Today’s Washington Post has a favorable profile, on page A1, of Jennifer Gratz, the name plaintiff in the suit challenging undergraduate admissions at the University of Michigan.
“We want to have a class that thinks about issues from different backgrounds,” says Mary Sue Coleman, the university’s president.
The notion galls Gratz. Atmospheres can’t be “engineered,” she says. Points for being a minority?
“That would be like me deciding, ‘Hey, I want to feed the hungry but I don’t have any means to do that, so I’m going to go rob a grocery store,'” she says. “It’s still illegal, even though my intentions are good.”
[….]
…. Walking out of the courthouse after her case had been sent to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, a protester screamed at Gratz, “racist bitch!”
“I’m exactly the opposite,” she would later say. “I’m standing up and saying people should not be treated differently because of their skin color.”
It seems ironic that neither of her parents went to college. She could have been passed over by a child of an MD or a PhD.
It seems ironic that neither of her parents went to college. She could have been passed over by a child of an MD or a PhD.
The case involving Gratz will be one that sets major precedent. As I stand on a side against affirmative action, I am not against diversity. But at what cost? I attended a high school that was about 47% Black, 47% White, 6% other. Diveristy is important, but not important enough to put another race at a disadvantage to supposedly correct the originally disadvantaged race(blacks). As stated by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution: “..nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” I have no idea how a Supreme Court Justice will be able to overlook this statement for a cause that is “in the best interest of the nation.” The question is, has affirmative action run its course, and if it hasn’t, what are the alternatives that would be less discriminatory? The bottom line is that affirmative action is reverse discrimination and it is now time to look at some other possibilities.
the funny thing about these cases is this: It is the messed up practices of this country that got affirmative action installed in the first place. I am really disappointed to hear people say things like, “well that happened in the past, get over it”, when we Stevie Wonder can clearly see that racial discrimination continues to go in this country. It is because of law that its practices can’t rear it’s ugly head as boldly as it did in the past. Yet we cannot roll over and close our eyes to the systematic, instituitional racist practices that occur every single day and it is institutions like the U of M that have to go to racial preference measures to continue to fight racial inequality. If you really want to end racial preferences then you might as well get rid of GPAs, SATs, ESSAYS, RECOMMENDATIONS and every other criteria used because the reality is that race is just another criterion used to help administrators make a decision of who is the best candidate for admissions. So, if we’re gonna harp about unfair preferences then why not go after the real issue, end the hypocrisy and get rid of all rating criteria. The bottom line is we discriminate every single day. We decide who we want to talk to based upon looks or what the economic status they have, so on and so forth. I’m not advocating that discrimination is right, I do advocate that unfair discrimination is wrong and what I mean is this: If we are going to live up to the supposed motto of America to allow every one the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness then that’s what we need to do. If we live in a society where we are forced to have to ‘play’ together and sadly this is very true in America, then we need to provide the necessary opportunities that will ensure that every American has a chance. And to all of you prestigous minorities who oppose affirmative action programs, face reality honey because chances are you arrived by Affirmative Action programs, yes even you Clarence Thomas and Colin Powell. Jennifer Gratz and Barbara Grutter I’m sorry you guys feel like you had a door shut unfairly in your faces…well darlings welcome to the world of ethnic minorities.
Interesting comment! Thanks for posting it. I think I see your
point: our history, and present, is suffused with racial and many
other kinds of discrimination (grades, recommendations, family
connections, etc.). In fact, race is only one of myriad forms of
discrimination everyone uses every day. No different, no worse.
It is thus futile to eliminate racial discrimination from our lives
— what would be the point with all those other forms still in play?
The 14th Amendment and the civil rights laws emanating from it
were thus illusions — noble and well-intentioned, perhaps, but illusions
just the same. The old American creed — that everyone should be judged
“without regard” for race, creed, or color — was appealing as rhetoric but
both impossible and undesirable as policy. Since the barrier of non-discrimination
principle we attempted to build to prevent the majority from trampling
on the rights of the minority didn’t work, and in fact now even serves to
block some favorable treatment of minorities, we should tear it down, or
at least continue to ignore it when convenient. An America where the
“without regard” creed and the various non-discrimination laws built on
it had been abandoned, where racial preferences were no longer seen to
violate any important principle, would obviously be a more appealing place
for minorities and others than what we have now, with all those conservatives
running around quoting Justice John Marshall Harlan from Plessy (“Our Constitution
is colorblind”) and Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream Speech.”
You go girl-I have known to many well formed and deserving white people who have been turned away because of affirmative action. It is very Ignorant of Monique Bluse (or however you spell her name) to say that affirmative action is not a form of choosing one over another or numbers. Well dear, yes it is. It is a quota system that is used most widely by the Postal Service and Government bid jobs. If you don’t have the right number of minorities working for you (a percentage, otherwise known as a number!)then you get passed up, even if you are the lowest bidder and/or the best man/woman for the job.
I think the lawsuit is a good thing, mostly because I hate the idea that I might get into a college based on the fact I’m black. I want to get into college because of my hard work, not my color. But what irks me about Jennifer, is that she keeps talking about how humalited she was and things like that. I also saw something where she was saying her dream of being a doctor(?) was shattered because she wasn’t admitted. Well, I’m sorry she didn’t get in ,adn the reason sucks, but it’s not like there aren’t any other good med schools out there. And if it was her DREAM then not getting in U. of Mich. shouldn’t have made her dream die. I didn’t get into my first choice and I didn’t say “Oh, well, since I didn’t get in, I must not be good enough to be a doctor.”. I’m going on with my dream, just like she should’ve. I hope she wins her case, but I really want her not focus on her humilation, and to focus on getting rid of AA. I hope I made sense.
I have a question. Why are Asians not classified as minorities in the educational
arena? Is it because they would pose too much competition forAfrican-American
and Hispanic students if included in affirmative action quotas? If you want affirm-
ative action, at least be honest enough not to discriminate against other minorities.
She went after the wrong people. I am sure that there were white applicants that where not as well qualified as she was. In the end, she did attend University of Michigan, at a different campus and was put out by not receiving admission to Ana Arbor. It seems a petty thing to sue over, in my humble opinion. Although it would be nice to let everyone go to college where they want, it didn’t happen.
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The idea of affirmative action is not to “disadvantage” one race to benefit another. It is to create a more equal playing field. Right now, White-Male Americans get to start out ahead of everyone else…affirmative action doesn’t hold them back…it just allows Minorities and Women to catch up faster. I say this as a white-male…and as a student at the University of Michigan. I thank God that Gratz lost her original case…she would have ultimately been an embarrassment for UM and has become one for the state as a whole.
Shame on her!