Another brave liberal—or is she?
Liberal law professor Lara Bazelon has defended the new guidelines for dealing with charges of sexual offenses under Title IX at universities. The headline of her NY Times opinion piece reads “I’m a Democrat and a Feminist. And I Support Betsy DeVos’s Title IX Reforms,” which sounds as though it puts Bazelon in the same camp as Alan Dershowitz—a liberal Democrat who is bravely willing to go on record as not toeing the party line.
That such a stance is now worthy of special note is a sad thing, but that’s the way it is.
Here’s an excerpt from what Bazelon has written:
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s proposed regulations overhauling how colleges handle sexual assault, which may become law in January, are far from perfect. But there is a big reason to support them: I’m a feminist and a Democrat, and as a lawyer I have seen the troubling racial dynamics at play under the current Title IX system and the lack of due process for the accused. Ms. DeVos’s proposals take important steps to fix these problems.
So which is it, Ms. Bazelon: are DeVos’s directives correct because they protect the innocent in general, or are they correct because they protect innocent black men, who are accused in greater numbers than innocent white men?
Bazelon goes on to describe a case defended by a pro bono clinic she runs that represents “low-income students of color in California who face expulsion based on allegations of sexual assault.”. The case involved a presumably false accusation against a black student.
Her clinic is a laudable project. But what about low-income white students who are similarly accused? Are they not worthy of legal representation as well?
Bazelon goes on to describe why the DeVos standards would protect the falsely accused from the problems inherent in the Obama administration’s previous directives on the subject. All well and good; I’m very much in favor of the DeVos reforms, and have been writing about the unfairness of Obama’s system for years. But Bazelon seems to be saying that Obama’s system is a problem because of the racial disparities rather than because it is inherently unfair to the accused of any race:
The Office of Civil Rights does not collect data on race in Title IX cases, but the little we know is disturbing: An analysis of assault accusations at Colgate, for example, found that while only 4.2 percent of the college’s students were black in the 2012-13 school year, 50 percent of the sexual-violation accusations reported to the school were against black students, and blacks made up 40 percent of the students who went through the formal disciplinary process.
Bazelon adds:
I know my allies on the left will criticize my position, but we cannot allow our political divisions to blind us to the fact that we are taking away students’ ability to get an education without a semblance of due process. What kind of lesson is that?
It’s the kind of lesson the feminist left has been teaching for quite some time. It seems that the only reason that Bazelon is noticing this now is because black students have been disproportionately hurt by it.
Or perhaps she wrote her opinion piece with that emphasis because she thinks the racial angle is the only thing that might buy her some dispensation from the criticism of her peers. If she supports DeVos and Trump’s proposals, but only in the service of helping falsely accused young black men, would that give her a pass among her fellow liberals?
And yet Democrats claim to still be puzzled why they continue to lose the white demographic.
Bazelon wrote an earlier piece about Title IX in September 2017 that was published in Politico, and in that piece, the emphasis is on the lack of due process for all, not just black students.
The NY Times obviously needed a different angle.
Diversity or color judgment (e.g. racism, sexism) persists as a politically congruent construct for Democrats.
Bazelon states, “An analysis of assault accusations at Colgate, for example, found that while only 4.2 percent of the college’s students were black in the 2012-13 school year, 50 percent of the sexual-violation accusations reported to the school were against black students, and blacks made up 40 percent of the students who went through the formal disciplinary process.”
To those who’ve been paying attention, these statistics are not surprising at all. They match quite closely the crime statistics in society at large.
“– FACT: Despite making up just 13% of the population, blacks commit around half of homicides in the United States. DOJ statistics show that between 1980 and 2008, blacks committed 52% of homicides, compared to 45% of homicides committed by whites.
More up to date FBI statistics tell a similar story. In 2013, black criminals carried out 38% of murders, compared to 31.1% for whites, again despite the fact that there are five times more white people in the U.S.
