Carlos Mencia on equality

I never really was fond of Mencia’s style of humor (I always found him too noisy), but I have to agree with this sketch.

I guess this is one of those instances where we all have to be careful as to what degree we should agree with the skit. I guess I say the skit, because we all know no decent person would actually do that in public – even if we actually share the same sentiments.

I particularly love the whole women part – because it’s mostly true. I guess that’s why I can’t take feminists seriously – because that’s exactly the double standard they end up wishing for – whether they admit it or not.

Just think of all the “extra” perks a woman expects from the other sex. Like how they expect men to open their doors, how they don’t want men to treat them as sex objects, etc. Basically all those things that are clearly different from men¹ – things that what we men obviously don’t expect from them. Take all of that – then put in the whole fact that there are still feminists lobbying for whatever the hell additional rights they claim to be denied from them.

Just thinking about it makes my head hurt.

Now lets go to the “special” individuals; which for now I will limit to the mentally handicapped.

I’ve always been humored by the concept of mainstreaming. Mainstreaming is where you would put a mentally handicapped person among normal individuals in a learning environment in the hopes that they would be able to somewhat overcome their handicap and carry on normally.

What usually happens though, is that the handicapped person still has to have special consultation hours outside class hours to try to go over whatever was “learned” from the day.

Whatever people say, I’d say that this is almost certain to happen because you can’t possibly expect anyone who’s mental capacity is behind to keep up with the more advanced stuff, whether it be grasping the concepts of what is supposed to be for a higher mental level, or the simple fact of understanding the level of language actually used in those scenarios.

My girlfriend teaches SPED (Special Education) and she says that the most advanced capacity of a mentally retarded individual usually can equal an 11-year-old’s intelligence – and is said to be very rare. Most of the time they’ll have the mental capacity of toddlers who [if lucky] know how to speak straight.

And then you try mainstreaming that with say regular basic math classes. HOW THE HELL ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO EVEN GRASP THE CONCEPT OF MATHEMATICS WHEN THEY CAN’T SPEAK RIGHT YET? I’m not even going to bother about reading part. How are you supposed to convey such concepts when even their mode of communication isn’t fully developed yet? Do you notice that it’s common among pre-school teachers that they speak extra slowly to the kids just so the kids could understand what they’re saying. Now imagine a mainstreaming scenario where everyone speaks normally, and you put in a child with MR who can’t talk or listen well.

I’m not saying that they can’t learn eventually, but mainstreaming? Come on! What will happen is they’ll pull everyone else down with them. This is where “equality” can be very irritating. For Christ’s sake, just call a spade a spade! I would understand mainstreaming for people with mild-autism or something. Dyslexia or autism still can grant you a normal mental capacity.² But if you’re retarded, that means your mind can only go so far – so stop even trying to do something you already know will not work.

For the most part, I really don’t see a point in mainstreaming. I honestly don’t want regular classes having to adjust their rate of learning just so no one gets left behind. As noble as that is, what you’ll end up dumbing down everyone over time. And if you don’t adjust the pace and stay sharp, then the special children don’t have a prayer of keeping up. So either way, it’s really counter productive for one or the other.

For those people who specialize in mainstreaming, I salute you – as you found a way to make money out of a really dumb idea. The only benefit I see from mainstreaming is that it helps with social tolerance. The special kids will get used to interacting with normal people, and vise-versa – but as far as learning goes, forget it! And of course it’s good for politicians. It allows them to suck up to all those parents who are in denial with their special children.

For the record, should I have a special child, I will accept them, love them with all my heart, and do whatever I can to help them. But don’t think for a second that I’ll feel blessed with such a child. Because let’s face it, after you strip out all politically correct euphemisms that butter everything up, “special children” are ultimately defective in the strictest sense of the word – you think that the fact that they don’t act normally would’ve given you a clue already… sheesh!

So while I would be upset, I wouldn’t take it against anyone who “discriminates” my special child within reasonable circumstances.³ Of course, that doesn’t mean I will let people insult or make fun of him/her.

I guess I don’t need to discuss the physically handicapped because Mr. Mencia already summed the whole thing up, but I will mention one thing I hate about “special treatment”

In my batch, we had a blind student. She was brilliant and everything – very amiable person. But the fact was that come awarding of who was supposed to be valedictorian, there was one other normal person who _clearly_ had the better overall marks. Still, the school gave it to this blind girl.

This is not to say that she was below-par in terms of academics. She was indeed deserving of the highest marks. My point is that if you really want to split hairs about it. If you really want equality… the simply answer was to give the honor to the person who was the BEST – and she wasn’t the best in our batch.

It’s not a question of who’s more deserving because both of them probably worked their asses off to get to their standing. So what makes this blind girl more deserving that the normal person who worked just as hard as her to get the grade? You’ve gotta be kidding me if you think her being blind should even be a factor.

Equality… feh!