Privilege Envy Syndrome

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I recently came across an article about school segregation that twisted my undies a bit. The article was written by Whitney Pirtle, a professor at the University of California Merced, and she believes that schools that identify students who are strong academically in order to provide those students with a more challenging curriculum are practicing “segregation.” Yep, according to Mrs. Pirtle, Jim Crow is alive and well in 2019. And the reason why Mrs. Pirtle came to this conclusion is simple: Blacks are underrepresented in gifted and talented education (GATE).

What I’d like to do now is go through the article and point out the claims that twisted my undies. Mrs. Pirtle’s claims are in quotation marks and highlighted in red. My responses directly follow her claims and are in normal text. Here we go.

“Black students make up nearly 17 percent of the total student population nationwide. Yet less than 10 percent of students in GATE are black….The implication is clear: Black students are regularly excluded from schools’ conceptions of what it means to be gifted, talented, or advanced.”

Call me nuts, but isn’t the point of GATE to push our most talented students and make sure the United States remains economically competitive and technologically advanced? Why should she or anyone else for that matter be concerned with the racial and ethnic makeup of our most talented students?

To show how unseemly Mrs. Pirtle’s position is, let’s apply her logic to another area of American life that falls way short of perfect racial representation:

Whites make up roughly 76 percent of the US population. Yet less than 30 percent of the players in the NFL are white….The implication is clear: White footballers are regularly excluded from the NFL’s conception of what it means to be gifted, talented, or advanced.

What would you think of me if I advanced the above claim? You might give my concerns some credence if I pointed to hundreds of All-American D1 white footballers with 4.3 speed being mysteriously ignored by the NFL draft. But I don’t offer any evidence that white footballers are being systematically discriminated against. I’m just citing the demographics of the league and implying that the underrepresentation of white footballers is the result of nefarious owners and coaches. And because I don’t offer any evidence of anti-white discrimination, you might come to the conclusion that I’m nothing but a racial chauvinist—someone who wants more whites in the NFL just because I’m white.

Is Mrs. Pirtle a racial chauvinist? It sure looks that way. She provides no concrete evidence that large numbers of black students are crushing GATE admission exams and being systematically denied admission to GATE. All she is doing is citing the demographics of GATE and implying that the underrepresentation of black students is the result of nefarious school administrators and teachers.

Mrs. Pirtle can’t point to anti-black discrimination because it doesn’t exist. Black students simply don’t do as well as other races on GATE admission exams, particularly Asian students. To be fair to Mrs. Pirtle, however, she does offer a number of reasons why black students aren’t crushing GATE admission exams. Here are her four main culprits.

“A history of racist policies, such as housing segregation and unequal funding, means that schools with a high proportion of black students often have resource constraints for specialized programs.”

The links that presumably back the claim that black students suffer widespread “resource constraints” don’t provide any concrete evidence. The first link points to an interview of Eve Ewing, the author of a book about recent public school closings in Chicago. The second link points to the Amazon page of a book titled Inequality in the Promised Land.

Since Mrs. Pirtle hasn’t provided any concrete evidence about the “resource constraints” that black students face, I decided to do a little digging myself. In the table below, I compare the high-proportion white school district I attended on Long Island (Plainview) to two high-proportion black school districts on Long Island (Roosevelt and Hempstead). I also included another high-proportion white school district on Long Island (Massapequa) to show that black students aren’t the only students who face “resource constraints.”

I could see resources being an issue if high-proportion black school districts only had half the per-pupil spending of high-proportion white school districts and teachers in high-proportion black school districts were paid considerably less than teachers in high-proportion white school districts. But that’s not the case here. The per- pupil spending in Roosevelt and Hempstead is more than 90 percent of the per-pupil spending in Plainview (93 percent and 94 percent, respectively). Is having a “resource constraint” of 6 or 7 percent enough to crater student outcomes? Perhaps. But Massapequa faces an 11 percent “resource constraint” and its students perform comparably to Plainview’s students.

“Resource constraints” may indeed be an issue for black students across the country. Just because I didn’t find it to be an issue on Long Island doesn’t mean it isn’t an issue elsewhere. But then again, I’m just a schmuck blogger. I’m not a college professor. If “resource constraints” are indeed an issue, Mrs. Pirtle should have no problem providing her readers with at least one concrete example of it. The fact that she doesn’t leads me to believe that “resource constraints” is a fake issue.

“Teachers’ biases against black students limit their chances for selective advanced opportunities.”

