Part I: What’s So Bad About Race-Based Affirmative Action?
Michael J. Strickland is a senior at the University of Michigan in the class of 2019. He is also an officer of the University of Michigan Black Student Union. Michael is a passionate civil rights advocate who has recently completed a Research and Policy internship at a government relations shop in Washington, DC. The second installment of this piece can be found here.
The belief that the admissions processes for colleges and universities are somehow an impartial and comprehensive assessment of applicants is utterly preposterous, and the notion that modern-day affirmative action discriminates against white applicants is reckless and harmful to society at large. Despite the potential societal harms, this is precisely the logic behind the Trump administration’s recent efforts to eliminate any consideration of an applicant’s race in college admissions processes. Whether America chooses to be honest about it or not, this country’s top universities are not hospitable to black students and they remain heavily biased towards white people.
Black educational attainment has improved gradually over the last 50 years but we are taking a dangerous step in the wrong direction by allowing Trump to rescind the previous administration’s policies which promoted equal opportunity.
On Tuesday, July 3rd, the Department of Education and the Department of Justice released a joint letter announcing their decision to repeal guidance provided by the Obama administration on the use of race-based admissions. The previous White House laid out a number of suggested guidelines providing much needed clarity on the use of race-based admissions by elementary, secondary, and postsecondary schools under the Constitution. Both federal agencies, the DoED and the DOJ justified these actions under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Yes, you read that right. The Trump Administration is using the 14th Amendment, which overturned the “three fifths” compromise after the Civil War, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned racial discrimination and segregation as vehicles to advocate for the removal of affirmative action policies in higher education. These laws were passed to promote the advancement of the black people in this country and the flagrant misapplication of these statutes to support claims of discrimination against white people is incredibly disgraceful.
The guidelines which were laid out in seven documents contained the legal interpretations of America’s most recent affirmative action case University of Texas v Fisher. In this case, Abigail Fisher who identifies as a white woman, claimed that the only reason she was denied admission to the University was her race– in essence because she was white. Perhaps because of her gross misunderstanding of affirmative action policies Abigail sued the University of Texas. Through careful examination of the University’s admissions process the court confirmed that the University of Texas only considers “race” as a minor secondary criteria in their admissions decisions. Their analysis found that the UT admissions process included two components, the first considered two required essays. The second component of the process considered a number of submitted materials and student characteristics; student’s letters of recommendation, resumes, leadership experience, extracurriculars, awards, and finally, “special circumstances.” Included among the many factors within the bucket of “special circumstances” was applicant’s race. Basically, the University of Texas, only considered applicant’s race as a fraction within a portion of a subsection of its decision criteria.
In June of 2016, the Supreme Court upheld the use of race in admissions decisions when used in the same manner as the University of Texas. Fast forward to the present day, where now the Trump Administration rejects this interpretation and has decided to rescind critical guidance that university systems would otherwise have relied upon. Challengers of race-based affirmative action legitimize the actions of the current administration’s by insisting that America has already reached and surpassed its goal of equal educational opportunity for all. However, the facts matter and the facts are that both unbiased school systems and discrimination against white people are nothing more than illusions.
In a widely cited 2014 study, it was found that nearly half of all white millennials believe racial discrimination against white people has become as big of a problem as discrimination against ethnic minority groups. The same study discovered that 64% of white millenials believe the election of President Obama demonstrated that racial minorities have the same opportunities as white people. Not only are these two ideas contradictory but neither of them are supported by data. According to research published by the New York Times in 2017 black college-aged students, despite making up 15 percent of college-aged Americans only make up 6 percent of freshman enrolled in top-ranked universities. The perception of targeted white discrimination and post-racialism are based in the unbounded privilege of white millennials and yet in the face of these misperceptions of equality, educational access is still a problem.
Race-based consideration in the college admissions process is heavily scrutinized in the U.S., while other factors also considered by admissions teams– factors I would consider discriminatory are NOT discussed as such in public discourse. For example, many universities openly favor “legacy” students, these are students with alumni among their close family members. How is this legacy policy fair to black students (or any students) who, as a matter of historical fact were prohibited from attending top universities until the 1950’s a mere 68 years ago? Race-based affirmative action is not an injustice to white college-bound students. Just because a few more (and I mean just a few) black people obtain admission to colleges does not mean we have made measurable gains when it comes to racial inequities in the American education system. White applicants like Abigail Fisher are victims of their own staggering sense of entitlement. For the sake of our country’s future and our economy it would be in America’s best interest to take a more expansive look at all of the ways the education system and the college admissions process may be biased towards white people.
This is why legacy status despite its unassuming aura and reputation as a sign of loyalty is a form of racial discrimination in college admissions. Historically, white Americans benefited from decades of school policies that kept black people out, so now why is it okay for their sons and grandsons to receive preferred admission to top schools? But, that’s a story for another day…
This is where we will pick up the conversation in part two of this piece.
