Tuesday, May 2, 2017

How Affirmative Action Turned Kendrex White Into a Killer


Yesterday, 21-year-old University of Texas at Austin junior Kendrex White went on a stabbing spree, attacking at least four students, killing one of them.
But yeah me and [deleted] were eating at cilantros truck at a long picnic table. Then at the end of the table some guy comes up in a bandana and stabs the knife into the table and looks all of us in the eye. I thought it was just some theatrical stunt or something tbh..He pulls the knife out without saying anything and turns around to slash some guy in the back of the neck. The slash victim grans the back of his neck and yells (people look at him and I await some "gotcha statement). But then....The attacker walks to another guy and stands him in like the kidney region in his back. Some guy yells run and we all bold to mccombs.
By most accounts White had previously seemed normal and even "nice," although he had appeared a bit stressed or depressed recently. His Twitter account is filled with friendly tweets and jokes. It's true that there are frequent links to gangsta videos and memes, along with many uses of the word "nigga," but I assume this is fairly standard among his peers - most of them are retweets that had obviously been making the rounds. There are also many links to Bible quotes about love.

A pinned tweet, put up last year, is a gangsta GIF - "Nigga be you, fuck to be cool." Underneath, is the last tweet he made, a few hours before the attack. It reads "Yahushua," the preferred name for God among certain Christian/Jewish sects, some of them quasi-black supremacist.

According to his Twitter profile, White was a biology major and pre-med who hoped to become a doctor. He was a member of the Black Health Professionals Organization.

The University of Texas is the US News and World Report 56th ranked school in the country, and according to one source, has the 2nd most competitive undergraduate program in Texas.

White had no business attending UT.

I'm basing that partly on an online Prezi presentation he made as a freshman or sophomore. The presentation was put up on July 9, 2015, the last day of classes for the first Summer course term at UT. It was titled "The controversy of Racism and Police brutality in America."

Before they take it down, I'm going to reprint it here, in full:





The video shows black parents giving their black children "The Talk" about the police







This video was taken down. I have no idea of its original contents.
A few commentators have already pointed to the presentation, with its references to racism, police profiling and the Ferguson riots, to argue that White was being indoctrinated to hate the police or white people, etc. But my purpose is not to argue that. Pretty much all American college students these days are victims of this sort of indoctrination attempt. Many are influenced by it; some see through it; others ignore it or play along to get good grades or whatever. It's simply a fact of contemporary college life.

Rather, I want to draw attention to how childlike, crude and simple White's "Prezi" was. Given the date, I assume it was some sort of final presentation for the class. And I assume (though I don't know this) that it earned him a passing grade. He went on to complete his sophomore year and then begin his junior year.

That it was a final presentation for a freshman or sophomore class at a relatively high-ranked college is grotesque. It would have been out of place as a freshman high-school presentation.

My almost six-year-old daughter could almost have put it together. Your young son or daughter could have, too.

And by grotesque, I'm not criticizing White for it - even though we now know he turned into a murderer - but rather I'm referring to his teachers, who condescendingly demanded and expected so little from their Affirmative Action students in the guise of "helping" them.

So, Kendrex White had no business studying at UT, let alone being a pre-med there. I assume that eventually, after wasting three years of his life on the supposed doctor track, he himself realized this. He wasn't going to make it.

But why? Who did this to him? Why did they lead him on and then pull the rug out? Why were other students, white students, perhaps, apparently succeeding when he had failed?

He'd fix that. Someone would pay.

Or so goes one theory. I think it's largely true.

Do not misunderstand. Most of us, experience major disappointments in life, and sometimes we believe, rightly or wrongly, that they were a result of unfairness or injustice towards us. But most of us don't go on murderous stabbing sprees to make up for them. Kendrex White is fully responsible for what he did.

But I think that what he did is an example - an extreme example, of course - of what Affirmative Action does to many black Americans. The title of my post was meant to be provocative. I obviously don't believe that Affirmative Action generally turns black people into mass stabbers. But in this case, it just might have.

