All politicians pander. They can’t elected if they don’t. Officials pander in D.C. Officials pander in Springfield. Officials even pander in Naperville.
The pandering we heard on the six figure DEI consulting contract is different. It is one thing to push your politics on to others and try to appease activists with quips, quotes, and smiles. It’s quite another to unload well over $100,000 in taxpayer dollars in attempt to placate one’s “base”.
Laughably, we heard that we needed to hire the consultant because equity and inclusion are now in our mission statement. There are many adjectives and adverbs in our mission statement, we don’t hire a consultant for each one of them.
The cringe factor was high when Patrick Kelly suggested DEI programs were on par with road maintenance in level of import. The councilman should do his homework as we may now have to revisit the B+ grade we gave him. There is zero evidence to support anything positive comes from these programs. Many states have not only moved away from them, they are banning such programs. Corporate America is moving away from them. Is any other major Illinois city doing these programs other than screwed up Chicago?
Naperville should not waste all this money to placate the Left parade who will inevitably appear at council to cry for this. A look around the country shows how cities end up when their decision-making is wrapped around progressive yak. It goes nowhere good…for poor minorities most of all.
Benny. Allison, Ian, and Patrick you all should campaign with your own money…not ours. Your political ambitions already bought us a wholly pointless lawsuit over guns that were already be banned by State law. Let’s hope the remaining five councilmen do not fold to the activist stampede and they instead keep the taxpayers (not to mention logic) in mind when this contract comes for a vote.
Well put. We have four politicians on the city council that pander to political issues instead of working for the people of Naperville. They are wasting city money and time on progressive political issues, that can only promote themselves as it does not help the city. We will remember this at the upcoming elections in 2025. DEI programs are quickly becoming a thing of the past as people are realizing, that like most progressive programs, it is about division and paying folks with other people’s money to do a job or policy that is not needed.
Well said Bob and John. Let me echo your statements and further state that if council passes this nonsense our mayor should veto it!!!!
You do realize the Mayor in our city form of government does not have veto power, right? The Mayor only leads the city council as a member of the council. The mayor has no more authority in approving or disapproving any city action then any other member of city council.
Government and corporate organizations hiring consultants to evaluated departments, teams, programs, etc within an organization is very common. In fact it is generally a good sign that the organizations doing this are sincere and serious in their efforts to make these departments, teams, programs, etc the best possible.
I use to manage four government labs that established the industry standard and benchmarks not just in the US but internationally. We would have consultants come in once every two to three years to evaluate or labs – our policies, procedures and operations. Every time we got high marks from these consultants along with some recommendations were we could possibly make some improvement. Since we always came out so good many people complained these “outside” audits were a waste of money and time. But this was simply because they were focused on the wrong thing, the report itself and not its impact.
First these consultant reports improved the confidence of everyone working in these labs as to their competency in doing their jobs as well as quality of their work. Never underestimate the value to employ moral when they can not just claim to be the best but produce a report that proves it.
Second these consultant reports provided everyone in the industry with greater confidence in the standards and benchmarks we propagated to them. This directly affected the confidence of organizations that directly and indirectly did business with the industry in question. And that has a direct impact economically.
Finally, just being open to these type of consultations (outside audits) demonstrates an awareness by an organization that it can develop a “corporate culture” that blinds it to problem, problems they will never see coming. It sends a clear signal to employees, contractors, the public, etc that the organization is not just giving lip service to whatever “fad” is popular but is seriously and sincerely engaged in self improvement.
As to DEI program effectiveness. These programs are fairly new so there will be organizations that just don’t get it right and as a result have a bad outcome. This does not mean these programs don’t work, but just that they require proper design and implementation to work.
It is not uncommon to have some new program that early studies indicate don’t work because they include data from organizations that simply got it wrong and failed. As the knowledge base of best practices improves for these programs the success rate increases and the value of these programs can be measure and documented. It important to remember to not through out the baby with the bath water.
In fact there was a time in US manufacturing when thing like the Demming model, Pareto analysis, statistical quality control and other modern, commonly practiced programs were laughed out the the US because of poor program performance by early adopters. But these programs did find a home in Japan, where they were and Demming were taken seriously and sincerely. These programs grew in Japan and become the means by which Japan overtook US manufacturing. Sending a message to US manufactures that they had throw out the baby with the bath water and got it wrong.
Today the Demming model, Pareto analysis, statistical quality control are thing all manufactures take seriously and include in their operations.
Never confuse the failure of a poorly executed program with the positive potential of a program. Closing the door on consultants (outside audits) is the first step in developing and implementing a program that is poorly executed and doomed to fail.
We need to face up to the truth: the reason for racial underrepresentation across a range of meritocratic fields is the academic skills gap. The reason for racial overrepresentation in the criminal justice system is the crime gap.