The study referenced in the link looks at teacher perceptions of a bunch of kindergarteners in 1999. The teachers thought black kindergarteners, in general, were weak in literacy and math relative to their non-black peers. The researchers then examined how these kindergarteners did in the first grade and concluded that their teachers were “biased” because black first-graders’ academic performance was somewhat better than expectations (i.e., they did a little better than their teaching ratings would suggest).

But did these teachers really exhibit bias? One of the measures of academic performance is how students progressed over the course of the first grade. Isn’t it possible that black first-graders made more gains in literacy and math than their non-black peers but still remained weak in literacy and math relative to their non-black peers? Consider the following table.

Since the researchers don’t provide first-grade test results, I have no idea if the above table approximates what actually occurred. But it’s entirely possible. And if the above table approximates what actually occurred, the researchers’ definition of teacher “bias” is a bit screwed up.

Quick aside. I read this study a few times and it is the epitome of academic gobbledygook. But maybe I’m the problem. Maybe I’m just too dense. If you’ve read this study and believe it shows clear-cut evidence of teacher bias against black first-graders, please explain it to me. And if you can explain to me how this alleged teacher bias is partially responsible for the struggles black students exhibit on GATE admission exams seven or eight years later, we really need to talk.

“Admissions into gifted programs and specialized schools are based on a singular standardized test that often ignores qualifications aligned with a student’s training and does not capture black students’ potential.”

Again, I turn to the NFL. Whites are underrepresented in the NFL. Imagine if I averred that the reason for this is that the NFL draft—because strength and athletic ability is evenly distributed amongst the various races—is primarily based on a singular speed test (i.e., the 40-yard dash) that often ignores qualifications aligned with a footballer’s training and does not capture white footballers’ potential. Would you take me seriously?

My claim would have more merit if I had evidence that the 40-yard dash is a poor measure of speed. Likewise, Mrs. Pirtle’s claim would have more merit if she had evidence that the typical GATE admission test is a poor measure of academic ability. But Mrs. Pirtle provides no such evidence. All she does is provide a link to an article that decries the results of New York City’s GATE admission test.

“Minority students, particularly black students, are also often over-policed, which can affect their educational opportunities.”

Am I being “over-policed” because I practically have to strip naked and walk through a metal detector at the airport? “Over-policed” is a very loaded term. The implication is that our authorities, both in and out of school, are picking on black students for no reason other than racial animus.

But is this really the case?

Last month I had a post that linked to a YouTube video of several fast-food joints in Detroit. Each of these fast-food joints had a feature that I’ve never seen in a fast-food joint before—namely, bullet-proof glass.

Now a question. Are the owners of these fast-food joints “over-policing” their employees and customers because their employees and customers are overwhelmingly black? Of course not. The owners of these fast-food joints incurred the expense of bullet-proof glass because 1) armed robberies are a serious threat and because 2) bullet-proof glass is the only way to ensure the safety of their employees and their profits. In other words, it’s not black skin that’s driving “over-policing,” it’s black behavior. If blacks in Detroit committed armed robberies at the rate of, say, Asians in San Francisco, there wouldn’t be bullet-proof glass in any of these fast-food joints.

And the same motivation applies to those running high-proportion black schools. These particular administrators aren’t incurring the cost of security guards and metal detectors because they want to play mind games with their black students. They’re incurring the cost of security guards and metal detectors because they want to keep the violence that young black people have a disproportionate inclination towards for out of the school (see Table 21B).

“Over-policing” is another fake issue. Keeping guns, knives, and fisticuffs out of the classroom can’t possibly make the task of preparing for GATE admission tests harder for black students.

The Personal Finance Angle

A lot of my posts lately really haven’t had a personal finance angle (see here, here, and here). I seem to be more interested in challenging conventional wisdom than regurgitating the same personal finance pap that has been relentlessly regurgitated many times over by far more capable bloggers. And this one seemingly falls into the “challenge conventional wisdom” category as well. But alas it doesn’t. Take a gander at some more Pirtle wisdom.

“But even moderately privileged parents have knowledge that benefits their children—they can teach their kids how to negotiate educational opportunities for themselves—asking for an extension on an assignment or talking their way out of punishment for misbehaving, for example….More important, privileged parents contribute to these racial disparities in advanced education, intentionally or not, when they hoard educational opportunities for their already privileged children.”

First, Mrs. Pirtle has a very strange definition of “hoarding.” Are black people “hoarding” professional football opportunities? Hell no. Black people ain’t “hoarding” shit. They’re just out-competing other races. Likewise, the children of “privileged” parents ain’t “hoarding” shit either. They’re just out-competing the children of parents who Mrs. Pirtle and other Progressives have deemed “underprivileged.”

