Racial discrimination in American higher education admission

  • In light of the modern push for equality, many colleges have been burdened with an admission status quo which requires a percentage of the school to identify as a member of an underprivileged ethnicity or gender. Rather than accepting students based on controllable characteristics such as work ethic or grades, schools have adopted a new admission system in which race, gender, birth place, and family income are an overly considered part of your application.

    On August 13th 2020, the Justice department accused Yale of racial discrimination against Asian Americans and White Americans in their admission process. In an investigation conducted by the Trump DOJ, “white and Asian-American applicants were one-eighth to one-fourth as likely to be admitted as African-American applicants with the same academic credentials”. About two months later, Yale was sued by the Justice department, backed by Trump's administration in opposing racially motivated admission in higher education. The suit stated “Yale discriminated against applicants to Yale College on the grounds of race and national origin, and that Yale’s discrimination imposes undue and unlawful penalties on racially-disfavored applicants, including in particular most Asian and White applicants”. When Biden took office at the start of 2021, his Justice department immediately revoked the prior Trump lawsuit stating it would continue a three year investigation into the Yale admission process but that no civil rights laws were broken by the school.

    Democrats are willingly ignoring the discrimination seen in the American education system and elite colleges are willingly implementing it. A prime example being in 2021 when all but two senate democrats voted against a ban which prevented federal dollars going to schools racially discriminating against Asian Americans.

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    Also, in 1996, anthropology professor Glynn Custred and California Association of Scholars Executive Director Thomas Wood drafted Proposition 209. A text which should ban racial balancing and racial preferences in application processes such as those in public hiring or education. In 1996, Prop. 209 (which was modeled similarly to the Civil Rights Act of 1964) was successfully passed by California voters. Underprivileged ethnic groups participating in the University of California system prior to Prop. 209 was 31.3 percent. In 2014, this number was at 55.1 percent. Just a year before that, the 6 year graduation rate was at an all time high of 75.1 percent. In 2020, however, California Democrats Proposed Proposition 16, a new amendment which would bring back racial discrimination and preferencing in California. Deeming it a “necessary action in assisting discriminated racial groups. As we just saw, underrepresented ethnic groups did not fail with a lack of racial balancing but rather grew significantly in numbers.

    It almost seems as if democrats rely on racial classification in an attempt to divide us. Utilizing our country's genuine racial injustice as a way to gain supporters and power. This gets more into personal interpretation but this is something I have seen multiple times when evaluating inconsistencies in their worldview. Again, this is not to say racial injustice doesn’t exist, this is a criticism of the democrat’s execution in solving these issues. I believe it is in the best interest of our country to support the poor and underprivileged, however, racial classification is not the best approach. Rather than assigning a quota to meet (which I believe to be an offensive standpoint on battling racism anyway) we should be investing effort in assisting people in their education.

    I am not writing a conclusion for this little rant but those are my thoughts. I also disagree with a lot of the conservative approaches towards tackling inequality in America but I find democrats to be more hypocritical in their mindsets. If anyone has a differing position on this I am completely open to debating about it. I just turned 17 so I don’t have all the experience of real world events as some of you may have. Maybe I’ll learn something new and I love talking about this type of stuff.

    Sources:

    DOJ Yale accusation

    DOJ Yale suit

    DOJ suit dismissal document

    Justice Dept. Sues Yale, Citing Illegal Race Discrimination (Published 2020)
    The department says the school’s admissions practices violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Yale’s president says the allegation was based on “inaccurate…
    www.nytimes.com

    https://www.npr.org/2021/02/03/963666724/justice-department-drops-race-discrimination-lawsuit-against-yale-university

  • Just depends on if you want Equity or Equality in these systems. Imo I would want equity for the most part, but quotas should be income based rather than race-based, but still even then the system will be unfair for certain individuals. You have to be aware though that for these individuals they are already a leg-up based on their wealth to begin with (wealth is one of the biggest predictor of future success).