And let me issue a trigger warning here: I am going to raise uncomfortable facts that many well-intentioned Americans would rather not hear. Keeping such facts off stage may ordinarily be appropriate as a matter of civil etiquette. But it is too late for such forbearance now. If we cannot acknowledge the skills gap and the behavior gap, we are going to continue destroying our civilizational legacy.
Let me also make the obvious point that I am talking about group averages. Thousands of individuals within underperforming groups outperform not only their own group average but great numbers of people within other groups as well.
Here are the relevant facts. In 2019, 66 percent of all black 12th graders did not possess even partial mastery of basic 12th grade math skills, defined as being able to do arithmetic and to read a graph. Only seven percent of black 12th graders were proficient in 12th grade math, defined as being able to calculate using ratios. The number of black 12th graders who were advanced in math was too small to show up statistically in a national sample. The picture was not much better in reading. Fifty percent of black 12th graders did not possess even partial mastery of basic reading, and only four percent were advanced.
According to the ACT, a standardized college admissions test, only three percent of black high school seniors were college ready in 2023. The disparities in other such tests—the SAT, the LSAT, the GRE, and the GMAT—are just as wide. Remember these data when politicians and others vilify Americans as racist on the ground that this or that institution is not proportionally diverse.
We can argue about why these disparities exist and how to close them—something that policymakers and philanthropists have been trying to do for decades. But in light of these skills gaps, it is irrational to expect 13 percent black representation on a medical school faculty or among a law firm’s partners under meritocratic standards. At present you can have proportional diversity or you can have meritocracy. You cannot have both.
As for the criminal justice system, the bodies speak for themselves. President Biden is fond of intoning that black parents are right to fear that their children will be killed by a police officer or by a white gunslinger every time those children step outside. The mayor of Kansas City proclaimed last year that “existing while black” is another high-risk activity that blacks must engage in. The mayor was partially right: existing while black is far more dangerous than existing while white—but the reason is black crime, not white vigilantes.
In the post-George Floyd era, black juveniles are shot at 100 times the rate of white juveniles. Blacks between the ages of ten and 24 are killed in drive by shootings at nearly 25 times the rate of whites in that same age cohort. Dozens of blacks are murdered every day, more than all white and Hispanic homicide victims combined, even though blacks are just 13 percent of the population. The country turns its eyes away. Who is killing these black victims? Not the police, not whites, but other blacks.
As for interracial violence, blacks are a greater threat to whites than whites are to blacks. Blacks commit 85 percent of all non-lethal interracial violence between blacks and whites. A black person is 35 times more likely to commit an act of non-lethal violence against a white person than vice versa. Yet the national narrative insists on the opposite idea—and too many dutifully play along.
These crime disparities mean that the police cannot restore law and order in neighborhoods where innocent people are most being victimized without having a disparate impact on black criminals. So the political establishment has decided not to restore law and order at all.
First this discussion is about DEI not criminal justice reform. So any discussion of crime rates are just a distraction from the real issue, systemic prejudicial policies in occupational opportunities.
A few unpleasant facts for you Mr Knutson. Only 24% of high school graduates in the US school scored proficient or higher on math, while 40% scored below basic (lowest rating). In reading 37% scored proficient or higher while 30% are below basic. So the reality is that scores are not just low for minorities in the US but for all ethnic groups. Yes black scores on average are lower (math at 17% not 7%) but that says more about the quality of education available to them then it does there ability to learn.
Schools with 90% or greater black student body spends over $700 less per student per year then schools with 90% or greater white student body. Further schools with predominately black students do not have college prep or AP classes. Yes there are studies that say the spending difference is much less but these studies average by school district, so if a school district has only one black student its spending is put in to the average and weighted the same as a school with an almost entirely black students body. This is why you have to read the details of these studies, because some use methodology that create bias in the results.
The lower spending and not having advanced/college prep classes available to them is a big factor in why minorities are prepared at a lower level for college then white students. But high school grades and test scores are not ridge standards for college admissions. In fact every college in the US has a probationary admission policy routinely used to admit student that don’t meet the schools normal admission standards. These admissions tend to be mostly legacy students (children of past grads) or students who’s parent have made significant donations to the school. All the people I know of that have been admitted to a college in this manner have been WASPs.
If a schools can admit whites that do not meet there standard for what ever reason they can do the same for non-whites. I am not passing any judgement on these alternative admission practices (I’ve used them myself), just that they need to include (Inclusion) non-whites to provide Equity access to non-whites to these alternative admission standards that would provide greater ethnic Diversity (DEI).
Of course admission is just part of the problem, cost is an even bigger problem. The overwhelming majority of those people living at or below the poverty level are minorities. No its not because their parents are lazy, many of these parents work well over 40 hours a week. The hard truth is that there are a lot of very intelligent minorities that never get a college education because they can’t afford it. When the system denies these people a college education its not just a failure of equity and inclusion but a lose for society itself. Arguing there are not enough minorities to meet the needs of employers under these circumstances is disingenuous at best.
