links for 2007-09-29

Comments

  1. Anonymous wrote:

    re: rutgers

    i didn’t find his remarks racist, actually. he differentiated between minority student athletes who are “functionally illiterate” and those who are “at the library after school.” personally, i think he paints a pretty accurate picture.

  2. Mike wrote:

    I understand were Dowilng is coming from with sports and academia but who the heck is he kidding? What about the unquailified students who get in because there parents are alumni? It’s easy to pick out the student athelete because he is actually the minority on campus as opposed to the kid of an alumni or an employee of the college (who’s kid gets a free ride). You believe Rutgers is letting in unqualified students than name some names, show the evidence and show how those students can not progress on the college level. I could care less what you did in the 60’s. You opened your mouth now back it up.

  3. Mike wrote:

    P.S.
    Heck naw he is a racist he did’nt say student atheletes of which over 51% are white he said minorities. Exactly which side of the line did he get arrested on in the 60’s? I thought this dude had concern for the student athelete in general but his focus on the inner city and minority youths showed his true colors? I cant fault a kid for taking a free ride, college sports is a plantation system they will give an oppurtunity to an education (never mind that they may or may not improve your life) so long as you can run, jump, catch, throw, or whatever. You of course will not be entitled to any of the millions of dollars that the college makes off your butt but that piece of plastic degree makes it all worth it LOL.

    And I wonder if people were reaslly concerned with affirmative action and race based preferences in colleges how come no one tries to lump in college atheletes with all the prop 41 and ect. HHMMM.

  4. Colin wrote:

    1. Does anyone know how to make quotes have the nice dark background and indentation so as to differentiate them from one’s normal comments here? I can’t figure it out for the life of me.

    2. Re: Rutgers: Here’s a quote from Mr. Dowling from the same article that I think is a little more damning.

    “None of these kids would have been able to get into Rutgers if they hadn’t been able to throw something or kick something or slam dunk something,” Dowling said.

    To me, that just smacks of the same sort of generalizations and ignorance that lend public credence to much of the anti-affirmative action crowd.

    I don’t see how he’s not a racist, in the context of him saying putting the focus only on the athletes of color, (as though there are no dumb white athletes who need sports to stay in school…) with this line, “That’s not opportunity. If you want to give financial help to minorities, go find the ones who are at the library after school.” How is saying POC wouldn’t make it in a prestigious place like Rutgers without sports a mere differentiation? Maybe I’m missing something…

    3. New Aff. Action:

    “Exactly when you cross over into civil disobedience is not always clear. And I probably come down on the side of pushing the outer limits. I’m much more of the attitude of, ‘So what if someone sues?’ If you lose, you at least define the line a little more clearly. You say, ‘Mea culpa,’ and you don’t do it anymore.”

    That quote worries me only because he’s testing the limits with peoples’ college educations and their name. He may think himself a crusader for justice, and I might even be inclined to agree with his motives, but he should be careful when brushing up against such a political hot-button. I don’t say refrain from doing controversial things, just be cautious, my brother.

    4. Wes Anderson: Never heard of ‘im, and maybe I should be glad. Sounds for all the world like the only other person more obscenely arrogant than I, and I could not take that.

  5. tasha wrote:

    It’s funny to me how the profile of a game seems hinged upon the race of the majority of players excelling at it, i.e., the more minority players playing big revenue team sports like football and basketball, the more “common” the game becomes. Dowling’s comments have racial and sexist undertones, because I have a feeling that he didn’t have the women’s basketball team in mind when he made those remarks. I doubt that Dowling would have lobbed that criticism at, say, the golf team because college golfers typically come from solidly middle class and/or affluent, majority white homes. I’m also wondering whether or not, Dowling would have had the same reaction if he was teaching at a Notre Dame or a USC or a university with a profitable football team that generated enough income for the non-revenue sports to exist. I sincerely doubt that Rutger’s foray into college football is going to damage the school’s acadmic reputation. A BCS berth or a major upset like last year’s win over Louisville (My otherwise stoic uncle, a Rutger’s alum, wept. He cried again when they lost to Cincy, along with their shot at the BCS, the next week. So yes, football is the opiate of the masses) will only enhance the profile of the school.

    And he must be talking about Rutger’s New Brunswick, when he alluded to the “functionally illiterate” not being admitted without their athletic prowess, because the majority of Rutgers’ campuses aren’t exactly what you would call selective. Though New Jersey has been ranked among the wealthiest states in per capita income, one of New Jersey’s dirty little secrets is the mass exodus of high school graduates to out of state colleges and universities. I know because I was one them. Though we lived in NJ, my parents kept a house and paid taxes in VA. Dual Citizenship, I liked to call it. Now normally, when the majority of a state’s high school grads skip town, it’s considered a problem, but apparently not enough of a problem to make college tuition in New Jersey more affordable or not enough of a problem to invest more money into the university system, but then again, the “university situation” hasn’t been enough of a deterrant to disuade people from moving to New Jersey, especially well educated professional types, for a myriad of other reasons. New Jersey uses other state’s universities the way the NFL uses the NCAA as it’s own free, personal, free, free, did I mention free, farm team system. Let other states train em’. We’ll (NJ) just reap the benefits when they come back. I keep saying that I’m going to move back. Been saying that for years now.

  6. Mike wrote:

    I skipped over Pfc. Johnson death last I looked on here. There is something going on over seas in the military that no one talks about. I have a friend who is doing a tour in Iraq and she told me that most women carry at least a knife on them for protection not from the Iraqies but from there fellow soldiers. You take a look at the way Pfc. Johnsons’s body was found and how the hell can you not think foul play. The military has been making a habit of covering up criminal acts by there soldiers against other soldiers which makes me wonder what we do not know about what has been done to the Iraqies. And I wonder how many other rape cases that went unreported over there? That is a damn shame when you don’t feel safe with your fellow soldiers.

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