– FACT: From 2011 to 2013, 38.5 per cent of people arrested for murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault were black. This figure is three times higher than the 13% black population figure.
When you account for the fact that black males aged 15-34, who account for around 3% of the population, are responsible for the vast majority of these crimes, the figures are even more staggering.“
That does match up quite closely with Colgate’s rape statistics does it not?
BTW, here’s another related factoid;
“– FACT: Despite the fact that black people commit an equal or greater number of violent crimes than whites, whites are almost TWICE as likely to be killed by police officers.”
Moral savages are incapable of concealing their barbarism. For every Thomas Sowell or Clarence Thomas you have thousands of Bill Cosbys pretending to be nice guys.
Politico, as usual, adopts the left’s position automatically. Trump bragged that he did NOT have to assault anyone as they would let him do it because he was famous. Whether he actually acted on that boast is unknown. The two women who got blackmail paid off have no evidence that I have seen.
I have talked to my son, whose son, my only grandson, will be 18 in 4 years. I have reservations about him going to a four year college at age 18. He might do better with an enlistment in the Marine Corps. College is not safe for boys now.
His father is the only one of my five kids without a college degree. He also has the nicest house. In fact, he is the only one right now who owns his house. His sister sold her condo.
To those who’ve been paying attention, these statistics are not surprising at all. They match quite closely the crime statistics in society at large.
I disagree a bit here. I think we are seeing an example of sexual experimentation by females in college where they get encouragement for this sort of thing. A significant number of them have sex with black males for whatever reason and regret it. The number of accusations of sexual abuse is about 500% of the actual cases of that.
My youngest daughter, who graduated about 8 years ago, had dated a black football player at U of Arizona and was astonished one day to see him on TV being accused of sexual assault. She said he had been a perfect gentleman.
Moral savages are incapable of concealing their barbarism. For every Thomas Sowell or Clarence Thomas you have thousands of Bill Cosbys pretending to be nice guys.
You’re a fantasist, and a vicious one.
Because DeVos is a member of the Trump administration—and therefore, a surrogate for the man who famously bragged about sexually assaulting women—
Of course, he did nothing of the kind. Liberal discourse is valueless.
But Bazelon seems to be saying that Obama’s system is a problem because of the racial disparities rather than because it is inherently unfair to the accused of any race
You’re assuming that liberals believe in impersonal process in fact-finding and in determination of law. Actually, the law is a venue for gamesmanship by which the enemy is assaulted with the veneer of process. Process is necessary for conning the rubes. ‘Consquences’ are only supposed to be applied to class-enemies. If you want to know who they are, have a gander at who the perps are in television detective serials.
I disagree a bit here.
I should hope so, since he just said 99.9% of black men are rapists.
In that linked Politico piece, Bazelon doesn’t even mention race. It’s all due process, period.
Trump: “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it, you can do anything … grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
Sounds to me like a very close cousin to assault, if nothing else — that not even waiting, the grabbing.
I think Neo’s last paragraph and Ann’s comment capture the essence of the racial angle. One can be a little politically incorrect in Politico, but not the NYTimes if one wants to keep his or her job at a liberal university.
Sounds to me like a very close cousin to assault, if nothing else — that not even waiting, the grabbing.
If I said “I’m going too kill you, ” would you die? There is a lot of confusion in this age of the internet between talk and reality. The tape was saved and brought out at just the right time for the permanent bureaucracy to defeat this threat to their rice bowls. It didn’t work. The two women who are attempting blackmail have no evidence.
I am old enough to recall, “Sticks and Stones may break my bones…”
Maybe we can look at Ms. Bazelon’s NYT article with its racial slant as simply doing what’s necessary to sweeten the pot to get to the goal of having a certain set of progressives back her position on this particular issue – doing the right thing for the not-quite-so-right reasons. Salesmanship, in other words. Certain people need to hear certain things in order to bite. I’m willing to look at it in that light, anyway.
http://www.lagriffedulion.f2s.com/prison.htm
La Griffe du Lion lays out the counter-intuitive math of crime and race and more.
