There are some things that you just cannot do, my tuneful friends. One is to question any aspect of the "Official Edition" of the Holocaust. Another is to try to link intelligence with genetics or race. Imagine my shock then, my band of meadow dwellers, when David Lammy (here) writing in today’s Guardian appeared to be setting out to “prove” that British black Caribbean students are less intelligent than their white (and other non-white) counterparts.
Now, The Guardian made a valiant attempt to detract from this apparent slur by dragging out two other hacks to divert attention from the attacker. The appropriately named Michael White (here) screamed that, "Lammy is right about the key barriers to opportunity" (note the mealy mouthed phraseology involved, my little green chums). Then, the mischievously named Jeevan Vasagar lamented that, "Twenty-one Oxbridge Colleges took no black students last year" (here). Vasagar refers to, "Racial and social exclusion"; (the token) White lamely chimes in that class is as important as race in ensuring your exclusion from the Dreamy Spires.
But, let's not dress this up or fall for distractions, my little chin rubbing friends; Lammy's hidden agenda, using simple logic, must be to make the case that British black Caribbeans are simply less intelligent than white and other non-white students. That must be so since Oxbridge certainly admits a decent percentage of non-white students overall. For example, The Telegraph (here), in February,2010, found that "Just over one-in-ten students at Oxbridge are non-white". Further, Cambridge claimed that their black and Asian students accounted for 15% of the total student body in 2008/9. Hardly the profile of ardent racists. (I wonder how many one-eyed Romanian gypsies were admitted to British universities last year. Maybe that too is another example of our self-loathing institutional racism.)
Since Oxbridge clearly does not select students based upon race, Lammy must be recognising that they do indeed admit students on merit. Whilst allowing for the fact that elements other than academic achievement will form part of the assessment of "merit", intellectual ability will clearly be the major determinant. Therefore, we can only conclude, my band of erudite grasshoppers, that Lammy's hidden message is really designed to target British black Caribbean students alone in a viscous example of racial profiling.
Of course, he tries to hide this all by obfuscation. Lammy moans how difficult it was to extract this "data" from Oxbridge in the first place through the Freedom of Information (FOI) channel. I wonder if he "might come clean" and give us a full description of his information request. For, if he were really setting out to "prove" racial bias, he must surely have asked for all relevant data relating to the racial mix of Oxbridge students. As noted above, had he done so, his argument of racial discrimination would have been destroyed as quickly as the proverbial burning cross. Instead, Lammy chooses to be highly selective. He mocks British black Caribbeans, "Applications are being made but places are not being awarded", he drones. Hardly a startling conclusion given the level of over-subscription. He believes that Oxbridge should be "ashamed" of their student mix. Imagine that, my bewildered friends, Oxbridge ashamed of their excellence and standards. Lammy claims that they are "Hiding from the truth". What is his justification for this? He offers none.
Lammy slithers on like a drunk down a muddy hillside. "Oxbridge targets 21% of its Outreach events at independent schools", he crows. Excellent, some 79% are then targeted at the state system. The academic staff should mirror the diversity of the student body, is another claim. By now, the deranged Lammy is starting to sound like a below average British black Caribbean student.
Pudgilius says, once more, that enough is enough. It is time to stand up and challenge quota begging leaches like Lammy whose aim is to socially engineer everything in his own warped image. Oxbridge is elitist; all true universities should be elitist. Until that ceases to be a pejorative term, the likes of David Lammy will continue to spout their bile. Sadly, that bile has held sway in our education system and, indeed, much of society as a whole, for far too long.
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