The Supreme Court is expected to rule that colleges can no longer rig for racial diversity. Some say ‘that’s dangerous and cruel.’ Others say it’s about time.
Isn't it ridiculous how schools like Harvard pride themselves on being exclusive — excluding anyone, for any reason, who doesn't appear to be 'Harvard material,' but manage to think excluding on some grounds is ok, but not others? The effort involved in such tortured logic must keep them awake at nights. Harvard is *by nature* exclusive. By design. Intentionally. On purpose. Planned. Deliberate. But they're trying hard to appear *inclusive, even though it goes against their own educational ideal. So yay for being completely incoherent. They will never be actually inclusive.
What happens? The Left either allows for charter schools as required by demand, or the same problem of lower rates of minorities qualifying for our best colleges continues. That's assuming, of course, that Harvard and others do not find a new loophole.
Black and other minority parents must stop telling their children that although they may be poor, they are not stupid and do not imbue in them the sense that they will need help from rich white people to succeed. If they study hard and apply their knowledge they can succeed beyond their wildest dreams. They are not lesser beings in any way.
Sonia Green is THE poster child for the pernicious mediocrity and terminal cognitive dissonance that highfalutin institutionalized racism . . . er, I mean Affirmative Action promoted. I wish I had enough time to pull apart her statement line by line, but alas.
The dissent by Justice Sonia Sotomayor goes further in suggesting that “systemic inequities” may always require discrimination by race to counter discrimination by race. I rest my case.
This is a very good article and yet, it misses a point that remains under-emphasized throughout the political spectrum.
The admission process is not a competition for a prize. It is, first and foremost, an attempt to maximize the number of applicants who are sufficiently qualified to succeed in their future careers. The most damaging effect of the affirmative action (now in the past) and the "holistic" test-free admissions (that are our present and the future), is that these methods set a large number of student on a path of failure. I think the accepted term for the opinion I am expressing here is "mismatch theory".
Two things of note.
(1.) In physics and mathematics, the probability to succeed falls to nearly zero for the SAT-M scores below 600 <https://arxiv.org/pdf/1011.0663.pdf>.
(2.) In the majority of the Western countries, results of the standardized tests constitute the only factor that is relevant in an admission decision.
Suppression of the objective criteria in admission opens a way for a subjective manipulation. It is the performative diversity of the far-left that we are concerned today about, but it can easily be replaced by a sinister racial discrimination from the far-right in the future: the problem is much more universal and bi-partisan than it currently appears to be.
A question for the editor: how could Kenny Xu both (a) not bother applying to Harvard and (b) get rejected by Harvard? As impressive as he is, he’s unlikely to be a quantum phenomenon….
I wish to add an additional comment about the Philadelphia schools that proves my other statement.
Apparently the district spent 70 million dollars devising a new curriculum that teachers say is unworkable. Teachers were told not to publicly comment. Source was “Billy Penn”, a website designed to explain what is happening in Philly. Now you know why people are mad about the spending to tax dollars.
“She suggested that Asian Americans who felt as though they’d been discriminated against by elite universities should rethink that. “I don’t think it’s just because you’re Asian,” Green said. “It’s probably because the school didn’t see you as being a good fit, or the school didn’t get to know enough about you as a person.”
My favorite thing about that line is how she casually tells Asians their perceived racism is all in their heads. Can you imagine the shrieking if anyone, anywhere, suggested the same thing to black people?
When I started elementary school, Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House. I say that as a reference for many of the comments I am reading. Many things have remained unchanged over the passage of time. We still have the poor with us. LBJs Great Society programs did not usher in the societal changes expected. Why not? Public schools continue to pass along those who are not able to read or write at the appropriate grade level and their math skills are the same. The flood of information I see now is that public schools appear to have relegated the critical basic skills in reading, writing, and math to a back seat, while assisting the pre-pubescent and pubescent to become a different gender, as if that will enable them to ultimately better provide food, shelter, and clothing for themselves, to be the number one objective. Why? How can anyone in the education system justify this type of cheat laid upon school-age kids?
Lemme get this straight. Sonia Green scored below-average on her ACT for the schools she was applying for, got accepted everywhere, went to Duke on a full ride, a school where her mother is an administrator, then goes on to say that her peers are entitled. Just breathtaking.