It’s an eye opener.
Disparate impact is most severe in extremely liberal jurisdictions.
Are they not worthy of legal representation as well?
They are an unprotected class, and so the answer is NO
They are also unable to participate in the SBA 8A program or perks
oh, and it doesn’t matter if they are tall or short, or poor or what, unprotected class is an unprotected class… it DOES matter if they are Jewish, or they are homosexual, then they get a pass and are part of a protected other class…
A protected group or protected class is a group of people qualified for special protection by a law, policy, or similar authority. In the United States, the term is frequently used in connection with employees and employment.
Often this protection is perks and advantages against the unprotected class
Soooo certain groups get money, SAT points, entry advantages, now hiring firing… lots of benefits and programs worth literally billions (which when they say X is the fasted growing area of small business, they dont point out what they are given or advantages they have like the extra bid database 5×5)
from a law site
this is why they are going to use the new term majority minority or stuff like that – otherwise, the target might drop in population and think they could be legal to get the benefits and help!!
they are now not getting raises, being replaced in stem, medicine and more..
and they cant complain… can they? Chinese can barely complain like Harvard and in California..
REMEMBER: the only way to raise diversity without increasing population, is to replace the one group that lowers diversity by existing!!!!!!!
“White males are an undesirable classification currently in environments seeking the managed utopia of balance and ‘diversity.’” – White man, computer worker, 52
“Today the white male is the enemy. I’ve seen too many qualified white males passed over for promotions or advancement in favor of a woman and/or minority. Qualifications don’t matter these days, rather your gender and race matter.” – White man, engineer, 47
no promotion for me in 15 years and they just fired everyone who wasnt a protected class leaving none… was stuck in a 57inch by 47inch office that was over 90 degrees, and tons of stuff… oh, before you say i am not a decent worker, have gotten customer service awards, and this year got another…
De Blasio Sees Too Many Asians
Wall Street Journal
and here comes the death of my alma matter, bronx science…
Challengers of Affirmative Action Have a New Target: New York City’s Elite High Schools
The controversy surrounding Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to integrate the city’s specialized high schools just intensified.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/14/nyregion/affirmative-action-lawsuit-nyc-high-schools.html
[i went to school living in the neighborhood which today is mostly black and hispanic, so i studied and worked real hard to get out early, and did… ]
Advocates allege NYC school plan discriminates against Asian Americans
A lawsuit asks a federal judge to stop a plan designed to diversify New York City’s elite high schools.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/parents-allege-plan-diversify-new-york-s-top-high-schools-n948726
All these improvements were brought to you by the (Communist) Feminist movement and their collective
– FACT: Despite making up just 13% of the population, blacks commit around half of homicides in the United States. DOJ statistics show that between 1980 and 2008, blacks committed 52% of homicides, compared to 45% of homicides committed by whites.
no. because after blacks in the FBI database, Spanish comes next (but they mish mosh numbers now thats an ethnicity, not a race), then white. (and they never discuss multiple perps on one crime in the debates)
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/tables/table-43
if you look.. races are black, white, asian, pacific islander, amer indian
but spanish is an ethnicity of white.. well tell that to la raza and the spanish!
kind of does what UK does when they put pakistani in the same category as han chinese…
Despite making up just 13% of the population, blacks commit around half of homicides in the United States.
The college student blacks are a different subset and should not be merged with the hopeless uneducated inner city underclass. That is not to say that there are not thuggish black athletes among them but there are several subgroups. Non athlete black college students are not the same as inner city gangbangers.
How appropriate would it be for a major publicly held American company to hire a person with a history of having publicly made the following statements and many others like them? (In the interest of brevity, I shall list only four.)
“The world could get by just fine with zero black people.”
“It’s kind of sick how much joy I get out of being cruel to old black men.” “Dumbass f—ing black people marking up the internet with their opinions like dogs pissing on fire hydrants.”
