Colleges don’t really care whether black “students” are actually prepared for college, all they want is to add the person to their stats. Since most colleges have softball programs, such as African-American Studies, they are mostly directed to that type of program. Then there is the added benefit of having a large enough group who can be called upon to “fight da man” by being permanently aggrieved and offended, for which they must grant some type of credit it seems, because they sure don’t discipline any of them who specialize in social upheaval and disruption on their campuses.
It is really hard to know what is going on here. If, by having to “prove” herself, she means that she studies extra hard in order to keep her grades up—well, there is nothing wrong with that, and it does not mean that she is unprepared academically.
There is a phenomenon that happens to many students when they get accepted into a highly competitive academic program at a top school. Regardless of race, they suspect that their admission into the program is a mistake, that there must have been far more qualified students who were overlooked. It takes a while to accept the fact that the admissions committee knew what it was doing, and that the student *does* belong.
I know I went through that when I was one of over 600 applicants accepted into a class of 8 at UC Davis. For most of the first academic year, I was full of self-doubt, feeling like I really and truly did not belong. Other students felt the same way. The feeling passed—by the 2nd year, I knew I belonged. And I eventually graduated with a PhD.
Of course, there is the possibility that the young woman in the article truly is not prepared academically, and that she is struggling to pass her classes. The article did not say that was the case, though. There is no concrete evidence presented that she is, in fact, an affirmative action admission who did not actually qualify.
Back in 1969 when affirmative action was gaining steam my college had a “transitional year program” that provided a year of remedial education. The program allowed them to waive most of the entrance requirements. It was obvious to the participants there were only minorities in the program. Most of the participants left in the first year. The program was an expensive bust.
The college thereafter followed the more common path of dumbing down requirements and adding “studies” majors.
Sheesh. These fragile little flowers are having a meltdown on a campus that is already majority minority. If they feel excluded and marginalized there, what is the solution? Strict racial and gender segregation in the colleges?
I say we go with IQ testing and aptitude testing and skip the 4 year party.
Affirmative action doesn’t only hurt black college students. It hurts all of society.
Dear Leader and his he-she “wife” are products of affirmative action and what they’re doing to America is worse than “hurting” it. A Harvard grad saying, “Me and Barack” did such-and-such. (Of course, that seems to be common on TV and in real life now.)
Look at the black talking head attorneys on TV who can’t speak a simple sentence in English. I’d never go to a black doctor, although there are many great ones, e.g., Ben Carson. But how does a person know if the doc’s credentials were earned, or otherwise?
Affirmative action needs to end.
Affirmative action is wrong, illegal and unconstitutional. Any law that “allows” it is invalid.
In the heat of the moment, the students drafted a list of demands for the administration.
They wanted the college to stop calling its athletes the Lord Jeffs, after Lord Jeffery Amherst, the pre-Revolutionary War British commander who advocated germ warfare against Native Americans and for whom this college town was named. They wanted students who had posted 'Free Speech' and 'All Lives Matter' posters to go through 'extensive training for racial and cultural competency' and possibly discipline. They wanted the administration to apologize for 'our institutional legacy of white supremacy,' among many other forms of discrimination, like 'heterosexism, cis-sexism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, ableism, mental health stigma and classism.'"