@hydesjackiespuddinpop

“How to tell the temperature from your cat’s sleeping position.“  From Your Incredible Cat: Understanding the Secret Powers of Your Pet by David Greene.

@notsexualaboutit

cats can tell you everything you could ever need to know

looked at my kingdom, i was finally there
Will Smith 4th overall SJS

Storytime...

A long time ago there was this thing called redlining. White people didn't want Black people living in their neighborhood. So Black people were forced to live in the poorest areas with the lowest wages.

Yes, they banned redlining. But stopping something does not necessarily fix the damage that was done. It did not magically give Black folks higher wages so they could move into better areas. They were basically stuck. They were unable to build up generational wealth. So their children were also stuck in those poor areas with low wages.

Redlining created a cycle of poverty that still exists to this day.

Public schools are funded mostly by property taxes. If you live in an area with expensive property, there will be more money to fund local schools. If you live in an area with less expensive property, your local schools will not have the ability to properly fund themselves.

Poorer areas have more crime. They pay their teachers less. So they have a huge issue recruiting qualified teachers. They cannot provide students with all of the tools they need to succeed. No computers or current textbooks. Schools in warm areas will not have air conditioning. Some in cold areas will have inadequate or broken heating. The building infrastructure may be falling apart with leaky pipes and dysfunctional bathrooms.

Distraction after distraction makes it a difficult environment to learn.

Kids in poor areas are also more likely to be food insecure due to food deserts and sometimes they lack free school lunch programs. Hungry kids do much worse in school. It is hard to concentrate when you are hungry.

So in order for a Black student to succeed in an underfunded school they have to overcome the following variables... hunger, less qualified teachers, lack of school supplies, deteriorating facilities, outdated textbooks, lack of educational technologies, and they are poorly educated about sex and drugs. Many can easily fall victim to addiction and the consequences of sexual activity. They are also overpoliced and overdisciplined. Often getting suspensions and expulsions for the same behaviors as white students who only get warnings or detention. They get suspended 4 times as much.

Under those circumstances, even the brightest and most hardworking kids might struggle to reach their potential. Their grades will suffer. Their test scores will be lower.

On paper, they don't look like a good candidate for admission.

Affirmative action was a way to give those kids with potential a second chance at a good school. Recruiters could judge the students on other variables. They could take into account all of the educational obstacles. And they could admit people who probably would have thrived if they were born in a different zip code.

If you went to a good school and have good grades and test scores, you will find a place to get a higher education. Maybe not your first choice. Maybe not a fancy Ivy League school. But you will get a good college education *somewhere*.

If you went to a bad school and had no chance at achievement... without affirmative action you might not get into any college at all.

If you want to level the playing field, perhaps start with public school funding.

Ending affirmative action will make the cycle of poverty that much harder to break.

My best friend and I had very similar temperaments re education and pretty equal intelligences, but one of us went to a school gerrymandered into being a rich kids school and one of us went to the nicest school in that town but still a product of the Californian education system. We met in university having both fought hard to get there. We were not the rich kids. Ethnic surnames and all, we squeaked in anyway on the strength of grades and testing.

And I say this because

to this day I keep finding out about things rich kid schools have that mine could never afford or allow.

The gap in experiences offered is staggering.

And I was at a “nice” school. One cop and no metal detectors and pretty decent safe to eat food and a new gymnasium. It was not miserable or underserved

Most of my career was built on skills I started learning in high school in the one art class I was permitted. How far might I have gotten if I’d been allowed music and any computer literacy as well as art?

For one thing I wouldn’t have had to use my SAT scores and being indigenous second generation college applicant with a scholarship to wedge my foot into the door at my university “hi I promise I’m smart and I come with my own way paid please met me in?”

I might never have gotten in if they looked at my very Non white surname and said ehhhbbbh

they nappin’

by zach ozma

holy shit they're so having gay sex

another addition

"bUt i tHiNk mAKeUp is fUn" that's nice. i would like to be allowed to exist without it without being socioeconomically punished for that choice but what's important to focus on here is that you're just having the funnest time ever

This doesn’t happen unless you’re so ugly that you need makeup to look normal (in which case this post is a bit of a self-own)

cool misogyny! i forgot that being beautiful is the only moral way for a woman to exist. what an Epic Own on behalf of a multibillion dollar industry!!!!

i literally cannot even begin to imagine what it would feel like to wake up and feel rested