“Are black people genetically predisposed to burn faster in the sun, thus logically only being fit to live underground like groveling bilious goblins?”
Most Americans would see such statements as racist, but consider this: Suppose we slightly changed the wording of each statement, replacing the word “black” with “white.” For example, “The world could get by just fine with zero white people.” Would you consider that statement to be just as racist? I would hope you’d answer in the affirmative. They’re all racist statements!
Acceptable Racism – Walter E. Williams
https://patriotpost.us/opinion/59927
and
Racism, Revised By: William Voegeli
https://www.claremont.org/crb/article/racism-revised/
[way too long to even think of exerpting]
MIke K — your supposition doesn’t really quite hold.
The typical (college) crime is a crime of passion… and typically associated with drugs and or alcohol.
Hence the endless stream of date-rape tales.
In these situations the overwhelming fraction of the accused are NAM.
( Non-Asian Minorities)
This stat is so un-PC that the author cited by neo was motivated to bleat.
BTW, FBI stats — year after year — show virtually ZERO White on Black rapes.
The reverse is as common as dog-bites-man.
The college student blacks are a different subset and should not be merged with the hopeless uneducated inner city underclass. That is not to say that there are not thuggish black athletes among them but there are several subgroups. Non athlete black college students are not the same as inner city gangbangers.
Mike K: True, but college student whites are a different subset from the white underclass as well.
If we are going to compare apples and apples, I would bet that the criminal statistics for black college students vs white college students are just as lopsided as for blacks vs whites in the US general population.
It wouldn’t surprise me if 4.2% of blacks at Colgate were reasonably responsible for “50 percent of the sexual-violation accusations” because of that imbalance, not because those making such accusations and the authorities hearing them are inherently racist.
It would be interesting to see some real numbers in this regard, but I would also bet such statistics are very hard, if not impossible, to find.
blert:
There are plenty of accused men in college who are white. There is definitely a disproportionate number of blacks, however, but where we do have statistics on race, black men are still not the “overwhelming fraction.” See this article for a discussion of the lack of statistics and a discussion of the few statistics we do have.
http://www.lagriffedulion.f2s.com/discipline.htm
La Griffe du Lion covered the skew in socialization, too.
It’s a study that practically clones itself to college level naughtiness.
At the level of ‘bad’ covered by the cited author — one is dealing with socialization.
From neo’s “Atlantic” link:
Since there are no national statistics on how many young men of any given race are the subject of campus-sexual-assault complaints, we are left with anecdotes about men of color being accused and punished.
….
Black men make up only about 6 percent of college undergraduates. They are vastly overrepresented in the cases I’ve tracked.
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/09/the-question-of-race-in-campus-sexual-assault-cases/539361/
That said, the author goes on to suggest “it certainly seems possible that unconscious biases might tip some women toward viewing a regretted encounter with a man of a different race as an assault.”
She (the author, Emily Yoffe) fails to consider the possibility that bias might tip women towards letting off black men, while being tougher on white men, given the intersectional imperatives of college campuses these days.
—————
Cool. Comment re-edit likes me now.
Mike K on December 18, 2018 at 5:44 pm at 5:44 pm said:
I have talked to my son, whose son, my only grandson, will be 18 in 4 years. I have reservations about him going to a four year college at age 18. He might do better with an enlistment in the Marine Corps. College is not safe for boys now.
* * *
Depending on how rigorous the Corps is about due process, it might not be safe for them either.
If they are investigating complaints correctly, then it isn’t safe for girls.
https://www.stripes.com/news/military-s-dubious-stats-on-false-sex-assault-cases-cloud-prosecutions-debate-1.241057
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2018/04/30/dod-marines-had-highest-increase-in-reports-of-sexual-assaults/
AesopFan, I don’t disagree on the same culture infecting the military but, until this fall, I was interviewing and examining military applicants to all branches.