And it has nothing to do with the color of anyone's skin per se, but everything to do with an institutionalized system that sets a certain class of people - in this case, people who happen to have certain skin color - up for failure.

Imagine that at every turn, you were given a sort of break, always advanced ahead of where your abilities or attainments would have otherwise placed you. If you noticed that your peers were constantly outperforming you (as they naturally would if you were always put into a competitive category above where you should have been) you are told, implicitly or explicitly, that this is only temporary. Perhaps the standard measurements underestimate you, for one reason or another. Or perhaps there's something else - racism? - that's making you consistently fall short of your peers. Now imagine that you come to a point where you aren't given that break - you finally have to take the tough biology course where they can't just waive you through - or take some sort of standardized test - the MCAT's, perhaps. So, you fail. Not because you're inherently stupid to lazy or anything like that, but because the whole way along people who claimed to be helping you were consistently mismatching you by placing you where you didn't belong, or at least, didn't belong yet.

I think you would be frustrated, perhaps even angry. I certainly would be.

Over forty years ago, the economist Thomas Sowell argued that Affirmative Action caused black students to be consistently mismatched at all levels. Among other things, he looked at the abnormally high dropout rates of blacks at elite schools, including Berkeley. Sowell's point was not that black students were inherently likelier to drop out of school, but that the phenomenon was the natural result of policies that systematically placed them, so too speak, over their heads. Those students who scored 350 on their SAT's were placed in schools that were at the 500 level. Those that scored 500 went to schools at the 650 level, and so on.

Now, of course, the process can continue, sometimes almost indefinitely. A mismatch doesn't always mean failure, and you can often continue to the next stage. But in many cases - though certainly not all - things will catch up. You graduate but then can't cut it in law school. Or you make it through law school but can't cut it at the law firm.

And again remember, not cutting it law school simply means not cutting it at the level of law school you shouldn't have been admitted to in the first place, given your abilities. You might have done just fine, one step down.

Indeed, if they hadn't tried to "help" you, you might have been a successful lawyer from a 20th ranked law school. Instead, you're a failure at Harvard.

Or you could have excelled at community college, and then perhaps have gone on from there. Instead you're a washout at UT.

Affirmative Action has been one of the greatest disasters of modern liberal social engineering, not because it's unfair to whites - although in a sense it is - but because it's unfair and damaging, tragically so, for so many blacks.

To say nothing of how it damages race relations as a whole.

It would be wrong to now call Kendrex White a victim - the victims yesterday were obviously the innocent people he attacked - but let's just say that others who probably went through similar experiences to what he went through, and who didn't convert their frustrations into violence, might have a bit of a claim.

And again, it doesn't have to turn out badly. Read Michelle Obama's turgid and awkward senior thesis at Princeton. It also appears wildly out of place - if a bit better than the work of a child, it's not exactly what one would expect from an Ivy League pre-law student. Michelle Robinson would fail out of a couple law firms before meeting her husband and living happily ever after. And, of course, Barack Obama would partly parlay his Affirmative Action breaks into winning the highest office in the country. So, yeah, sometimes Affirmative action works.

It didn't with Kendrex White.

Kendrex White's teachers, and their fellow Affirmative Action enablers will of course never blame themselves. Who needs to, when you can always blame "racism."

Or Donald Trump.

38 comments:

  1. Oh, there's a lot of "truthiness" here.
    Thomas Sowell is an incredible man. It is admirable beyond admirable to say things people hate you for saying.

