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The Sad Irony of Affirmative Action
National Affairs ^ | Winter 2013 | GAIL HERIOT

Posted on 03/07/2013 12:10:59 PM PST by neverdem

In 2003, the Supreme Court held that the University of Michigan's law school could substantially relax its admissions standards in order to admit a "critical mass" of African-American and Hispanic students. Many observers interpreted that decision — Grutter v. Bollinger — as an open-ended embrace of affirmative action.

The University of Texas was among the many universities emboldened to ramp up its use of race-preferential admissions policies. In 2003, the university already had in place an admissions policy designed to raise the number of under-represented minority students attending its flagship campus in Austin by admitting the "top 10%" of the graduates of each Texas high school without regard to SAT scores. Soon after the Grutter decision, however, the university announced that it was still dissatisfied with the diversity of the student body at Austin, 21% of which was composed of under-represented minorities (16.9% Hispanic and 4.5% African-American), and that the school would be implementing race preferences to boost that diversity. Under the new policy, the proportion of the student body composed of Hispanics and African-Americans rose to 25%.

The result was a lawsuit. The plaintiff — Abigail Fisher — is a young woman from Texas whose academic credentials were good, but not quite up to the standards that whites and Asians must meet in order to gain admission. They were, however, above those necessary for African-American and Hispanic students. Fisher, who is white, was rejected, and wound up attending the less prestigious and (for out-of-state students) more expensive Louisiana State University. Her case — Fisher v. University of Texas — was argued before the Supreme Court in October. It will be decided sometime in the coming months.

The Court may decide Fisher on narrow grounds. There are several dimensions along which the University of Texas's race-preferential admissions policies are more aggressive than those in Grutter...

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalaffairs.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Politics/Elections; US: District of Columbia; US: North Carolina; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: abigailfisher; affirmativeaction; fisher; grutter; racistleft
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It's long, but the perverse effects of affirmative action strike again.
1 posted on 03/07/2013 12:11:01 PM PST by neverdem
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To: neverdem

“Affirmative Action” was one of America’s first Marxist wealth redistribution programs. Communism’s camel nose.


2 posted on 03/07/2013 12:15:27 PM PST by FlingWingFlyer (Progressive, Marxist liberals do not evolve, they morph into fascists.)
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To: neverdem

One of the first things you discover is that “diversity” means “black”. Only.


3 posted on 03/07/2013 12:17:57 PM PST by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: neverdem

For years,and years,and years my first thought when I see a black or female doctor,lawyer,cop,fireman,etc,etc is...”would this person,with the *exact* same qualifications,have been admitted/graduated/hired if he/she was both male and white?”


4 posted on 03/07/2013 12:18:27 PM PST by Gay State Conservative ("Progressives" toss the word "racist" around like chimps toss their feces)
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To: Springman; cyclotic; netmilsmom; RatsDawg; PGalt; FreedomHammer; queenkathy; madison10; ...
The voters said no and the courts decided they know better.

US Court Strikes Down Michigan Affirmative Action Ban (november 15th)

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

Weekly/biweekly Michigan legislative action thread
5 posted on 03/07/2013 12:20:39 PM PST by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: neverdem

When I was in law school (top 25 at the time) not a single african american graded onto the law review....in the entire 3 years that I was there....Some were allowed to sit on the law review because the “wrote” onto it.

Later, at my law firm, 3 of the first year associates were black...none made it to partner despite the firm pulling out all of the stops to help them achieve...the firm even hired a writing tutor for a black woman WHO HAD WRITTEN ONTO THE LAW REVIEW. You can’t make this stuff up.


6 posted on 03/07/2013 12:24:06 PM PST by Tulane
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To: neverdem

It’s wrong and illegal to classify people by race. Even if there’s a law that requires it, the law is invalid.


7 posted on 03/07/2013 12:32:57 PM PST by I want the USA back
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To: Gay State Conservative

That’s the sad part of the whole thing. Undoubtedly, lacking affirmative discrimination, nobody would have cause to doubt the qualifications of any person of whatever color. But now all non-Asian, minority professionals have the stigma of being a possible affirmative-action selection. Their chances of earning respect are severely diminished. That does not mean every underqualified minority will turn out to be a failure at what they do. But affirmative discrimination is no way to go about selecting the most competent people.


8 posted on 03/07/2013 12:36:20 PM PST by driftless2
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To: neverdem
It's interesting how Brown v. Board of Education required that we enumerate "separate but equal" in such a way as to cast blacks requiring such concessions, when in reality, even a constructionist could read the US Constitution to mean all men, regardless of race. In a way, blacks have been given rights over whites in a way that was never intended to be that way. Specifically, an entire section of American legal precedent had to be established on the notion that blacks are just as much people as whites, again, something that anyone reading the Constitution could imply.