I was favorably Impressed with the kids joining the military. They are selected for physical and mental attributes. The Air Force seems to go for smarts the most. The Coast Guard has the strictest standards. The Marines are the only service in which the recruiter gets no credit unless the recruiter completes basic training.
I am very concerned with what is going on in military academies, which is a result, in my opinion, of the “diversity” impulse on the part of those nominating candidates.
However, during my time on the West Point faculty (2006-2009 and again from 2013-2017), I personally witnessed a series of fundamental changes at West Point that have eroded it to the point where I question whether the institution should even remain open. The recent coverage of 2LT Spenser Rapone – an avowed Communist and sworn enemy of the United States – dramatically highlighted this disturbing trend. Given my recent tenure on the West Point faculty and my direct interactions with Rapone, his “mentors,” and with the Academy’s leadership, I believe I can shed light on how someone like Rapone could possibly graduate.
First and foremost, standards at West Point are nonexistent. They exist on paper, but nowhere else.
I was an EM in the Air Force and shudder to think of what these officers can do to the military. Maybe it is just West Point but I wonder.
Sounds to me like a very close cousin to assault, if nothing else — that not even waiting, the grabbing.
Personally, Ann, I’m rather fastidious and always was. Someone once said God was merciful to Evelyn Waugh by taking him just before it got to be a common practice to shake hands with strangers at Mass. I’m of a similar kidney. It’s hard for me in a crowd of Italians.
That having been said, I’ll say If you fancy ordinary para-sexual encounters, which do include men and women putting their hands on parts of the anatomy that are ordinarily off limits, can or should be suffused with verbal trigger warnings, you must have had a superlatively dull youth. And if you fancy each and every initiative must be undertaken by a female in such encounters, you’re extremely abnormal and have no clue what ordinary women actually expect from men in such situations.
Forty-odd years ago, we called a man who got ahead of a woman’s signals ‘fresh’ or ‘a masher’. It wasn’t considered a matter for criminal prosecution then, because borderline cases and attorneys making money from borderline cases didn’t have much influence.
I certainly hope your (male) contemporaries have the sense to stay the hell away from you.
It wouldn’t surprise me if 4.2% of blacks at Colgate were reasonably responsible for “50 percent of the sexual-violation accusations” because of that imbalance, not because those making such accusations and the authorities hearing them are inherently racist.
FWIW in this discussion (and you shouldn’t give much weight to purported personal knowledge of someone posting under a pseudonym), It would surprise my kith and kin. We know that campus and the black students there aren’t obtrusive. I think most of them are having academic problems to a degree that’s abnormal among the remainder of the student body because they were given a place by the admissions office but their test scores and high-school grades say they’d be a better fit for the state colleges in Central New York. That having been said, the departments at Colgate with the largest population of majors (political science, English, economics, and history – the school has no vocational majors) are also the departments with the largest population of black majors, and almost no one there majors in one of the victimology programs.
am very concerned with what is going on in military academies, which is a result, in my opinion, of the “diversity” impulse on the part of those nominating candidates.
From his description, it sounded to me like the problem developed during the Bush years when the military was having recruiting problems and then continued during the Obama years consequent to signals from above. No question BO and his minions wanted to use the military as a toy theatre for social engineering projects, and do not value the institution or its conventional ethos.
Two years old but still good information on crime.
https://www.amren.com/the-color-of-crime/
From his description, it sounded to me like the problem developed during the Bush years when the military was having recruiting problems and then continued during the Obama years consequent to signals from above.
A lot of this, I suspect, is the feminist, affirmative action lobby at work. Remember, the cadets are nominated by Congress critters. The abusers seem, from his account, to be those very individuals who are benefitted by the culture war.
I wonder about the Navy but the circumstances of the Fitzgerald collision are being concealed.