    In education, children are fully indoctrinated into Leftist politics. What the elites and the Union heads want you to believe and teach, you believe and teach, if you want to keep a job. It is all radical Leftist politics. Read union materials sent to teachers. Right now it's full of anti-Trump, pro-Democrat, racism, LGBT, transgender issues. Pretty soon it will be encouraging empathy for "minor attracted". The elites never heard of a Leftist cause they can't support for kids.
    Children are now taught from Kindergarten on about racism and bigotry, from a completely liberal point of view only. White kids end up feeling guilty and hating their own culture (one reason Europe doesn't seem interested in defending their culture in the wake of Islam) and kids of color, particularly black students, feel even more resentful than they might have. Who wouldn't! Who wouldn't feel suspicious and aggrieved, even though we just had a black president for 8 years. And these kids, the ones you see on TV marching and whatnot, they have seen more dramatic 8x10 glossies about the Civil Rights marches, etc., they all want their dramatic moment too. You haven't made it til you've marched for something and had your photo taken.
    I've seen these educational "prezzies". I was startled by one my niece had to do for her college assignment a few months ago. Seeing a prezzie, I accidentally insulted her, I thought it was something she had done is grade 7 or so, but no, this was something she had just done, as a first year student in a state university. Education seems to have seriously eroded. We did so much more than these young people do! We had to actually STUDY. I don't know if kids are capable of it, generally.

    I was a late bloomer, and graduated in 2000 from a state university, so it wasn't that long ago I had to do college work, undergrad and grad. What they are expecting from these young people is pap and crap, nothing.
    You are exactly right about this whole point. Right now kids MUST pass, nobody must get held back, everybody moves on. I'm speaking primarily at the elementary and secondary level. There are kids who have full time adults standing around with them outside their classrooms, because the kids "won't go in". I'm not kidding, a grownup is paid to "help" the child do work in the hallway, because the child refuses to go in. Guess what happens when other kids see Junior in the hallway. Shenanigans ensue.
    Hey, today teachers are up against it. Administrators are up against it. Believe it or not, parents and political groups, the elites, have all the power, and schools are just cowering trying to keep everybody happy. If lies must be told, if everybody has to pretend all is well and good and if Johnny isn't doing well, it's surely because the "system" is "unfair" and "biased", then that is just what we must do. At least, that is what the union propaganda says, and what educational elites (the power brokers) say.
    Shhh..don't tell the truth. It's never popular.

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  2. It was difficult to take this seriously because you assumed that affirmative action is the culprit behind this young man's behavior. Not only is your argument unintelligent, baseless, and a disgrace, it is also blatantly racist. For one, you claim to know White's intelligence quotient based on a presentation. A SINGLE presentation. If I had a dime for everytime a capable/smart/intelligent person made an average or mediocre presentation, I'd be filthy rich! The fact is many people produce subpar work/projects/presentations for a variety of reasons and you know it. You cannot ascertain someone's intelligence from a single data point - and that is what you have *tried* to do.
    Secondly, it is very clear that this young man has ongoing mental issues - which you do not consider to be a real problem - most likely because of his demographic.
    Thirdly, if a non-minority had committed such acts, would you also argue that affirmative action made them lash out the way they did? Or would you assign the blame to them being a misguided youth, having family and school pressure, or even mental illness?
    I want to know what affirmative action had to do with the UT sniper back in the day, and people who have committed violent acts in schools throughout US history. Because if you were to do actual research, you would find that most of these offenses are executed by people who do not benefit from affirmative action.
    If you are anti affirmative action, I suggest you choose another avenue to push your agenda, because it is clear that your arguments are full of opinions and propaganda.

    Nice try.

    Try again.



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    1. I value disagreement, in the blog comments as much as anywhere else. I know that probably sounds condescending or cloying, but it's true. Unless you veto it, I want to answer your claims in the main body of a follow-up post. Other people have also raised issues that I want to address. I won't use your name (unless you want me too) but I don't promise to be any less tough on you than you were on me. That said, thank you for reading and commenting. I honestly do appreciate it.

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    2. Great article Oakes. Janice's criticism leaves out complimenting your precision on why this is blatant retaliation and resentment towards a structure which is supposedly against him. The public school structure, other than the sports division, has very little male role model influence. My suspicion is someone seemingly aggressive as this individual had absolutely no hints of a senior male influence from which instilled discipline. Yes, he followed the rules and "made it," to an institution of higher learning. Yet, it was only to the next challenge.

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  3. Why did they lead him on and then pull the rug out?

    Answer: look to U of Missouri med school, which has been threatened with loss of accreditation because it is not "diverse" enough.

