Solomonia Archive: Shining the light on racial preferences

Monday, February 2, 2004

(Hat tip to mal) Stuart Taylor, Jr., writing in National Journal calls for coopting one of Teddy Kennedy's ideas.

In Ted's Excellent Idea: Disclosing Admissions Preferences, Taylor explains that a planned piece of legislation, meant to require institutions of higher-learning to keep statistics cynically intended to show the prevalence of legacy admissions, could easily and properly be expanded a bit. By expanding it, and keeping an even wider range of statistics, we could easily shine a light on the flaws with race-preference programs generally.

The proponents of race-preferences tend not to like this, however.

...It would also expose the stunning magnitude of the racial preferences -- which are far greater than the legacy preferences -- used by all (or almost all) selective institutions, and who benefits from them. For that reason, my amendment would be anathema to Kennedy and other advocates of racial preferences. They know that greater public awareness may be the only obstacle to the perpetual entrenchment of racial preferences in all walks of American life, now that the Supreme Court has broadly upheld their legality.

Dozens of surveys over three decades have consistently shown that more than two-thirds of Americans -- and, in many polls, lopsided majorities of African-Americans -- oppose racial preferences. (Polls show much greater support for "affirmative action," but the reason is that that phrase can be read as including aggressive enforcement of anti-discrimination laws, recruitment, and outreach efforts.) On no other issue have elected officials and establishment leaders succeeded in implementing so pervasively a policy that the public rejects so overwhelmingly...

Posted by Solomon at 3:31 PM on Monday, Feb 2, 2004 | Comments (2)
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2 Comments

#1 Dom | February 3, 2004 3:28 PM

I don't particularly care about legacy preferences, but two points.

1. This isn't like passing a law telling tobacco companies to reveal their secret memos. After all, Universities *want* Affirmative Action. If they keep legacy information secret, its because they know (and, of course, we know that they know) that legacies bring in money that help pay for other programs.

2. You know how Clarence Thomas is also told that he can not vote against Affirmative Action because he benefited from it? Why doesn't someone tell Sen Kennedy that he can't work against legacy preferences for the same reason? Or does anyone think he deserved to get into Harvard?

Dom

#2 Solomon | February 3, 2004 8:54 PM

I don't care about legacy that much, either, particularly at private colleges, although I think one could have a reasonable discussion on the subject. It's apples and oranges to me. The question is supposed to be about race, but people know they'll have trouble defending their stand so they try to change the subject. You would think the way to achieve a color-blind society would be to actually have color-blind policies.

Your #1: Yeah, money talks, don't it? But hey, if private colleges want to do business that way, so be it.

#2: Good point.