At the end of his recent column in the Washington Times criticizing Justice O’Connor’s jurisprudence, or lack of it, especially in Grutter, Robert Zelnick has an interesting proposal:
But what if Barbra Grutter didn’t have to give up her place to a less qualified minority? What if both could be admitted? Suppose Michigan, under the lash of legislation, executive order or ballot initiative was compelled to enroll one non-minority student for each affirmative action beneficiary? Justice O’Connor’s constitutional mischief would not be wholly erased. But the human damage would be repaired. And in the legal muddle her opinions have produced, that is not a bad result.
That sounds expensive. Affirmative action is popular because it’s cheap and easy.
That could be easily circumvented. Just admit one less non-minority and the person just ahead of the lady would then be the recepient and she still would be out of luck.
That’s mathematically silly of Zelnick. It’s a zero-sum game by definition, because there are a fixed number of slots in an admissions class. If there are 100 slots and you admit ten AA candidates, that leaves only 90 slots for non-AA candidates.
You could expand the class by 10, but the problem just reduces to the prior problem. Then there are 110 slots, and you’re still admitting 10 less-qualified people over non-AA candidates.
Distance learning technologies could make basic college education freely available to all Americans and much of the rest of the World.
These are just more examples of white privilege run amuck. Why do many whites feel ENTITLED? Why does “non-Affirmative Action” automatically denote “qualified?” This is abominable. If all minorities were rounded up into camps and forbidden to apply to colleges, there would STILL BE WHITE PEOPLE WHO DON’T GET ADMITTED.
I guess it’s far easier for many whites to use the “Susan Smith” argument, and whine that “a black man done went and stole my spot”