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  4. Incredibly sad.

    And I hate to break it to you, but this is just the state of the educational system in the US; it has nothing to do with coddling him because he's black. Most gen ed courses here are jokes with rubrics. Quantifying the abstract uniformly, putting truth in a box, anti-apologetics, communism in the west, a bachelor's degree as a substitute for high school but more commercialized and with less practicality. I grade for a gen ed (this semester at least, never again), he probably got a B for that above for following directions, which undoubtedly raised his hopes (ya get more money from them that way, don't ya know). The desires God gives people to approach Him are just opportunities to make money, right?

    Yeah, I'm not bitter.

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    1. And we are finding that a college degree is losing it's value this way. When everybody gets one just for showing up, what is it worth, really? It devalues education. And do we want our doctors to be the dud that just got in because of a quota system the college had? Everybody loses this way. Do you want your lawyer, your therapist, your whatever, to have gotten their degree that way? People who say this can't happen are not living in the real world of education. Or anywhere else for that matter.

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    2. I am a nurse who went through a 'tough' accelerated nursing school program at a community college which 25 years ago had an extremely strict program but with a 99% pass rate if you survived. 95% of us had several years of prior college/university education.It was the hardest thing I have done in my life.

      In my career all of these years (and I have been able to work in any field I have approached)I repeatedly meet nurses who cannot write in basic English. I have very often had nurses tell me (on the job) that they don't know how to (read an ECG, read labs, do the math for emergency medications)yet passed through some pricey university without knowing how to do the most basic nursing. And I see it daily. Do you want a nurse who can't alert a doctor/nurse practitioner of a dangerous lab value? Or administer the required emergency medications because they don't know how to do those computations? And this is happening daily--not just in nursing--because of the degrees being handed out for attendance. Scary.

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  5. So it's affirmative action's fault he did this? Hahaha.

    Death penalty, please. And to hell with all that "pope" JP2 crap about it being wrong. It was good enough for the Church for almost 2000 years.

    Seattle Kim

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  6. I'm glad you brought in Sowell. He is a hero because he actually gathers facts and then tells people about them. When he speaks about opinions or feelings he usually cites his personal experience. There are lot of youtube interviews in which is tells his truth this helps because we can hear his views without having to buy his books which can be expensive. Tom Sowell is old now, and not in the best of health. Experience him before he's gone and forgotten.

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  7. I recently read of an all boys school in Philly where the entire student body is made of African American youth. (Reverse discrimination?) The emphasis at the school is that each boy learn Latin. They are immersed in it and take great pride in their linguistic prowess. Now those boys are going places! Those boys are seemingly immersed in love, passion, and truth. O, that the larger educational culture were not so squalid.

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  8. I'm not even going to waste time attempting to dive into your tirade about affirmative action. Rather I'd like to highlight the ignorance of your premise that so willingly places affirmative action in your cross hairs. No doubt this young man's senseless act of violence is tragic. I'm not here to vouch for and/or down play what has occurred. I will say that you are foolish to assume so much based on a PowerPoint presentation. You don't have this kid's ACT/SAT scores, his GPA, undergraduate courses, muchless why the presentation is not inclusive of so many details. It is beyond reason that you are making this correlation by assuming so much. PowerPoints are not to be the focus of someone's knowledge. Anyone knows that a PowerPoint is suppose to augment the substance that is intended the focus by the presenter. His associations don't matter. What he retweeted muchless how he conducted himself out of the classroom amongst his peers is not indicative of this young man's intelligence. I don't know someone that doesn't cut up more with friends as opposed conducting themselves professionally at all times.

    Googling Kendrex J. White will give an auto populated response to include Muslim. Isn't that sad? People are willing to go to whatever lengths to attribute this individual's act to things other than his mental illness. Does everyone with Epilepsy stab others? No. Clearly this illness had affected him leading up to this event. You or I have no idea what Epilepsy could bring one to. I'm assuming you aren't Epileptic.

