Paging Harrison Bergeron

      A few news articles this past weekend reminded me of Kurt Vonnegut's short story, "Harrison Bergeron." The short story was part of the reading in one of my high school English classes.

        Vonnegut's short story is set in a future America where "everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General." Those stronger or more athletic are laden down by bags of lead shot, beautiful or handsome people are forced to wear ugly masks to cover their beauty, intelligent people are required to wear ear pieces that broadcast random, sharp sounds to disrupt their thinking and memory. All in order to make sure that there is equality of outcome.

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      Now, the news articles:

1. First up was an article from NPR titled "A Medical School Tradition Comes Under Fire For Racism." What was this horrible racist act? Medical students that excel academically are eligible to join the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. The article explains that "[t]he award is open to the top 25 percent of a medical school's graduating class and can be a valuable career boost, making students more competitive for desirable residencies and jobs." But "underrepresented minorities" are not often in the top 25% of their class. "A 2017 study in JAMA Internal Medicine showed that nationwide, black and Asian students were less likely than their white counterparts to be selected for the honor." Minority students at one medical school, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, successfully lobbied for "a moratorium on student nominations because it determined the selection process discriminates against students of color."
2. Up next was this article--"Study Claims Gifted Math Classes Promote 'Academic Apartheid'"--at PJ Media. The "problem" is that the top 10% of math students are generally placed into accelerated math programs, while the bottom 10% wind up in remedial math classes. Why is this bad? "The confidence of some students may suffer at the expense of others, especially minorities, it is argued." Also, according to the study, it perpetuates segregation because black and Hispanic students don't do as well as white or Asian students. The author of the study suggests that schools should either forth students into the same math classes, or rename math classes in order to remove the "stigma." The author of the study is a professor at Columbia University.
3. Finally, we have an article from The New York Post relating deplorable behavior at the recent U.S. Open women's tennis competition. Naomi Osaka (Japanese) beat Serena Williams (black) and won the competition. Crowds booed Osaka; and "Katrina Adams, chairman and president of the USTA, opened the awards ceremony by denigrating the winner and lionizing Williams."

      Although we are not yet to point of physical devices to handicap the gifted and talented, these articles are reminders that we do exist in a system that uses the law and administrative rules and policies to essentially reach the same outcome, all in the name of racial (or gender) equality.