I stumbled upon this stimulating Washington Post Opinion
article and thought I should share it in a blog post with you all: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-race-matters-in-college-admissions/2012/10/05/4ae02056-0f0c-11e2-bb5e-492c0d30bff6_story.html
Affirmative Action: An active effort to
improve the employment or educational opportunities of members of minority
effort to promote the rights or progress of other disadvantaged persons.
-Merriam-Webster Dictionary
I included the definition for this
frequently addressed, controversial term simply to provide context for the rest
of my blog post. I feel that it is
a relevant term, not only for this particular topic, but also as a direct
application of our course. However, as you will see upon reading it, this
term is not explicitly used in the article I have attached.
Race
still matters in school admissions.
Whether it is used directly in the determination of a candidates
admission into a particular institution or not, the college admission progress
is most definitely affected by race.
In this article, the deans of two law schools, Harvard and Yale, discuss
race as a factor in the application and admission process. (Disclaimer: I do
not believe that just because they hold positions at prestigious institutions
they are deemed the highest authority in discussion of this matter)
This article spoke to me because it clearly explained how race could be a factor in many people’s life stories and thus their candidacy as an applicant. These deans state that their job in evaluating applications is to select the best possible students in order to create the best possible entering class for their institution. To do this they feel as if they need to evaluate the experiences an individual has had that have brought them to where they stand as an applicant. According to them, this process “requires us to understand an applicant’s own characterizations of their race or ethnicity.” In this way, race can also be an important issue because at multiple points during the application process, including personal interviews, letters of recommendation, and personal essays, applicants may feel obligated to discuss the ways in which race has impacted their lives and how it influenced their development. In these ways, many feel that race is “urgently salient” to the application process, but this simply should not be a prejudged issue. In other words, race should not be the determining factor in someone’s admission or rejection from an institution.
In the United States, President John F. Kennedy first used the term
"affirmative action" in an Executive
Order in 1961. This
fact does not by any means suggest that race and education haven’t been an
important national issue before.
They most definitely have and we have now encountered multiple examples
in our classroom including Brown vs. Board and our example of George Washington
High School and Booker T. Washington High School today in class.
Although this idea may seem underdeveloped,
this article caused me to see that if race can play a role in the way a college
applicant is judged in his or her admission process, it can be a factor in the
way someone is judged for almost anything. In what ways do you think race does or doesn’t
play a role in the education system today? What other areas of everyday life are people frequently
judged for their race or ethnicity? Can any of these types of judgment be
justified?
ReplyDeleteThe Washington Post article states that while an applicant’s race will not be the determining factor in their acceptance or rejection, it can influence the process. One quote in particular regarding this idea stood out to me: “race can be an important, if not essential, aspect of the life story of many applicants.” This quote made me think back to when Professor McKinney asked the class why it is important to teach African American history as its own course. This quote and what the article, as a whole, discusses is a pure reflection upon the answer—that the African American’s story is much different than that of the Caucasian American’s. Thus one’s race should be deemed relevant to the admission’s process, when it plays such a prevalent role in how one defines themself as well as overcoming how others decide to define them.
Affirmative action is certainly a hot topic and a very complex one as well. The idea that race can be used as an admissions factor for college and graduate schools is often simplified to the point where the point of race being a factor is lost. The argument is normally, that a white applicant is denied and a minority student is admitted because of his or her race and may even be "less qualified" than the white student. However this conception of the idea of diversity, especially in University setting is missing some of the key idea. As we have discussed is class and is the reason for the class, there is this thing called African American history and it is distinctly unique from what is generally taught as American History. This difference is what makes the race a legitimate factor for consideration during the admissions process. Most schools I think would like to think of themselves as being about more than just numbers and test scores, also being concerned with development of culture and diversity and the lessons that come with that. In order to achieve those kind of goals, racial and other types of diversity are essential. Race and the difference that come from different cultures and things like that cannot and should not be ignored.
ReplyDeleteCarson’s suggestion that sometimes a white applicant is passed over to make room for a person of a minority group is present in a lot of rhetoric concerning the application process to universities. I think that the Washington Post does a good job of dispelling this notion. The idea that they seem to be suggesting is that they consider race as a part of their application process, because their life experiences are often affected by their race. The author argues that while grades on standardized exams, extracurricular activities and the like are all very important, what they are really looking for is diversity in their classrooms (law classes especially) to “produce the best educational experience for our students”. They reason that students get more from class discussions and arguments with a diverse student set, which I agree with. For example, say if in our African American history class the professor and its student have the exact same life experiences, there would be no real class discussion. The professor would make a point, one student would respond, and the rest of the class would likely nod in approval. This environment is not conducive to learning, which I think is a fine point. As a result of reading this article, the blog, and the comments I can safely say that I agree with the Washington Post as far as race being an important aspect in the application process to universities.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Peter.
ReplyDeleteI agree (with Carson) that many uphold the notion that race plays such a critical role in the application process that white students are rejected because lesser qualified, minority students are given higher preference in the application process. However, I think this argument tends to ignore relevant arguments and does not address worthwhile questions that challenge such a notion.
First, operating under the impression that under qualified minority students are accepted over qualified white students is an unfair judgment that is not backed by empirical evidence. If accepted minority students were unqualified, they would not be able to handle the work load at the institution to which they are applying. And, if this is the case, should not opponents of affirmative action make a fair attempt to monitor the retention of these “under qualified” applicants that may merely be presumed unqualified? With evidence that under qualified, minority students are accepted over more qualified white students, opponents’ presumptions may be supported. Even with this, however, I do not feel that the opponents’ position is justified; it would at least give their argument a firmer foundation than the current unsupported presumption.
As Dr. Minow and Dr. Post mention in the Washington Post article, “Research demonstrates [that] diverse teams are better at solving a variety of problems when compared with homogenous groups, even when such groups are rated higher on standard ability measures.” It is in the best interest of graduate schools to look beyond test scores for other defining and differentiating factors of interested candidates; doing so provides tangible benefits to their program and its participants. Qualitative factors legitimately differentiate candidates from those with similar test scores, academic programs, GPA’s, etc. Why should race and demonstrated persistence through adversity not be considered relevant factors in the application process?
Last, I think it is important to consider the tendency to blame others for our own failures, mistakes, etc. (i.e. the psychology of attribution). It would be fair to consider the possibility that one is not good enough, according to a holistic list of both quantitative and qualitative factors in the application process, relative to the applicant pool.
Though I oppose affirmative action on other grounds (see http://archive.mises.org/1231/affirmative-action-the-larger-issue/ for another perspective that suggests other processes where race plays a similar role), I think it is important to eliminate unsupported arguments that are informed by racist beliefs, prejudice, etc.