And lets look at these employment standards. As a college grad scientist I went through the existing hiring process that is suppose to prevent “mediocrity”. I will start by pointed out the old adage “its not what you know but who you know”. In short the standards employers use to “screen” applicants are not intended to insure the “best” applicants get considered, but to reduce the number of applicants company resources are allocated too, to a manageable number. Further all companies have alternate hiring policies just like colleges, so a system to allow for exceptions to these standards already exists. I will provide two case from my own life experience.
In college I knew a guy that was a civil engineering student. He was admitted provisionally and was only going through school because his parents were paying for it (yes he’s a WASP). He preferred to going skiing on the weekend and party during the week. He was on academic probation three time in four years and if his GPA had been 1/100th of a point lower he would not have graduated. Right after graduation he was hired by Martin Marietta (aerospace), before this company even started doing college interviews. Further after working for the company only a few month they offered to pay him to go back to grad school and get his Masters. His qualifications? His father was VP for the company.
In the other case a position for a Physicist working with non-linear optics (my Physics grad studies was non-linear optics) was filled by an applicant that did not have a degrees in Physics, no experience in non-linear optics and didn’t even know what a multivariable regression was. There qualifications? They knew the project manager.
When I was younger I use to whole hearty believe everything Mr Knutson said, but then I entered the real world and learn just how much BS all of these “standards” really are. Yes, once I learned how things really worked I did not hesitated to use these “alternate” standards to my advantage (its how I got admitted to grad school twice getting degrees that opened doors). And office functions are not just about being social they are about making connections and getting known (who you know!).
In summary, whether it is education or employment, it is more about access then ability. The most able person in the world will go nowhere if they never have access to the opportunities to use their abilities. Who you know, not what you know!
Sources?
The most consequential falsehood in American public policy today is the idea that any racial disparity in any institution is by definition the result of racial discrimination.
If a cancer research lab, for example, does not have 13 percent black oncologists—the black share of the national population—it is by definition a racist lab that discriminates against competitively qualified black oncologists; if an airline company doesn’t have 13 percent black pilots, it is by definition a racist airline company that discriminates against competitively qualified black pilots; and if a prison population contains more than 13 percent black prisoners, our law enforcement system is racist.
The claim that racial disparities are proof of racial discrimination has been percolating in academia and the media for a long time. After the George Floyd race riots of 2020, however, it was adopted by America’s most elite institutions, from big law and big business to big finance. Even museums and orchestras took up the cry.
Many thought that STEM—the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—would escape the diversity sledgehammer. They were wrong. The American Medical Association today insists that medicine is characterized by white supremacy. Nature magazine declares that science manifests one of “humankind’s worst excesses”: racism. The Smithsonian Institution announces that “emphasis on the scientific method” and an interest in “cause and effect relationships” are part of totalitarian whiteness.
As a result of this falsehood, we are eviscerating meritocratic and behavioral standards in accordance with what is known as “disparate impact analysis.”
Consider medicine. Step One of the medical licensing exam, taken during or after the second year of medical school, tests medical students’ knowledge of anatomy, physiology, and pathology. On average, black students score lower on the grading curve, making it harder for them to land their preferred residencies. Step One, in other words, has a “disparate impact” on black medical students. The solution, implemented last year, was to eliminate the Step One grading disparity by instituting a pass–fail system. Hospitals choosing residents can no longer distinguish between high and low achieving students—and that is precisely the point!
The average Medical College Achievement Test (MCAT) score for black applicants is a standard deviation below the average score of white applicants. Some medical schools have waived the submission of MCAT scores altogether for black applicants. The tests were already redesigned to try to eliminate the disparity. A quarter of the questions now focus on social issues and psychology. The medical school curriculum is being revised to offer more classes in white privilege and focus less on clinical practice. The American Association of Medical Colleges will soon require that medical faculty demonstrate knowledge of “intersectionality”—a theory about the cumulative burdens of discrimination. Heads of medical schools and chairmen of departments like pediatric surgery are being selected on the basis of identity, not knowledge.
The federal government is shifting medical research funding from pure science to studies on racial disparities and social justice. Why? Not because of any assessment of scientific need, but simply because black researchers do more racism research and less pure science. The National Institutes of Health has broadened the criteria for receiving neurology grants to include things like childhood welfare receipt because considering scientific accomplishment alone results in a disparate impact.
What is at stake in these changes? Future medical progress and, ultimately, lives.
Standards are falling in the legal profession, which came up with the disparate impact concept in the first place. Upon taking office in 2021, President Biden announced that he would no longer submit his judicial nominees to the American Bar Association for a preliminary rating. Why? According to a member of the White House Counsel’s Office, allowing the ABA to vet candidates would be incompatible with the “diversification of the judiciary.” This claim was dubious.
