Although there is a certain cost in the dimunition of rights, those costs are far outweighed by the social benefits. Admitting a mistake and pulling back may appeal to some, but it is clear that “staying the course” is the better course. We owe those to whom we have made promises, and ourselves, a future “that can sustain a culture of hope.”
If you guessed that the above is a defense of the Patriot Act and our engagement in Iraq … you would be wrong. It is William Bowen, former president of Princeton and defender of affirmative action, in a speech at the University of Virginia arguing that racial preferences will probably be necessary well beyond the 25 years provisionally allotted by Justice O’Connor.
“The goal is laudable and we can certainly anticipate some progress,” he said. “But elimination of the need for racial preferences will not just happen.”
He cited the large “preparation gap” as one reason the goal seems far off, with only 16 percent of black Americans and 22 percent of Hispanic Americans reaching the “proficient” level or higher on recent national reading tests compared to 34 percent of Asian Americans and 42 percent of whites.
However, Bowen said the solution lies in “staying the course” and making improvements by taking account of race, in sensible ways, and at the same time working to reduce the need for racial preferences.
In other words, according to Bowen, because so many minorities are not academically “proficient,” selective colleges must continue to practice racial discrimination by lowering standards for them.
Bowen et. al. remind me — as, indeed, I am reminded all too often — of a powerful scene in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man in which the narrator, observing a statue on the campus of Tuskegee Institute depicting Booker T. Washington ostensibly lifting the veil of ignorance from the brow of a former slave, wonders whether instead he might unintentionally be securing it firmly in place.
UPDATE
Clayton Cramer has more to say on this.
Bowen’s solution seems to me to be like trying to flick a bullwhip by grasping and shaking the tip end.
Fenster
Isn’t time members of non-preferred groups just accepted the situation and moved on?
It isn’t as though talented members of non-preferred groups are being caste into Hell. They will just have to use their talents to navigate a somewhat less than fair system. So what? This didn’t prevent talented members of non-preferred groups from prospering in the past, and it won’t in the future.
Being the target of discrimination may actual be helpful. For example, it would be hard to develop some silly, idealistic view of your society while it openly discriminates against you on the basis of race. A person might be much more sensible about his/her choices in life knowing that the deck is stacked against them. For example, instead of thinking it might be nice to be a teacher in a poor ghetto school, such a person might be thinking how much better it would be to become a successful lawyer or businessman and forget about helping those you are discriminating against you.
And, let us not forget the major benefit of affirmative action. The talented 1/10th of the preferred population will be invested in our social and economic system, thus removing potential leaders from any nascent social or economic revolution. I haven’t forgotten the tumultous 1960’s. Things are much quieter now, and I suspect affirmative action, along with the drug epidemic, is an important reason.