"Even if I am a recipient of affirmative action, I don't lose sleep over it. It doesn't bother me. I'm not embarrassed." I wonder if those on the other side of these preferences lose sleep over it.
I was definitely not the driven valedictorian-type in high school. Nor was I the class clown, although our class clown did get admitted to Duke. I was an average student with average grades that got into a non-elite college where I was very happy. The taking away of someone’s chance at a college education or not getting at least a chance at a college education is not the issue. For the most part, anyone who wants a college education today can get one if they want it and pay for it through grants and loans if they don’t have the cash. College today is a big business. No willing customer will be turned away.
The issue is admission to elite schools on less than elite standards. I used to believe the goal of elite schools was to graduate the best and the brightest. To do that they would need to admit the best and the brightest. Logical right? Those who met the high standards got in and those that didn’t moved on to another school. You want the best students in the best schools. I take no offense on behalf of average students everywhere. There are variants getting in, like legacies, donor kids and some fraudsters (hello, Liz Warren), taking seats away from otherwise deserving applicants. But loopholes can be eliminated and/or tightened. Nothing is 100% guaranteed anyway. However, you cannot deny that the smartest students deserve entry to the smartest schools.
The real problem with affirmative action is that it has led to ideology that is far worse. DEI and ESG have taken affirmative action and racial bias to much higher levels. These must be destroyed and one way by doing so is to eliminate affirmative action. If affirmative action is not legally supportable, then DEI and ESG cannot be either.
Affirmative action and DEI violate equal protection under the law. They both need to go, they have never represented anything about what our country stands for. The death of meritocracy, the burying of achievement are deeply cancerous for the success of our country.
I agree. Saw a YouTube video recently, on-the-street interviews about what you would do with a $billion. Most said climate change. I would create an entirely independent education system based on teaching children (and maybe their parents) to discover the joy of reading and writing, and freedom understanding basic math brings…being able to balance a checkbook and manage a bank account. And to teach critical thinking based on Thomas Sowell’s work with common sense. And hopefully putting the current educational system out of business.
Isn't it ridiculous how schools like Harvard pride themselves on being exclusive — excluding anyone, for any reason, who doesn't appear to be 'Harvard material,' but manage to think excluding on some grounds is ok, but not others? The effort involved in such tortured logic must keep them awake at nights. Harvard is *by nature* exclusive. By design. Intentionally. On purpose. Planned. Deliberate. But they're trying hard to appear *inclusive, even though it goes against their own educational ideal. So yay for being completely incoherent. They will never be actually inclusive.
What happens? The Left either allows for charter schools as required by demand, or the same problem of lower rates of minorities qualifying for our best colleges continues. That's assuming, of course, that Harvard and others do not find a new loophole.
Black and other minority parents must stop telling their children that although they may be poor, they are not stupid and do not imbue in them the sense that they will need help from rich white people to succeed. If they study hard and apply their knowledge they can succeed beyond their wildest dreams. They are not lesser beings in any way.
Sonia Green is THE poster child for the pernicious mediocrity and terminal cognitive dissonance that highfalutin institutionalized racism . . . er, I mean Affirmative Action promoted. I wish I had enough time to pull apart her statement line by line, but alas.
The dissent by Justice Sonia Sotomayor goes further in suggesting that “systemic inequities” may always require discrimination by race to counter discrimination by race. I rest my case.
Democrat Party politics.
This is a very good article and yet, it misses a point that remains under-emphasized throughout the political spectrum.
The admission process is not a competition for a prize. It is, first and foremost, an attempt to maximize the number of applicants who are sufficiently qualified to succeed in their future careers. The most damaging effect of the affirmative action (now in the past) and the "holistic" test-free admissions (that are our present and the future), is that these methods set a large number of student on a path of failure. I think the accepted term for the opinion I am expressing here is "mismatch theory".
Two things of note.
(1.) In physics and mathematics, the probability to succeed falls to nearly zero for the SAT-M scores below 600 <https://arxiv.org/pdf/1011.0663.pdf>.
(2.) In the majority of the Western countries, results of the standardized tests constitute the only factor that is relevant in an admission decision.
