Detroit's Own Special Snowflake Makes An Affirmative Action Fool of Herself

Some people want 15 minutes of fame, some end up with 15 minutes of abject stupidity.

The farcical show put on by Brooke Kimbrough, the Detroit student whose grades and test scores were inadequate to get her admission into University of Michigan and has become as sort of progressive unworthy cause celebre continues.

In an interview with The Free Press's own Mitch Albom, which is about as softball an interviewer you can get, she comes across as nothing more than a Detroit version of Veruca Salt - spoiled and told she should feel good about herself and that she should be able to go anywhere she wants, test scores and grades be damned...because, you know, racism.

The Detroit Free Press: Mitch Albom: Denied Michigan hopeful learns tough lesson

As we'll see in the interview, she hasn't learned squat. Over at the article there's a pic of her holding a sign demanding her admission and an end to the "racist admission policy"...you know, racism based on ranking by grades without accounting for skin color, 'cause grades be racist.

First, we should remember that Brooke Kimbrough is still in high school. She is, as the Beatles once sang, just 17.

So even if she ruffled feathers this past week claiming she should have been admitted to the University of Michigan — despite lower grades and test scores — because she is African American and the school needs diversity, the best thing is not to insult her or dismiss her.

The best thing is to talk to her.

So I did.

Like I said, real softball.

I began by asking Brooke about her high school — because I’ve been there. University Prep Academy is one of the top charter schools in Detroit. It looks like a college campus, its teachers are first-rate, its classrooms are small — thanks to a $15-million gift from philanthropists Bob and Ellen Thompson.

The Thompsons are white. Most students at U Prep are black. So Brooke is already a beneficiary of cross-racial efforts; she didn’t have to endure an overcrowded, uninterested high school. In fact, the Thompsons demanded that U Prep retain at least 90% of its kids and get 90% of them into college every year.

In other words, they insisted on excellence.

When I asked Brooke why it’s wrong for U-M to set a similar bar (she was denied admission with below the U-M averages of a 3.6 GPA and a 23 on the ACT) she said U-M needed to “represent the state. Blacks are about 14% of the population, so it should be 14% roughly.”

So she's already getting to attend an excellent high school and has opportunities to succeed, but she then immediately discounts things like grades to insist instead on representation by racial composition.

After demanding such a proportional representation policy, she doubles down and refuses to let the facts and logical consequence of such a policy confuse her.

I pointed out that whites were 79% of Michigan’s population, but officially 57% of U-M’s, so should we adjust that up? “That’s ludicrous,” she said, claiming it should only apply to minorities. I then noted U-M was 11% Asian American, but our state was only 2%. Should we adjust down?

“I don’t understand what you’re asking,” she said.

In other words, affirmative action based on proportional representation for Brooke but not for thee.

Really, Brooke can't even answer softball questions from Mitch Albom. Remember, she was touted as a champion debater on her school's debate team, the competition may not have been all that bright or was she just getting affirmative action credit during her debates as well?.

Brooke will now ever be known as a whiner and a failure, and for her ludicrous yelling as if her deinal to be admitted was a civil rights violation on a par with past actual discrimination:

“I believe that I have been rejected because of the morals that I stand for! I am Harriet (Tubman)! I will take back my freedom as a tool to help the others. I have left the plantation. ...

“I am Ida B. (Wells)! I will make it my civic duty to document every noose of a rejection letter that the university produces to our black, brown and red bodies!”

Not rejected based on morals Brooke, you were rejected because your grades and ACT score didn't measure up and that over-the-top, poor me, whinging sure doesn't help.

While she likely lacks a bright future in the real world given that she now has a track record of pulling tantrums and screaming racism when she doesn't get her way, she likely has a bright future in the progressive race-baiter business.

Sandy Mucks Up Michiganian Absentee Attempts

Superstorm Sandy affecting Michigan voting; some to miss out because of late ballots

Superstorm Sandy caused so much disruption on the East Coast that New Jersey officials allowed displaced residents to vote by e-mail in today's election.

What could possibly go wrong? On the upside, New Jersey is a blue state lock in any case, so they just need to reduce the totals to the number of actual registered living voters and it might turn out a wash.

But that's not all the disruptions and there's now a few Michiganians suffering votus interruptus:

But the storm also disrupted the absentee voting plans for a few Michigan residents visiting the area affected by the Oct. 29 storm that caused widespread flooding and power outages.

Not a lot of sympathy. if you were planning to be out of town, you could have already received your absentee ballot, had it sent to your home address for forwarding or made some other arrangement. It's not like no one warned that Sandy was coming to visit.

On the other hand, I can understand and sympathize with the problem faced by Richard Bernstein:

Pummeled first by a bicycle on a New York City sidewalk in August and then by Sandy, blind Oakland County attorney Richard Bernstein, 38, said Monday he's afraid he won't get to vote today for the first time since he turned 18.

Michigan Secretary of State officials said Bernstein is out of luck after the storm delayed delivery of his absentee ballot to a New York hotel, where he is recuperating from the smashed pelvis he suffered when a fast-moving cyclist struck him from behind in Central Park.

Bernstein spent nearly 10 weeks in Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan as a result of his injuries before moving to the hotel Oct. 26 to continue his rehabilitation as an outpatient.

He said he applied for his absentee ballot the same day he got a fixed address, and Birmingham City Clerk Laura Broski said Monday that her office mailed the ballot to his hotel Oct. 30.

Bernstein's ballot still hadn't arrived Monday and officials with the Michigan Secretary of State are "basically saying I don't get to vote," Bernstein said. "I don't think that's really fair."

Of course, he probably should have had it delivered to his Michigan address back before the storm and brought up by family when they came to visit him - or he could likely have had it mailed to him at the hospital or sent via Fedex by his family to the Hospital. He's a smart guy and unfortunately didn't anticipate Sandy slowing down the arrival of his ballot.

I'm sure he had a lot more going on considering he's recovering over the past 10 weeks and I'd bet he didn't really think about getting an absentee ballot while he was laid up.

And in another interesting example, for which I have no sympathy:

Sharon Lipton of Waterford said she was going to deliver absentee ballots to her daughters Sara and Andrea, who are staying in New York, but she was unable to travel there because of the storm.

She instead filled out their ballots for them according to their instructions and signed as having assisted them to vote. But officials in Waterford told her that the ballots won't be counted.

"I am going to pursue this," Lipton said Monday.

Good luck with that. Again Proper Planning Prevents Poor or in this case missed Performance. Fedex is your friend. So no, you can't fill out other people's ballots for them as that is one heckuva bad precedent to set regardless of for whom you might be casting those ballots.