    Another thing I'd like to bring up is that his father is stationed at Ft. Hood. So I want to assume that he was brought up in a structured environment that valued certain values. Being a service member it pains me to see such assertions being made with such loose evidence. I couldn't imagine what his family is feeling as not they are also thrusted into the spotlight. Let's hope that your daughter he could make a more useful PowerPoint never goes through a phase in her life that brings such negative light to your family.

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    1. Great comments Kathleen!

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    2. Hahah! Lady you clearly don't know how to connect the dots if you think by reading this blog's comments you have an idea of my life it is no wonder that you see what you want to see. Colored people that commit violence in the workplace/school/public whatever do not have to be Muslims. The thought never crossed my mind to Google Adam Lanza "White Nationalist" when Sandy Hook occurred. You connect the dots by seeing what you want to believe.

      You are the problem, you aren't willing to give the benefit of the doubt and rather trust in generalizations that are misguided.

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  9. It's not a PowerPoint. It's a Prezi. And, yes, based solely on that Prezi, I'm certain that that kid wasn't medical school material.

    Thanks for your kind hopes that my daughter will never become a murderer.

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    1. Lol does it really make that much of a difference? That's unfortunate. Flagship institution's are no walk in the park. Not Ivy League for sure, but UT professors just don't pass kids because of affirmative action. Enrollment and course completion are not one in the same. Otherwise I would have been a Science major at A&M.

      I am being sincere with that wish. I really hope that your child(ren?) do not grow up and do something that would subject your family to negative associations that people like yourself have freely made.

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    2. I didn't say that UT professors passed kids precisely and explicitly because of Affirmative Action, although I suspect that some do. But the presence of more and more undemanding courses - where the final presentation is a silly Prezi - makes it more likely that any one who is academically deficient or below-standard for whatever reason (including Affirmative Action) can glide through for longer until they, so to speak, have a final reckoning. Undemanding courses also make it less likely that the school can identify those who need remedial help. If you're a bit over your head, all is not lost. Often you can be helped, but not if the course requirements are so low that your weaknesses either can't be seen or are judged unimportant.

      You seem to be implying that White's parents are now wrestling with the horrible supposed insult, made by an obscure blogger, that their kid was an Affirmative Action recipient, or made bad presentations or whatever. With respect, that's insane. Their kid stabbed four other kids, murdering one of them. I would think that would be foremost on their minds.

      Bur even so, I come close to saying (though I tried to explicitly stop myself) that in fact White was in some sense also a victim. Now you're twisting it so make it seem like I'm intentionally heaping "negative associations" onto him and his family. Again, with respect, I think that's perverse.

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    3. I assume that you at least have a bachelor's degree. Was every single course within general curriculum and major course curriculum so mind bending? Especially summer semesters if you took any...Be reasonable. As a product of a big state school those entry level chemistry, physics, organic chemistry, biology etc. courses do not leave room for people to just slack. This presentation was probably for either an elective or something in his general curriculum requirements. It isn't fair to make such a statement that he wasn't cut out for medical school. You have no idea. You either sink or swim at these schools, and two friends of mine sank midway through and after freshman year. I'm not going to beat this issue further but it your certainty isn't logical in the slightest.

      What I am saying is that it is unfortunate that people are willing to take a tragic event and mold it into something that it may not be. Such a guided response from a man of faith.

      You believe that a software presentation is indicative of this kids intellectual value. As a result of affirmative action he did the unthinkable. You pay no mind to consider this kid's father most likely is career military given his age. How likely is it that a child who observes the fruits of hard work isn't able to strive for something more? In his case, you so easily ramble on about AA. I don't know how it should be construed as unintentional.

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    4. His faith has nothing to do with it. You are trying to shame him for an honest opinion, which I happen to share, today's educational standards in education are lower. Does anyone wonder why we have STEM schools? To eliminate the harder language stuff! Or why we have "multiple intelligence" tests now? To avoid the hard reality that some work is hard and some groups are not doing well with it.

