The Washington Post has an Associated Press article that can best be described as a pro-preferences puff piece.
The state of Tennessee provides an Institute for Pre-Law whose mission is to prepare blacks (and, apparently, only blacks) for law school. Although according to the article it does a good job, this sounds like one of those state-sponsored race-exclusive programs whose days are numbered.
The beneficiaries of the pre-law institutue argue that it “simply helps get the word out to qualified students who, otherwise, might never consider law.” But the institute, with its rigorous prep program extending over three summers, is considerably more than a megaphone. Even its get-the-word-out function seems a bit exaggerated.
“It’s almost similar to the slaves being freed – and someone who’s never been off the plantation,” says Cedrick Wooten, a first-year student who attended the pre-law program while he was an assistant principal for the Memphis public schools. “Access means nothing if you don’t know about it.”
An assistant principal would hardly seem to be analagous to a recently freed slave just off the plantation.
The law school at the University of Memphis (aka Memphis State University) has 50 black students out of a student body of around 450. Special admissions treatment for them is justified as necessary for “diversity,” but one wonders about the numbers, undiscussed in the article, of other possible diversity-enhancing groups at Memphis. How many Catholics, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims are there? How many Asians (from which national backgrounds?), Hispanics (ditto), Europeans are there?
Doesn’t the demand for “diversity,” if sincere, require attention to such questions, or is “diversity” only a euphemism for black? But even if it is, I wonder how many blacks would continue to favor diversity-justified preferences if there numbers were limited to make more room for others.
After reading article on CNN.com, sent the following to ceousa…
To: email hidden; JavaScript is required
Subject: minority admission set asides at Univ of Memphis
PLEASE go after Univ of Memphis… TN has a private act declaring that for purposes of affirmative action, African Americans and females are the ONLY minorities in TN. Don’t know the cite to the private act. Expanding on this, the Univ of Memphis has a summer program known as the Tennessee Institute for Pre-Law, which is only open to African American undergraduates. Participants are paid a stipend during the summer, and if they graduate college and have a minimal LSAT score, they are GUARANTEED admission to the law school. Of course, of the 19 African Americans who started in my class, only one graduated on time and one a year late, compared to 137 whites who started and 102 that graduated on time.
In TN, affirmative action has been perverted into preference from blacks, plain and simple, and the black politicians voted in by majority black popluation of Memphis are hell bent on keeping it that way.
The Tennessee Institute Program for Pre-Law is necessary for those who without this program would not have the opportunity to further their education. I pray that it will be around for many years to come.