[BRIGADE] PJB: Dumbing-Down the U.S. Navy
Published: Tue, 07/07/09
by Patrick J. Buchanan
July 7, 2009
"Naval Academy Professor Challenges Rising Diversity," ran the
headline in The Washington Post.
The impression left was that some sorehead was griping because
black and Hispanic kids were finally being admitted.
The Post's opening paragraphs reinforced the impression.
"Of the 1,230 plebes who took the oath of office at the Naval
Academy in Annapolis this week, 435 were members of minority
groups. It's the most racially diverse class in the nation's
164-year history. Academy leaders say it's a top priority to build
a student body that reflects the racial makeup of the Navy and the
nation."
Who can be against diversity?
What the Post gets around to is that 22-year English professor
Bruce Fleming objects to a race-based admissions program that was
apparently used to create a class that is 35 percent minority.
According to Fleming, who once sat on the board of admissions,
white applicants must have all As and Bs and test scores of at
least 600 on the English and math parts of the SAT even to qualify
for a "slate" of 10 applicants, from which only one will be chosen.
However, if you check a box indicating you are African-American,
Hispanic, Native American or Asian, writes Fleming, "SAT scores to
the mid 500s with quite a few Cs in classes ... typically produces
a vote of 'qualified' ... with direct admission to Annapolis.
They're in and given a pro forma nomination to make it legit."
If true, the U.S. Naval Academy is running a two-tier admissions
system of the kind that kept Jennifer Gratz out of the University
of Michigan and was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
"Minority applicants with scores and grades down to the 300s and Cs
and Ds also come, though after a year at our taxpayer-supported
remedial school, the Naval Academy Preparatory School."
If true, this is a national disgrace. It would represent a U.S.
Naval Academy policy of systematic race discrimination, every year,
against hundreds of white kids who worked and studied their entire
lives for the honor of being appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy
and becoming career officers in the Navy or Marine Corps.
If true, what Annapolis has done and is doing is worse -- because
it is premeditated and programmed racism -- than the cowardly act
of the New Haven city government in denying Frank Ricci and the
white firefighters the promotions they had won in a competitive
exam. At least New Haven could say it acted out of fear of being
sued.
Yet, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead and the
Superintendent of the Naval Academy Vice Adm. Jerry Fowler seem
quite proud of what they are doing.
Fleming quotes the CNO as saying that "diversity is the number one
priority" at the academy. Fowler says he wants Annapolis graduates
who "looked like" the fleet, where 42 percent of enlisted personnel
are nonwhite.
The diversity midshipmen, says Fleming, who teaches them, are
over-represented in "pre-college lower track courses, mandatory
tutoring programs and less-challenging majors. Many struggle to
master basic concepts."
Thus, though unqualified for college work, these students will be
operating the most sophisticated and complex weapons systems ever
built -- aircraft carriers, Aegis cruisers, nuclear submarines.
"First of all, we're dumbing-down the Naval Academy," charges
Fleming. "Second of all, we're dumbing-down the officers corps."
Supporting Fleming's claim, 22 percent of incoming plebes in 2009
had SAT scores in math below 600, compared to 12 percent in 2008.
If the facts are as Fleming states -- the academy is accepting
dumber and dumber students to get its racial composition right --
who can deny that the price of diversity is deliberate acceptance
of a less able and competent United States Navy?
"Diversity is our number one priority," Roughhead is quoted. Can
one imagine Adm. Chester Nimitz or "Bull" Halsey making an insipid
statement like that? Can one imagine what Adm. David "Damn the
torpedoes! Full speed ahead!" Farragut would have thought of such a
policy?
Whatever happened to the Hyman Rickover-Jimmy Carter motto for the
Naval Academy and U.S. Navy: "Why Not the Best?"
Consider. If hundreds of black and Hispanic kids who applied to the
academy had been rejected though they had higher grades and SAT
scores than those admitted, this story would not have been in the
Metro section of the Post. It would have been bannered on page one.
And Roughead and Fowler would be explaining to a congressional
committee why they should not be relieved of their commands.
Fleming, who still teaches at Annapolis, and has likely had some
unpleasant moments since he blew the whistle on his superiors, has
shown considerable moral courage.
Hopefully, Congress will show the same moxy and investigate this
outage. Hopefully, some of those white kids, cheated out of their
life's dream of attending the Naval Academy -- while less qualified
kids were admitted -- will sue the academy, just like Frank Ricci
and those gutsy firefighters sued the city of New Haven.
SOURCE: http://buchanan.org/blog/pjb-dumbing-down-the-us-navy-1592