The ABA, after all, cannot open its collective mouth without issuing a bromide about the need to diversify the bar. Its leading members are obsessed with the demographics of corporate law firms and law school faculties. This is the same ABA that gave its highest rating to a Supreme Court nominee who as a justice would make the false claim during a challenge to Covid vaccine mandates that “over 100,000 children are in serious condition [from Covid] and many are on ventilators.”
State bar associations are also busy watering down standards to eliminate disparate impact. In 2020, California lowered the pass score on its bar exam because black applicants were disproportionately failing. Only five percent of black law school graduates passed the California bar on their first try in February 2020, compared to 52 percent of white law school graduates and 42 percent of Asian law school graduates. The lack of proportional representation among California’s attorneys was held to be proof of a discriminatory credentialing system.
The pressure to eliminate the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) requirement for law school admissions is growing, because it too has a disparate impact. As a single mother told an ABA panel, “I would hate to give up on my dream of becoming a lawyer just due to not being able to successfully handle this test.” Note the assumption: the problem always lies with the test, never with the test taker. The LSAT requirement will almost certainly be axed.
The curious state of our criminal justice system today is a function of the disparate impact principle. If you wonder why police officers are not making certain arrests, or why district attorneys are not prosecuting whole categories of crimes—such as shoplifting, trespassing, or farebeating—it is because apprehending lawbreakers and prosecuting crime have a disparate impact on black criminals. Urban leaders have decided that they would rather not enforce the law at all, no matter how constitutional that enforcement, than put more black criminals in jail.
Walgreens, CVS, and Target would rather close down entire stores and deprive their elderly customers of access to their medications than confront shoplifters and hand them over to the law, because doing so would disproportionately yield black shoplifters, as the viral looting videos attest. Macy’s flagship store in New York City was sued several years ago because most of the people its employees stopped for shoplifting were black. The only allowable explanation for that fact was that Macy’s was racist. It was not permissible to argue that Macy’s arrests mirrored the shoplifting population.
Even colorblind technology is racist. Speeding and red-light cameras disproportionately identify black drivers as traffic scofflaws. The solution to such disparate impact is the same as we saw with the medical licensing exam: throw out the cameras.
The result of this de-prosecution and de-policing has been widespread urban anarchy and, in 2020, the largest one-year spike in homicide in this nation’s history. Thousands more black lives have been lost to drive-by shootings. Dozens of black children have been fatally gunned down in their beds, in their front yards, and in their parents’ cars. No one says their names because their assailants were not police officers or white supremacists. They were other blacks.
Thank you to the 4 city council people who support DEI. DEI is a city initiative and we will remember to vote for those 4 who support it in upcoming election.
It’s fine for DEI programs to evolve,
They should. DEI isn’t going away in Naperville
The oncologist example you provided is an example of the metric used to measure racial bias that was popular in the sixties, not today. If you believe DEI is about population matching then you clearly have no idea what DEI is about and what its objectives are.
Again the majority of your post seems to be more about the criminal justice system then it is about DEI in employment opportunities. College DEI programs target faculty hiring not student admissions. It is the faculty that shapes the campus atmosphere (through policies & practices) at a college and this is how it impacts admissions, not by setting admission quotas.
College admission standard, employee applications standard, etc are not designed to insure only the best and most qualified get consideration. They are designed to reduce the number of candidates to a number that can be reasonably managed and more accurately evaluated, which has nothing to do with finding the best or most qualified.
In fact academia has been pointing out for close to a century now that grades and test score are poor measures of a person’s knowledge and abilities. They are okay as a relative measure for limited comparison within a population, but are not any good as an absolute measure. Why do institutions continue to use them? Because they are all they have. No one has yet come up with a better metric (better a poor metric then no metric at all).
That said, states setting minimum scores needed on professional & occupations tests to become licensed is actually an arbitrary process. There are no studies done to compare competence of the test takers with their test scores. It has more to do with the lobbying of professional and occupation organizations (Bar, Medical, Broker, Fiduciary, Real Estate etc Associations) for the state to set a minimum score that insures only X number of new lawyers, brokers, realtor, etc are licensed in the state each year then it does with making sure only “qualified” people get licensed. So there is no real basis to claim lowering these minimums or even setting different minimums for different groups lowers the quality of these licensees, since these scores are not about measuring anything quantifiable other then population size.
DEI is in its infancy and is still growing and developing. Like any new idea or program it will take time to figure out what works and what doesn’t. The occasion failures do not mean DEI will never work, can never achieve it objectives, only that DEI is still under development. Eventually there will be best practices for DEI that are widely accepted, just like with statistical quality control programs today.