    In an income-based system it would also appear as though asians and white people are discriminated against because they are the wealthiest ethnicities.

  • How do you reckon the issue of most minority communities being vastly more poor than white should be handled? E.g. years after slavery has ended the black community is still way behind.

    This policy is a direct way of rectifying this whether you agree with it or not morally.

  • years after slavery has ended the black community is still way behind

    I don't consider myself well informed about this but I've read there's a vicious cycle fueled by resentment if not "reverse" racism (please note the quotation marks) and, probably, something about victim mentality. Somebody said that who tries to integrate or get a better future is treated like a "fake" white person by the ghetto people. There's no easy way out when communities (not only black ones) are stuck there.

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  • How do you reckon the issue of most minority communities being vastly more poor than white should be handled? E.g. years after slavery has ended the black community is still way behind.

    This policy is a direct way of rectifying this whether you agree with it or not morally.

    I understand poverty in minority groups to generally be caused by inequality in education and the public workforce. I would also argue poor culture ( which has developed from past discrimination such as slavery) to be a further hindrance in the development of these communities.

    I think equity is too rash of an approach in better enabling underrepresented ethnicities, especially in terms of education. Your skin color should not determine your success in life, nor should it determine what school you can go to. We should strive for equality in education, rather than racial preferencing.

  • accepting more african americans to university to fulfil quotas is a plaster solution - quite a poor one too.

    it’s an excuse for democrats and their counterparts to use racism as a way to become more electable to their demographics (which is the majority of african americans). it’s a short term solution designed by short term politicians (then again nearly all politicians are short term due to the U.S.’ Paine inspired election system).

    if you really want to make a difference you need to tackle the problem at it’s roots - which are impoverished and outdated systems of support given to black communities. pouring more money into infrastructure in these communities will organically create a more inclusive US, but this will take time and time is a politician’s enemy. not only that, but this idea is deeply resented by Republicans and so we are presented with a Catch-22. i can understand why the democrats need to push for this but i can also understand why it’s a flawed concept.

    i don’t suspect much will change due to the nature of current us politics. either we pour money into underprivileged communities or we take people from those communities and put them in privileged roles.

    Edited once, last by RedEastWood (February 1, 2023 at 8:14 AM).

  • it’s an excuse for democrats and their counterparts to use racism as a way to become more electable to their demographics (which is the majority of african americans)

    Do the majority of Democratic, black voters support this policy? Or for that matter: do the majority of Democrat-voters support this policy?

  • it’s an excuse for democrats and their counterparts to use racism as a way to become more electable to their demographics (which is the majority of african americans)

    Do the majority of Democratic, black voters support this policy? Or for that matter: do the majority of Democrat-voters support this policy?

    my only knowledge on this question comes from a paper i read a while back. it was by john pankow and i’m sure you can find it online somewhere. it claimed that around half of the african americans who participated in a survey wanted to increase affirmative action, and virtually all agreed that it should at least be kept as is. the paper is quite dated but the views expressed contributed to my strong dislike of affirmative action. i’ll try and find it later.

    https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/iusburj/article/download/19836/25913/43974

    Edited once, last by RedEastWood: citation (February 1, 2023 at 8:27 PM).

  • Do the majority of Democratic, black voters support this policy? Or for that matter: do the majority of Democrat-voters support this policy?

    my only knowledge on this question comes from a paper i read a while back. it was by john pankow and i’m sure you can find it online somewhere. it claimed that around half of the african americans who participated in a survey wanted to increase affirmative action, and virtually all agreed that it should at least be kept as is. the paper is quite dated but the views expressed contributed to my strong dislike of affirmative action. i’ll try and find it later.

    https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index…836/25913/43974

    So you extrapolate from a paper involving four black scholars that the majority of African Americans in the US support affirmative action?

    Perhaps this is more relevant: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019…-in-admissions/
    62% of black people disagree with affirmative action. 20% think it should be a minor factor.