Not until a year later, when the final reports are made public and the guilty parties have been court-martialed, does the truth come out. The OOD was named Sarah, and the Tactical Action Officer was named Natalie, and they weren’t speaking to each other!!! The Tactical Action Officer would normally be in near constant communication with the OOD, but there is no record of any communication between them that entire shift!
Another fun fact: In the Navy that won WWII, the damage control officers were usually some of the biggest and strongest men aboard, able to close hatches, shore up damaged areas with timbers, etc. The Fitz’s damage control officer was also a woman, and she never left the bridge. She handled the aftermath of the accident remotely, without lifting a finger herself!
That suggests the rot is not just the Army. The Air Force is not much better when the Susan Helms case is considered.
She was really forced out by Senator McCaskill, but the circumstances are evidence of rot in the USAF, too.
She refused to see an officer dishonorably discharged over a disputed accusation of sexual assault. There were two witnesses, a couple, who disputed the accuser’s account but, even so, an overzealous AG was going to dishonorably discharge an officer. She changed the decision to allow him to resign and it cost her her career.
WaPo of course sides with McCaskill.
Court records show that Helms — who is not a judge and did not observe the trial — ignored a recommendation from her legal adviser to uphold the jury’s conviction. The general intervened to grant clemency before an appellate court could hear the case.
Sounds to me like a very close cousin to assault, if nothing else — that not even waiting, the grabbing. –Ann
It probably sounded good when he said it. He forgot he always has to wash with an antimicrobial before he touches anything, and after. So many great moments slip away in that fashion.
You’re a fantasist, and a vicious one.
…since he just said 99.9% of black men are rapists.
I certainly hope your (male) contemporaries have the sense to stay the hell away from you.
Have some gin with your bitters, Deco Mart.
Mike K on December 19, 2018 at 8:45 am at 8:45 am said:
AesopFan, I don’t disagree on the same culture infecting the military but, until this fall, I was interviewing and examining military applicants to all branches.
* * *
Thanks for your “inside information.”
I had read that article, but have always thought the service academies were a mixed bag on turning out officers.
Personally, I would require all officer candidates to go through the ranks and THEN go to a “finishing” academy before commissioning.
A fun story about the past “discipline” — and before you try the recipe, remember that raw eggs will kill you (the Food Police said so), although maybe the alcohol kills all the germs.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-great-west-point-eggnog-riot?source=email&via=desktop
Ann:
I guess you would have found it more palatable if Trump had made the same comment, but as cool as Henry Kissinger did: “Power is the greatest aphrodisiac.”
Mike K:
The Israel Defence Force has no military academy, or ROTC, for that matter. All officers come from the ranks; at the end of their mandatory service, if they apply and are evaluated as qualified, they contract to serve longer and go to OCS.
Ann – if it works for the IDF, I’m good with it.
Problem is, our services are huge compared to Israel’s, and thus there is a lot more overhead in getting people into OCS.
Just guessing without looking it up specifically (gotta get more packages wrapped!), but when the service academies were founded, they were probably a necessary addition to the non-military colleges & universities, many of which were founded and run as explicitly Christian liberal arts institutions which could not be expected to ground the officer corps in their necessary martial disciplines.
Now, they still should be different from the secular colleges (no longer liberal nor Christian) for the same reason, but the mess halls are serving way too much progressive Kool-Aid.
If we are going to compare apples and apples, I would bet that the criminal statistics for black college students vs white college students are just as lopsided as for blacks vs whites in the US general population.
There are a couple of factors to be considered here. First, a lot of black college students are not American born and raised. Second, those American born are disproportionately middle class in origin. Certainly there is the affirmative action “Mismatch” problem.
I would not be surprised to see some violence from the “black radical ”
factor like these Dartmouth losers. Still, they are disproportionately female and mostly noisy.
There certainly is a thug subculture among black athletes but I doubt the crime ratios are more than 2 or 3, not 9 to 12 as in cities including the gang culture.
My black medical students were mostly foreign born .
The military academies seem to be having the same problem as the colleges in general. The former West Point professor suggested closing it down.