Second, let’s cut to the chase. What does Mrs. Pirtle want for her sons and other black students? Let’s for argument’s sake say she wants them to be strong in SAT-level algebra by the time they leave the 11th grade. What does that require?

It requires competent math teachers and effort. That’s it. It doesn’t require GATE, AP classes, iPads, and fancy software produced by some politically connected education consultant. Way back in the stone age, when I was muddling through lower education, we didn’t have GATE, AP classes, iPads, and fancy software. Heck, we didn’t even have calculators. And, yet, despite this lack of “privilege,” my bright classmates who took education seriously managed to learn algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus.

If Mrs. Pirtle would just open her eyes, she would see that there is no shortage of competent math teachers for her sons and every other black student in the country. Average per-pupil spending in the United States is $11,762. The average classroom size is 20.8. This means the typical classroom generates $244,649.60 in tax revenue. Now I’m the first one to argue that our public school administrators are poor stewards of our tax dollars. But there isn’t a gaggle of public school administrators out there who are so incompetent or corrupt that they can’t manage to hire a competent math teacher with the $244K they get for every 20 kids in their school. Bottom line: Every public school in the country hires math teachers, and an overwhelming majority of these math teachers are competent and caring.

But wait. There’s more. Who said a competent math teacher can only be an adult that the state hires to stand in front of a classroom? Here are some other competent math teachers that are readily available to Mrs. Pirtle’s sons and every other black student in the country.

• Peers. I learned a lot of math from my peers, especially in college. In fact, if it weren’t for this wonderful girl in my dorm who graciously helped me with my calculus homework, I never would have passed Calculus I in college. And all you have to do to access these amazing math teachers is ask for help. “Hey, how the hell do you factor polynomials? Explain it to me.”
• Books. I googled “best books for high school algebra,” and the second result that Google spit out pointed to 20 algebra books. Sixteen of these books cost less than $14. But if you want to be super cheap when it comes to accessing competent math teachers, there’s always the public library. I’m sure every public library in the country has a bevy of algebra books.
• Blogs. I googled “best blogs for high school algebra,” and here are ten from the first hit in the Google results.
  • dy/dan
  • Math = Love
  • Continuous Everywhere but Differentiable Nowhere
  • Crazy Math Teacher Lady
  • Welcome to Lucas Math
  • mathcoachblog | Ramblings of a HS Math Teacher
  • Teaching High School Math
  • Drawing on Math
  • Mrs. Newell’s Math
  • Reflections of a High School Math Teacher
• YouTube. Again, I searched “high school algebra” and here are five channels that came up on the first page of the results.
  • mathantics
  • UltimateAlgebra
  • MathHelp.com
  • Mario’s Math Tutoring
  • Khan Academy

Access to competent math teachers is neither a problem for Mrs. Pirtle’s sons nor any black student in America. And since no one that I’m aware of is physically restraining black students from studying math, the effort component of mastering SAT-level algebra shouldn’t be an issue either. But it is. And here’s why.

Mrs. Pirtle, I’m afraid to say, is suffering from “privilege envy syndrome.” She’s so rattled by the fact that others have more, she’s blind to the fact that she has enough. And because she’s blind to her abundance, she’s poisoning the ability of her sons and other black students to take advantage of their good fortune.

The Scourge of Privilege Envy Syndrome

The point of this post isn’t to pick on Mrs. Pirtle. Nor is this post a riff on the state of education in general or black education in particular. This post is about a mindset that is turning countless Americans into excuse-making losers who have been rendered totally impotent by envy. Yes, just like Mrs. Pirtle, millions of Americans suffer from privilege envy syndrome. And nowhere is this more evident than in the realm of personal finance. “I can’t possibly save $100 a month. I wasn’t born on third base. My parents couldn’t buy my way into Harvard.”

In future posts, I will be exploring the scourge of privilege envy syndrome as it relates to personal finance. For now, though, never forget the one intelligent scribbling I managed to compose in this wretched blog:

Just because others have more doesn’t mean you don’t have enough!!!

And never forget that even though you’re not a One Percenter, you have all the opportunity, resources, and tools you need to make a great financial life for yourself.

Stop worrying about what others have.

Stop making excuses.

Work hard.

Open your eyes and start taking advantage of the opportunity that is bristling all around you.

Learn to be happy with less.

Save.

It really isn’t that hard once you’ve freed yourself from the scourage of privilege envy syndrome.

Final Thoughts

Okay, groovy freedomist, that’s all I got. What say you? Is privilege envy syndrome a thing that is hampering the financial advancement of millions of Americans? Or is privilege envy syndrome the figment of my Alt-FI imagination? Let me know what you think when you get a chance. Peace.