Another Silly Argument Against Equality

Among the many silly arguments against equality, and hence against the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI), is that minorities would not feel welcome at any institution — indeed, in any state — that treated them equally and thus refused to given them preferential treatment because of their race.

… [I]f Proposal 2 — which would ban race and gender preferences in public institutions — is enacted, officials worry the school will be viewed as unwelcoming to the minority student and faculty base it’s struggling to build.

“If people perceive a state as being hostile to their interests, it has the potential of impacting our ability to recruit,” said Paulette Granberry Russell, director of Affirmative Action, Compliance and Monitoring at Michigan State University.

Can you imagine what the response would have been if the “director of [civil rights], Compliance and Monitoring” at the University of Mississippi had warned Congress in the summer of 1964 that if the then pending Civil Rights Act passed and became law, a law that for a while barred handing out benefits or burdens based on race, Ole Miss would be regarded as unwelcoming to white people?

Say What? (4)

  1. Chauncey October 9, 2006 at 7:11 pm | | Reply

    i guess it depends on how you frame it (doesn’t everything?). if a state or school abruptly goes from “we want to give you a boost because you’re black” to “no boost for you,” then a black person might (justifiably) feel unwelcome. this strikes me as pretty obvious.

  2. John Rosenberg October 9, 2006 at 11:48 pm | | Reply

    I’m not sure this depends on how you frame it. If an organization that formerly extended special privileges to blacks stopped doing so because it decided (or the voters of the state decided for it) that in the future it was going to treat everyone without regard to their race, I don’t think any reasonable person would conclude that blacks were not welcome. Of course, if I were school czar I would make a point of saying we welcome everyone who wants to be treated equally, and no one who demands more favorable treatment than others because of race, creed, or color.

  3. John S Bolton October 10, 2006 at 3:20 am | | Reply

    What they mean really is that blacks will avoid a place where they’re not especially welcome, not getting quotas, or not as large a quota above their merit share as elsewhere. Then it will look as if one school will do nothing for blacks, when actually they’re just not giving as much favor to them as many others.

  4. Agog October 10, 2006 at 7:54 am | | Reply

    Simple solution for the welcoming dilemma — open admissions to everyone and hold a lottery to determine who gets in.

    Of course, if you do that, your reputation as an elite, “highly selective” institution will take a big whack, the alumni will howl, donations will drop off the cliff, and recruiting superstar faculty will be a lot tougher.

    But, hey, life is full of hard choices and concurrently pursuing two mutually incompatible objectives — diversity and highly selective elite status — is presently one of them. Teaching and learning that you can’t have it all your way is one of the life lessons that kindergarten, to say nothing of college, is [supposed]to be all about.

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