News & Views

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About Race-Based College Admissions 

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Harvard University are being sued for their race-based admissions policies, which hold Asian and White students to higher standards because of their skin color.

The lawsuits were filed by a group of interested parties, including two unnamed students who were rejected from Harvard and UNC. One had a perfect ACT score, two 800s on SAT II subject exams, and was valedictorian of his high school.

According to the InsideHigherEd website:

“What Harvard calls a holistic approach to admissions (in which applicants are reviewed individually, with a range of criteria considered) is actually a disguise for racial balancing in a system where Asian Americans are held to higher standards for admission, according to the lawsuit. As evidence, the lawsuit says that the racial demographics of Harvard’s admitted class, first-year enrollment, and total student body have remained stable over the last several years.”

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Fun and/or Interesting

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About Race and Income 

The average income for White households in the US is $72,000 a year. That is 35% higher than American households that identify as Latino, and 70% higher than African American households.

But White households are not at the top of the ladder. Asian Americans make about 25% more than that, at $98,000 a year.

Another Step Closer to the Digital Dollar 

Longtime readers know I’ve been predicting that the US will adopt a digital dollar that will ultimately replace our paper currency. And (as I noted on Feb. 3) the first step was taken on Jan. 19 with the Fed’s announcement that it was “opening a review to determine the feasibility of having a US digital dollar.”

The second step was taken last Wednesday, when President Biden issued an executive order on cryptocurrencies. Among other things, the order directed several government agencies to examine the risks and benefits of digital assets and develop a strategy for the use of digital dollars. Click here.

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Notes From My Journal

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What I Believe: About Affirmative Action

I feel about affirmative action the same way that I feel about charity. I am personally inclined to practice it, but I’m suspicious when it becomes corporate or governmental policy. As an institutional protocol, it can (and often does) do more harm than good.

When it puts people into positions they are qualified for, it can correct social imbalances, if such imbalances are the result of discrimination. But when it puts people into positions they are not qualified for, all sorts of problems arise. For the institution. For the other members of the institution. For the people the institution serves. And for the recipient of the affirmative action.

To make affirmative action work for underqualified people, there must be a commitment to provide them with the extra help they need to succeed. In my experience, that means investing in many, many hours of extra training and personal coaching. And even then, the odds are not good.

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Business & Marketing

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Sexy Titles 

Killer Profits Newsletter… The Mega-Millionaire Review…

I cringe when I see such titles appearing on our product list. “Couldn’t you have come up with something a little less cheesy?”  I’ll ask the publisher.

But they like these titles. They think they are exciting. And on point. “This is what our subscribers want,” they tell me.

I don’t agree. I don’t believe people really want killer profits. I believe most people, even those that don’t spend much time thinking about it, are much more complicated than that.

My thoughts on creating titles: Make them distinctive. Make them memorable. Make them simple. But don’t make them silly. There’s no need.

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Recommended Places

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Kyoto

Next time you are in Japan, take an extra couple of days to visit Kyoto. It’s just a few hours from Tokyo by high-speed train, but you’ll feel like you are in a different country.

Kyoto is famous for its imperial palaces, Buddhist temples, and Shinto shrines. It’s also known for preserving many formal traditions, including geishas, the tea ceremony, and the kaiseki dinner (served at the tea ceremony), which consists of multiple courses of skillfully prepared and artistically presented dishes.

Warning: Some of the “finest” kaiseki dishes are creatures that may repulse you. Eat with large glasses of beer.

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Arts & Letters

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Surrealism is coming back!

“Tailleur pour dames” (1957) by Remedios Varo 

After a decades-long fascination with abstract geometrics, the art world is, once again, warming up to Surrealism. 

Last week, for example, two important museums, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio, acquired works by the great Mexican surrealist Remedios Varo.

Surrealism is one of my favorite genres because it offers the aesthetic pleasures of representational art along with thought-provoking inconsistencies. The above image is a good example. It depicts a tailor’s showroom, where four women are outfitted in garments that appear to be in a state of transformation. A dress converts into a boa. A scarf becomes a sea. A purple cape floats into the air…

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A Word to the Wise

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a word to the wise

As a noun, advert, is, of course, an abbreviated word for “advertisement.” But when used as a verb – as in, “to advert to” something – it means turning attention to. (And, yes, there must be some connection here.) Example from The Mystery of Marie Rogêt by Edgar Allan Poe: “I have before suggested that a genuine blackguard is never without a pocket-handkerchief. But it is not to this fact that I now especially advert.”

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Readers Write

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Re my Mar. 9 essay “Becoming a Writer… in Spite of Myself”:

“My son wants to improve his writing skills. He asked what books would you recommend?” – AS

My Answer: Three that come quickly to mind are The Elements of Style by Strunk and White, On Writing Well by William Zinsser, and On Writing by Stephen King. But I’ll give you a longer list on Friday.

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Postscript

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Another vintage gem…

I’ve become a fan of Allison Young after randomly discovering her on YouTube a few weeks ago.

Here, she sings Olivia Rodrigo’s “Happier” in the style of the The Ronettes and The Shangri-Las. (With Stephanie Amber and Sunny Holiday’s backup vocals, Conrad Bauer on guitar, Adam Kubota on bass, Aaron McLendon on drums, and Maestro Scott Bradlee on piano.)

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