Eschaton

Clueless has a long screed against all things not science, engineering, or 'professional.' In other words, Liberal Arts and Humanities. He's entitled to his opinions, but it morphs into a paternalistic rant about the evils of African-American Studies in which he says:


American blacks make up 12% of our population. I brood about the fact that 12% of our best minds are going to waste, being directed away from useful study and productive contribution in science and engineering and business and law and medicine, instead to bury themselves in ideologically-warped anthropological and sociological studies of race, because they will somehow feel that they have a racial obligation to major in "Black Studies" instead of chemical engineering -- or computer engineering, where I might have been able to hire them. I think about all the miracles they would be creating, all the advances they'd produce. I think of all the fantastic work I've seen done by Chinese men and Indian women, and I know that blacks would be just as valuable. I brood over the lost opportunity, the resource wasted, the opportunity lost.


Without getting into the merits of Black Studies programs, as I (and likely nor Mr. de Beste) know little about the curriculum, I would like to point Mr. de Beste to this article.


Nationwide less than 1 percent of all African-American college students major in black studies. But at some of our highest-ranking institutions with top-rated black studies programs, the percentage of black students who select the major is significantly higher.

So, not to fear.