I think the important distinction from the studies in this essay is that blacks consistently underperform whites in academic pursuits, but that should not be a reason to modify testing metrics or otherwise set the bar lower for one section of society over another. It's simply a way to say that we should never cater to the lowest common denominator but instead push those underachievers to reach for loftier goals. At one point during this read, I would say that the author was promoting the idea that the lowering of the bar for blacks and Hispanics has actually been to their detriment. They know they don't have to aspire to anything but the line at which the standard exists, and as such, they only do as much work as is necessary to make it there.

The social climate in the black community is a bigger problem, I believe, as it's often the case the black children who are overachievers at a young age are not fostered the same way as white overachievers. The enrollment numbers in gifted programs across the nation are overwhelmingly positive for whites yet lack any true diversity among races. This, I believe, is not an anomaly but a statistical truth, as it's been historically held and understood that whites outperform blacks in school, regardless of social matters. Quite the contrary, in today's social world, it seems that black children are castigated by their social peers for overachieving. They're called "house niggers" or "Uncle Tom's" by people of their own race. Meanwhile, whites who overachieve are lauded and celebrated while average or subachievement is neither cast down or otherwise noted as exceptionally concerning. Perhaps the social stigmas attached to race are such that parents and friends of white underachievers are content knowing that "Little Johnny will get a job somewhere, I just know it."

All of that aside, I think the decision in this case before SCotUS will land firmly abreast the fence, neither rendering a decision considered Earthshaking nor changing anything about the current system. I believe a fact can be proven that blacks have actually been set back in academic and social standards because of cases like Brown v. Board of Education, and I believe the essay's author has proven that beyond any doubt. Blacks should be held to the same standard as whites. Give them something to which they can aspire, and they will. It may take a few generations, but it will happen.

9 posted on 03/07/2013 12:37:18 PM PST by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)
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To: I want the USA back
Ward Connerly, who is a self made millionaire & black to boot, used to ask this question of people who were for AA. It's so good that I have started asking. todate, I have yet to get a satisfactory answer.

The question: "If it's illegal for me, as a business owner, NOT to hire or promote someone based on the color of their skin. Why then should they be hired or promoted for that very same reason?"

10 posted on 03/07/2013 12:37:48 PM PST by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: Tulane

You’ll have to explain what “writing onto the law review” means for the non-legal-minded people like myself.


11 posted on 03/07/2013 12:39:05 PM PST by driftless2
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To: driftless2

Law review staff consist of two groups — those who “graded” on (i.e., usually those first-year law students — a certain percentage — who received the highest GPA in their first year courses), and those who “write” on — a second group of first-year students who didn’t make the cut-off point for “grading” on, but who compete in a closed-brief writing assignment that is blind-graded. Those who do best on the writing assignment earn the remaining slots on the law review staff.


12 posted on 03/07/2013 12:51:47 PM PST by Rightwingacademic
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To: driftless2

I have no idea what “writting onto the law review” means either. But I do know that liberal law schools like Harvard started placing blacks on law review that hadn’t earned it as part of their in-house affirmative action programs. And that ... coincidentially... Barak Obama magically made law review there soon afterwards (the first black to do so).


13 posted on 03/07/2013 12:56:29 PM PST by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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To: Rightwingacademic

Thanks for the explanation.


14 posted on 03/07/2013 12:58:07 PM PST by driftless2
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To: driftless2

Sure:

Most spots on the law review (a legal journal published by the school) are given to first year student with the highest GPA...However, the school I attended reserved 2 spots for folks who didn’t have high GPAs but wrote outstanding articles. It was my and several of my friends’ suspicion that the “write on” spots were reserved for minorities.

Wasn’t always the case, but the only african americans to be selected to the law review in the 3 years I was there “wrote on.” They never graded on.


15 posted on 03/07/2013 1:00:20 PM PST by Tulane
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To: neverdem

Where’s the irony?


16 posted on 03/07/2013 1:05:52 PM PST by expat2
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To: TexasFreeper2009

I don’t know if Obama was the first black to be on the law review period. He was the first to be “president” of the law review, which hitherto had gone to the top law student. The time had come, they decided, that they had to have a black president of the law review, and he was the top student among that subset. Apparently as president he didn’t do the work traditionally done by the president but let his underlings do that.


17 posted on 03/07/2013 2:34:12 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: neverdem

After dealing with this “magic negro”
I have no respect for black folk,
Call it racism or what ever you care to but at this point to hell with em
And prior to obammy I was not this way.


18 posted on 03/07/2013 2:47:53 PM PST by Joe Boucher ((FUBO))
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To: AppyPappy
One of the first things you discover is that “diversity” means “black”. Only

Or in other words, "White Males Need Not Apply"

19 posted on 03/07/2013 3:28:40 PM PST by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal The 16th Amendment!)
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To: Verginius Rufus
Your correct, he was the first black president of the Harvard law review, which had historically always gone to the top student, but because no blacks could earn the top spot they instituted an affirmation action program to ensure a black that hadn't earned it got the spot, and Obama just happened to be the first beneficiary of the new system.
20 posted on 03/07/2013 3:33:12 PM PST by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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