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    5. Are you joking? What is the purpose of this blog other than spreading beliefs according to doctrine? Education standards are not mandated by the federal government, states are in-create curriculum. Teachers complain about standardized tests but this state has been led by Republicans for 20+ years. Blame the State Board of Education and the Texas Education Agency.

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  10. A fellow black student of his commented on him probably not getting into med school as a motive. He didn't know him well, but it seemed like a non-racist judgement call. Your article is spot on.
    By the way, the murdered kid, Harrison Brown was going home to work and help his dad who has ALS.

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    1. Somehow he got forgotten in this, right? Wow, God rest his soul, that is just heartbreaking. My God.

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  11. Got rejected before the process even began, odd.

    "Since AMCAS submission doesn't open until the first week of June, you'll have about a month to begin working on your application before you can submit it."

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    1. With a DWI and mediocre grades , the handwriting was on the wall .

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    2. Again how are you coming to this conclusion about his grades? You have his transcripts? The guy above clearly posted bs since med school application can't be submitted yet and here you are mentioning grades that you are not privy too. Being charged with a DWI doesn't mean that it will stick. It is on record that he said he had taken two Zoloft. Don't speak in such a matter of fact manner, there is so much that is unknown yet you seem to know it all.

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    3. He was a pre-med student that referred to antidepressants as "happy pills" ,along with his Prezi presentation, this is evidence of poor academic ability .

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    4. He was admitted to the University of Texas at Austin. That is not an easy place to get admitted to regardless how the university leverages AA. Do you realize how many minorities apply and don't get in. It is a competitive process, especially considering he was admitted into the College of Natural Sciences and was a Biology major that usually is a springboard for undergrads wanting to pursue specialized careers. Your argument is weak at best.

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    5. Nonsense , a minority student that manages to graduate in the top 20% of their high school class is guaranteed automatic admission at UT Austin , regardless of SAT scores or academic ability

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    6. Where do you pull your information? The State of Texas has a Top 10% rule currently in place, UT actually automatically admits the Top 7% HS students. Roughly 75% of automatic admissions are reserved for students in the Top 7% of their class. Know a little bit of anything before making a statement in fact.

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    7. Again, more progressive talking points, the figures you provided do NOT apply to minority applicants !

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    8. It is a law on the books idiot. The university submits reports to the legislature.

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    9. Now you're resorting to ad hominem attacks, proof of liberal dishonesty and condescension .

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    10. Yea you are right, I shouldn't get frustrated with your willingness to rattle out falsehoods. Proof of my dishonesty. Things is the internet is a tool that provides you the ability to find the facts that I present to you if you really wanted to validate what I am saying.

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  12. Interesting theory Oakes. Your observations on AA are spot on , however what we are now witnessing is the synergistic effect of AA mixed with the BLM movement.

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    1. Not to mention:
      A president who encouraged BLM, and a DOJ that was used to threaten public schools schools who suspended "too many" black students with full investigations, and other dismal actions.

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  13. We must also take into account his recent arrest for DUI. He not only felt he had been profiled but that could have impacted his chances of being granted a future medical license. They say he did not target anyone but my son was there and said different. He said he was targeting people wearing Greek letters and all the victims were in fraternities.

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    1. Where are you getting information from? I've read nothing that has stated other than have a DWI charge in early April. Nothing about him feeling profiled.

      "This was not a conspiracy," said University of Texas Police Department Chief David Carter. "This was not a person that had a vendetta against any one particular group." "None of the victims in the case was wearing anything that would indicate they were members of a fraternity," Carter said.

      What skin does the police chief have in this game?

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    2. I think there is a lot of pressure on police today. Note what they say in Europe now, as in Germany, when there is a jihadist attack. We see it in California, where liberals reign. When the attack happens, inevitably the police quote is "We haven't yet determined a motive", even as the perp is described as wearing dashikis and belonging to BLM or yelling Allahu Akbar while they killed innocent people. The police are under pressure to avoid stating the obvious, what every single rational person would assume is true once they hear what happened. Everybody except virtue signaling liberals. Oh they'll think it too, unfortunately, only once it happens to their loved ones (God forbid).

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