Ethnicity is an Issue in Affirmative Action

Áine on June 29th, 2004 filed in General

In the NYTimes : Top Colleges Take More Blacks, but Which Ones? By Sara Rimer and Karen W. Arenson brings up the question of whether the Blacks in prestigious colleges are African-American or those of recent immigrants.

“While about 8 percent, or about 530, of Harvard’s undergraduates were black, Lani Guinier, a Harvard law professor, and Henry Louis Gates Jr., the chairman of Harvard’s African and African-American studies department, pointed out that the majority of them — perhaps as many as two-thirds — were West Indian and African immigrants or their children, or to a lesser extent, children of biracial couples.

They said that only about a third of the students were from families in which all four grandparents were born in this country, descendants of slaves. Many argue that it was students like these, disadvantaged by the legacy of Jim Crow laws, segregation and decades of racism, poverty and inferior schools, who were intended as principal beneficiaries of affirmative action in university admissions.”

Read the whole article, this is something I wasn’t aware of and had never even thought of, but apparently the Ivy League schools are using it to close up enrollment slots that would otherwise be filled by mid-to-low-income, multi-generational African-Americans. [Tip of the Hat to Schoolhouse Review]

6 Responses to “Ethnicity is an Issue in Affirmative Action”

demonsurfer Says:
June 29th, 2004 at 11:00 am
hmm.. I understand the reasoning behind affirmative action, but at the same time isn’t this a form of reverse racism? I say this because I was at medical school years ago at a university in New Zealand. To continue to the next year, I needed an A- average. A girlfriend of mine only had to get a C- average to continue because she was 1/16th Maori. It seemed grossly unfair, and the other point was that if she graduated with a A- average regardless, some people would assume that she got thru only because she was part Maori, not because of her actual results, which isn’t doing any favours to those that actually deserve to get through. It’s a pretty tough call.
demonsurfer Says:
June 29th, 2004 at 11:02 am
“..to those that actually deserve to get through”
I meant deserve to get through based on their academic results, not their race. Thought I’d clarify that a little.
Michele Says:
July 7th, 2004 at 4:31 pm
Affirmative action is widely abused and misunderstood in our country. Many use it as a crutch and it remains their excuse for every disappointment in their life. In my opinion, there should be NO affirmative action. That is the only way to be fair. There should not be black, white, yellow, brown…if you are a citizen of America….we are all Americans. My daughter told me recently something very cute…she asked me, ‘Mommy, what color am I?’ I said without thinking, ‘White, honey.’ She said, ‘No I am not. I am light brown. I am only white when I draw a picture of myself.’ Now that is something we can ALL learn from!

We should all be assessed on our own merit and ability. Not on the basis of our skin tone or our parent’s choice for geography in raising us. When you are a child, you have limited decision making power. Parents SHOULD be ensuring their children are safe, eating nutritious meals and are educated. The problem with that is..too many parents have children they cannot take care of and this is why we have to have affirmative action programs.
Aine Says:
July 7th, 2004 at 5:27 pm
Hmm… I think affirmative action is a necessary thing simply because so many people have these ingrained prejudices which either they are unaware of or are unwilling to change. Ideally, post-secondary school enrollment, employment, and promotions -should- be based on merit, but in reality quite often they aren’t… see the Wal-Mart class action suit as a prime example.

Whether the prejudices are based on race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, or economic class (and the opportunities or lack thereof that goes with that), wishing them away with idealism is not going to create a level playing field. This is why affirmative action programs are necessary. Unfortunately, they aren’t being implemented properly in a lot of situations, and that needs to be corrected.
Michele Says:
July 7th, 2004 at 6:36 pm
I see your point. There are a lot of biases and paradigms that have yet to be broken. Think about the U.P. for example…there are some serious biases and prejudices going on there but it is essentially out of ignorance as many of them never left the state so they don’t know any different. I am looking at it from a different angle since I was in the military and in a male-dominated career field and there wasn’t any ‘affirmative action’ card I could play. I had to prove myself before I was accepted ‘equal’ to a male counterpart. Yes, it was harder because I had to do a lot more than men sometimes, but in the end I gained more respect by proving myself to be as qualified or better at weapons qualifications and job knowledge. Also, for awards recognition, I had to come up against a lot of men and women for various awards and sometimes the judges went with a less qualified female because they were afraid they would be in trouble for discrimination. So…it is like a double edged sword…interesting topic though? ( :
Aine Says:
July 7th, 2004 at 11:14 pm
My experience in the military was much like yours, I worked harder, I proved myself to “the boys” and gained their respect, I earned what recognition I received and everyone I worked with knew that (in other words, I didn’t get it by sucking up or sleeping around or anything like that, although some women tried that and were NOT respected by either males or females because of it).

I do think a lot depends on where you are stationed and what sort of people you end up working with and for. I’ve heard first-hand accounts of some horrible situations in the military at various duty stations… thankfully, none of them occurred where I was located or I would have found a way to step in and demand that the situation required attention (by the book)… but then, I’m that sort of person. I stand up for people who can’t or won’t stand up for themselves. Gets me in trouble a lot of the time, but I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t do that. That’s just how I am.

*grins*