children, only four of whom survived to adulthood (although, alas, that didn’t make her remarkable for the time). For Jarvis, her losses were a call to improve health conditions in Taylor County in what is now West Virginia. She organized “Mothers’ Day Work Clubs” to raise money for medicine, care for sick mothers, inspect milk, and train women about how to deal with disease. This was before we all got used to the government doing this for us.

During the Civil War, she wanted these clubs to provide aid to fallen soldiers, no matter which side of war they had been fighting for. She is said to have provided the only prayer for the body of the first Union soldier to be killed by Confederate soldiers, Thornsbury Bailey Brown.

Weirdly, her daughter Anna regretted having been the founder of Mother’s Day. She resented any commerciality being associated with it. Printed Mother’s Day cards made her angry. She even tried to get official recognition of the day rescinded.  She failed.

THIS WEEK IN HATE:  The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is holding a hearing on hate crimes on Friday.  (Yes, of course, you’re invited.)  For the reasons I wrote about in Lights! Camera! Legislation!:  Congress Set to Adopt Hate Crimes Bill That May Put Double Jeopardy Protections in Jeopardy, I opposed the passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009.  But … well … I lost.  That happened to me a lot during the Obama Administration.

On Friday, I hope to learn more about how the statute has been implemented.  One of the things about the Act that bothers me is that is doesn’t actually require the prosecutor to prove the defendant was motivated by hatred.  It’s enough that the defendant acted “because of” somebody’s race, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.  That can cover an extraordinarily broad range of cases (as I describe in my essay).

PATRICK MORRISEY WINS GOP PRIMARY IN WEST VIRGINIA:  That means that Don Blankenship lost, which is good news for those who would like to see a viable GOP candidate go up against Joe Manchin in November.

ROBERT MORRIS MAY WELL HAVE BEEN AS INDISPENSIBLE AS GEORGE WASHINGTON: The wealthy financier and merchant signed all three of the nation’s founding documents—the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. Roger Sherman is the only other person who did so. But Morris’ real claim to fame is that he financed a major portion of the Revolution. Alas, business reversals in the 1790s landed him in debtors’ prison in 1798. He languished there over three years till Congress, in part out of sympathy for Morris in particular, passed its first bankruptcy statute in 1801. Morris never regained his health or wealth. He died on this day in history, 1806.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO FRIEDRICH HAYEK:  He would have been 119 today.

THE 27TH AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION:  There aren’t many stories about the Constitution that I would term “adorable.”  But this is one of them.  And it limited Congress’ power too.  So good-o.

ON THIS DAY IN 1711, David Hume was brought into the world via the miracle of birth.

NOBODY WANTS TO TALK PUBLICLY ABOUT MALAYSIA’S AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICY, BUT VOTERS SURE DO THINK ABOUT IT: From the Nikkei Asian Review:

For decades Malaysia has granted privileges to ethnic Malays … or Bumiputera [translation: “Sons of the Soil”], under a policy of affirmative action for the majority group that is less wealthy than the country’s ethnic Chinese minority. While this policy has created discontent …, it has largely dropped out of the political debate ahead of general elections on May 9 ….

“There is always unfairness we feel,” a 58-year-old retired ethnic Chinese man told the Nikkei Asian Review on Thursday, speaking of … affirmative action … officially known as The New Economic Policy, launched in 1970. He was attending an evening rally by the opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan, or Alliance of Hope, … which drew about 1,000 people from diverse races. Together, they called for the defeat of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s ruling coalition.

The retired man said he felt that the Chinese were treated as “second-class or third-class citizens.” … [H]e added: “We are all hoping that there will be some changes [in the Bumiputera policy].”

Malaysian politics is not as different from American politics as one might hope. Polls indicate that Americans oppose race-preferential college admissions and employment practices, and the clearer the poll questions, the more strongly they oppose such preferences.  It’s very likely this issue has contributed to the pattern of racially-polarized voting that we see today.

The kicker—as I discuss in A “Dubious Expediency”: How Race-Preferential Admissions Policies on Campus Hurt Minority Students—is that affirmative action admissions policies aren’t even good for their supposed beneficiaries. Nobody ever said public policy is rational.

GRANDPA BILL IS A HERO:  Ohio man trips fleeing gunman with his cane.  Captured on video.