Minority Issues Forum December 15-16, 2008 Geneva December 16, 2008 Afternoon Session Statement by Brooks B. ROBINSON – BlackEconomics.org (NGO) To Madame Chairperson Mohacsi and to Madame Independent Expert Gay McDougall, I am Dr. Brooks Robinson speaking on behalf of the non-governmental organization BlackEconomics.org of the United States. We would like to make five important points:      First, Forum members should be careful to not suggest courses of action that entrap so-called “Minorities” in a “Catch 22” as described by Coate and Loury in their 1993 American Economic Reviewarticle, “Will Affirmative Action Policies Eliminate Negative Stereotypes.” That is, so-called “Minorities” fail to qualify themselves before the advent of “positive discrimination” because they believe that they will not be allowed to fulfill certain positions or access certain benefits. On the other hand, so-called “Minorities” fail to qualify themselves after the advent of “positive discrimination” because they believe that they will be permitted to occupy certain positions and to gain access to certain benefits—whether they are qualified or not. In either case, so-called “Minorities” do not qualify themselves and their performance is sub-par, which reinforces existing stereotypes. Second, we request that the Forum’s Recommendations include a provision that the United Nations and its members support (underwrite the cost of) research to identify methods for inoculating so-called “Minorities” from the “stereotype threat” that surfaces during academic assessments. Third, we request that the Forum’s Recommendations acknowledge more vigorously the positive benefits of segregated education under certain conditions; i.e., the positive benefits of ethnocentric elementary and secondary schools and, at the post secondary level, institutions, such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities that are quite numerous in the United States. Fourth, we extend the statements of Ms. Chin from CADRE and Mr. Parker from the ACLU that were made during the Forum’s first day proceedings. While they mentioned high incarceration rates among so-called “Minorities,” they failed to go on to request that the Forum’s Recommendations extend the list of prospective recipients of educational services to include incarcerated persons. Today, at least in the United States, we find that incarcerated populations include large so-called “Minority” populations. Often, these “Minorities” become incarcerated as a direct result of the inadequate education that they receive, and they continue to recidivate because they do not receive educational services while they are incarcerated. Finally, we request that the Recommendations highlight the adverse effects of over investment in organized (interscholastic) athletics by so-called “Minorities” on their academic performance and on the overall reduction in well-being caused by that