… said Edward Blum of the Center for Equal Opportunity, referring to the contrast between Texas A&M’s bold refusal to re-institute race preferences while Rice and the University of Texas have done so.
Blum was quoted in an interesting article in the Houston Chronicle about the growing debate in Texas spawned by these contrasting approaches. (Link via Howard Bashman)
The whole article is worth reading; one can’t be reminded too often that preferentialists such as state sen. Rodney Ellis and former Texas Southern law dean James Douglas actually argue with vehemence that refusing to discriminate on the basis of race is racist. And even though I and others have quoted these numbers before, it is also chastening to be reminded of the following:
According to the College Board, only 1,877 black students (about 1.5 percent of blacks who take the tests) scored higher than 1300 out of a possible 1600 on the SAT in 2003, and only 72 black students scored higher than 1500. Among the overall student population, 148,024 (about 10 percent of test takers) scored higher than 1300, and 13,897 earned scores higher than 1500.
Almost equally depressing to me, however, is the typical response quoted here from Douglas Laycock, an impressive (really) law professor at the University of Texas: “That’s one reason that Texas has had trouble since it went to a colorblind system, why no one’s found a way to make race-neutral admissions policies work very well….”
On the contrary, race-neutral admissions policies work very well indeed … if your goal is to free the admissions process of racial discrimination. But if some version of proportional racial representation is your goal, then of course it will be necessary to discriminate to produce and maintain it.
The article also pointed out what it called a “more compelling statistic” from the University of Texas:
nearly 80 percent of undergraduate classes have no black students — or just one. A third of the classes have no Asian-Americans or just one; and 30 percent have no Hispanics or just one.
Obviously, then, if Michigan was correct in arguing that a liberal education requires racial diversity, Texas students are being woefully deprived. Perhaps sole blacks and Hispanics should not be allowed to enroll in a class unless at least one additional black or Hispanic can be found to enroll, and whites should be required to take a certain number of classes with more than one minority students. Although this proposal may seem draconian, it is probably less severe than the standard practice of many school districts around the country to refuse requests for school transfers if doing so would have an adverse impact on the minority population of the host or target school.
Am I joking?
If students are admitted to schools based on their merits, then college can become again a place of high yet achieveable standards. In the short run that will result in smaller percentages of minority groups, but over time the numbers would increase, just as they have for other groups over decades, including Jews, women, eastern European immigrants, etc. I know I’m generalizing a bit, but human progress does not occur over two or four decades because of laws, but over many many years as a result of education and the changing practices of generations. Am I making any sense?
Rebecca,
Perfect sense. Fairness and time is all that we need in this matter.
We have to get past, “NO DISCRIMINATION!…..unless it’s in my favor.” That just doesn’t fly.
what this doesn’t take into account are the various factors that may lead to such low SAT scores, etc. It’s easier to get a 1300 if you come from a school that forces you to take the PSAT, and has the money to do so, helps you study for the SAT, or helps you find someone that can help you study for it. Also, many people take the SAT more than once- in fact a person averages an additional 50 points just by taking the SAT again. So it’s kind of hard to say that you’ll have race blind admissions, knowing about the extreme discrepancies that occur from elementary school to high school. If you want to be fair, you should a- look at a person’s economic status and not their race (which i believe texas a&M is doing) and b- foster programs that go to these low income, and/or minority areas and provide sat tutoring, etc. Or just get away from the SAT entirely. Have your own essays, and tests for admissions. With that said, as a minority i must say it is very nice to have the opportunity to attend a good school without people implying that you got there not through merit, but because of your race.