The Wall Street Journal had an article last week about how Facebook, in an attempt to increase its workforce “diversity,” gave its in-house recruiters a paid incentive to encourage applications from people who weren’t white or Asian males. That is: “Previously, recruiters were awarded one point for every new hire. Under the new system, they could earn 1.5 points for a so-called ‘diversity hire’ — a black, Hispanic or female engineer — according to people familiar with the matter. More points can lead to a stronger performance review for recruiters and, potentially, a larger bonus, the people said.” As I immediately pointed out (on …

Many African Americans have blown it.  By no means all, but many.  By no means only African Americans, as I’ll discuss in later, but a disproportionate number of them. African Americans finally and rightly achieved great equality of law, and along with it much greater equality of opportunity than they had ever had, as a result of the Civil Rights Movement that culminated in the 1960s.  But they have failed to take advantage of it.   It’s a sad irony that, at the same time something good was happening for them, sometime bad was happening, too.  This is not to …

My response to a Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial was published last week by that paper in its “Correspondent of the Day” feature, and I thought I would make the issues it discusses the focus of this week’s email.  My response was titled “Undisciplined students hurt the entire class,” and here it is: You made two points in your recent editorial “Political Correctness” that were spot on. Both issues involved the Obama administration’s Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. In each instance, the administration has indeed “fixated on leftist identity politics.” In the first instance, the department has reacted to the …

On Wednesday last week, just after the President’s speech at the memorial service for the fallen police officers in Dallas, I posted this on National Review Online: I think it’s a fair question whether a memorial service for the fallen police officers in Dallas was the appropriate venue to talk at all about the shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana, and about bias, bigotry, prejudice, racism, and discrimination in America — “and that includes our police departments.” The scope of the president’s remarks aside, here is what seems to me to be the most problematic paragraph of his speech: “And so …

1. There’s really little to say about the Dallas shootings. They were horrific and inexcusable. 2. Does Black Lives Matter bear some of the blame for them? The argument would be that, by relentlessly vilifying the police and shrilly insisting that they are targeting black men, it encourages counter-assassinations. But, as Kevin Williamson points out, there’s a big jump from even overheated rhetoric to an action like the Dallas snipers. Yes, it shows that words matter, and those elements of BLM that have used irresponsible words should take a hard look in the mirror. And BLM’s supporters should ask whether they are really comfortable in …

The draft Democratic platform that has just been released is about what you would expect on civil-rights issues, especially in the criminal-justice area.  The draft language condemns our nation’s “institutional and systemic racism” and our “mass incarceration,” and it affirms that “black lives matter.”  Felons should be allowed to vote, and our marijuana laws have an “unacceptable disparate impact” on African Americans.  There’s also plenty on LGBT rights, where “there is still much work to be done.”  Speaking of “Black Lives Matter” –  This USA Today op-ed explains how Black Lives Matter and anti-Israel Palestinian protestors are sharing notes — …