It's almost laughable, but whenever I turn on my TV, I'm confronted by an alternate reality: white males are dotards, whereas minorities, seemingly the majority in every commercial, are practically perfect.  Maybe that's true in the White House, but not at large.  This representation of minorities as over-achieving heroes may assuage DIE sensibilities, but it will not narrow the persistent achievement gaps.

In the movie Being There, Peter Sellers plays Chance (Chauncey) Gardiner.  Chauncey has connections, is presentable, and dons nice clothes.  He is also really stupid, which may be why the intelligentsia hang on his every word.  His "wisdom" comes from two endeavors: gardening and watching TV.  Actually, TV so represents his reality that if he were watching today, he'd presume that white people, especially males, are a bumbling minority.

Non-white males, by contrast, are full of wit, benignly tolerating hapless white imbeciles while guiding them through life's challenges.  In this fake world, Chauncey would presume that minorities disproportionately contribute to the betterment of society, whereas white nincompoops are a bunch of silly sods bumbling from one mishap to another.  Immersed in the perverted Hollywood scripts, there'd be little indication that white people are still the majority of our population.

Doctors, judges, lawyers, scientists, entrepreneurs, even Queen Cleopatra...they are characters disproportionately played by minorities.  This special treatment does a disservice by overstating their status in the make-believe, while glossing over their struggles, sometimes self-imposed.  It deflects attention from lingering achievement gaps in just about every endeavor except sports and hip-hop.  That's most unfortunate, because we know that black and Hispanic students perform well in charter schools compared to public schools, something fake news underreports.  Narrowing the education gap requires Being There.

Our society has been infected with systemic wokeism, including DIE managers organizing mandatory workshops promulgating purported white privilege.  One example of this, from an Ohio State University workshop, is that "I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented" (emphasis added).  Well, whites may be represented, but certainly not favorably.  In fact, white men have been so browbeaten by media outlets that even their wives have become infuriated, coming to their husbands' defense.

A modern-day Chance Gardiner, living vicariously through his TV, would be shocked to discover that black and Hispanic women accounted for a tiny percentage of U.S. doctors in recent years.  Their low numbers partially reflect low expectations, perhaps.  Incongruously, white male doctors are scarce in fake media.

An American Thinker contributor once astutely asked, "Where have white male doctors gone?"  He noted that white male physicians are a "faint and failing minority," at least in Hollywood and the liberal advertising industry.  A similar prospect befalls white male judges: they still dominate the judiciary but are rarely portrayed positively on TV.

It must be such bizarre misrepresentations that simple-minded Biden — who shares traits with delusional Chauncey but is not as endearing — is viewing on his secret TV in the Oval Office.  The well dressed dunce is mimicking fake media portrayals by making appointments that a considerable majority of Americans — living in the real world — view as incompetent.

The uncreative cretins in namby-pamby land view everything through the tainted prism of identity politics.  This cultural totalitarianism may inhibit initiative to close the persistent achievement gaps in educational performance and professional attainment by concocting a delusional narrative.  In fact, condescendingly insisting that "white identified people" need to build skills is a false negative that may encourage complacency.  Indubitably, minorities also need to build their skillsets to avoid what George W. Bush called "the soft bigotry of low expectations."

That bigotry is still manifested in things like "equitable grading systems."  I suppose that's one way to narrow the achievement gap — in a self-perpetuating race to the bottom.  According to research from the Heritage Foundation, that can "cause students to expect little from themselves.  In conjunction with a lack of expectations at home, children can easily lose motivation to succeed academically."

Role models and mentors in real life can inspire, but on TV, they are often sports figures who can't substitute for broken-down nuclear families.  The author of this study notes that "[a] large percentage of both white and nonwhite boys named sports figures they saw on television as role models."  Unless they are athletic "freaks," way out to the far right on the Bell Curve, it won't do much to address disparities in educational and occupational performance.

Rather than always glorify minorities in fake media, multiculturalists would better serve their constituents by focusing on skill-building and increasing self-awareness.  In other words, adhere to their own workshop agendas and practice what is in their own white privilege seminars, but look inward.  Projecting blame for their struggles will only perpetuate their low expectations.

Whatever remnants of so-called white privilege remain, some have actually been earned — earned — by work martyrs who pull themselves up by their bootstraps.  Rather than television, rather than telework, rather than telephone, rather than teleconferences, they believe in Being There with real mentors.

Minorities in America can absolutely overcome the bigotry of low expectations with some audacity of hope.  A good place to start is not in the coddling tentacles of fake media, but in the study hall at a charter school.  Put down the gun, and pick up a book.

Image via Pixnio.