Suppression of the objective criteria in admission opens a way for a subjective manipulation. It is the performative diversity of the far-left that we are concerned today about, but it can easily be replaced by a sinister racial discrimination from the far-right in the future: the problem is much more universal and bi-partisan than it currently appears to be.
A question for the editor: how could Kenny Xu both (a) not bother applying to Harvard and (b) get rejected by Harvard? As impressive as he is, he’s unlikely to be a quantum phenomenon….
I wish to add an additional comment about the Philadelphia schools that proves my other statement.
Apparently the district spent 70 million dollars devising a new curriculum that teachers say is unworkable. Teachers were told not to publicly comment. Source was “Billy Penn”, a website designed to explain what is happening in Philly. Now you know why people are mad about the spending to tax dollars.
“She suggested that Asian Americans who felt as though they’d been discriminated against by elite universities should rethink that. “I don’t think it’s just because you’re Asian,” Green said. “It’s probably because the school didn’t see you as being a good fit, or the school didn’t get to know enough about you as a person.”
She got in because of.... then said that?
That is entitlement. That is real power.
Meet the new boss.
My favorite thing about that line is how she casually tells Asians their perceived racism is all in their heads. Can you imagine the shrieking if anyone, anywhere, suggested the same thing to black people?
Well. Justice Thomas said that to Justice Kentegi Brown-Jackson. In writing. Striking down (substantially) all of EEO and DEI.
When I started elementary school, Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House. I say that as a reference for many of the comments I am reading. Many things have remained unchanged over the passage of time. We still have the poor with us. LBJs Great Society programs did not usher in the societal changes expected. Why not? Public schools continue to pass along those who are not able to read or write at the appropriate grade level and their math skills are the same. The flood of information I see now is that public schools appear to have relegated the critical basic skills in reading, writing, and math to a back seat, while assisting the pre-pubescent and pubescent to become a different gender, as if that will enable them to ultimately better provide food, shelter, and clothing for themselves, to be the number one objective. Why? How can anyone in the education system justify this type of cheat laid upon school-age kids?
Lemme get this straight. Sonia Green scored below-average on her ACT for the schools she was applying for, got accepted everywhere, went to Duke on a full ride, a school where her mother is an administrator, then goes on to say that her peers are entitled. Just breathtaking.
"Even if I am a recipient of affirmative action, I don't lose sleep over it. It doesn't bother me. I'm not embarrassed." I wonder if those on the other side of these preferences lose sleep over it.
I was definitely not the driven valedictorian-type in high school. Nor was I the class clown, although our class clown did get admitted to Duke. I was an average student with average grades that got into a non-elite college where I was very happy. The taking away of someone’s chance at a college education or not getting at least a chance at a college education is not the issue. For the most part, anyone who wants a college education today can get one if they want it and pay for it through grants and loans if they don’t have the cash. College today is a big business. No willing customer will be turned away.
The issue is admission to elite schools on less than elite standards. I used to believe the goal of elite schools was to graduate the best and the brightest. To do that they would need to admit the best and the brightest. Logical right? Those who met the high standards got in and those that didn’t moved on to another school. You want the best students in the best schools. I take no offense on behalf of average students everywhere. There are variants getting in, like legacies, donor kids and some fraudsters (hello, Liz Warren), taking seats away from otherwise deserving applicants. But loopholes can be eliminated and/or tightened. Nothing is 100% guaranteed anyway. However, you cannot deny that the smartest students deserve entry to the smartest schools.
I think the goal of elite schools is to make a lot of money.
The real problem with affirmative action is that it has led to ideology that is far worse. DEI and ESG have taken affirmative action and racial bias to much higher levels. These must be destroyed and one way by doing so is to eliminate affirmative action. If affirmative action is not legally supportable, then DEI and ESG cannot be either.
Affirmative action and DEI violate equal protection under the law. They both need to go, they have never represented anything about what our country stands for. The death of meritocracy, the burying of achievement are deeply cancerous for the success of our country.
I agree. Saw a YouTube video recently, on-the-street interviews about what you would do with a $billion. Most said climate change. I would create an entirely independent education system based on teaching children (and maybe their parents) to discover the joy of reading and writing, and freedom understanding basic math brings…being able to balance a checkbook and manage a bank account. And to teach critical thinking based on Thomas Sowell’s work with common sense. And hopefully putting the current educational system out of business.