Murky River

NRO ^ | 9 jul 02 | Matt Continetti

[white trash redneck]

New Republic editor Peter Beinart's recent TRB column takes conservatives to task for supporting color-blind public policy while also arguing for racial profiling at airport checkpoints. While the column is worthy of debate, it contains a glaring weakness: Beinart's pro-affirmative-action arguments rely heavily on former college presidents William G. Bowen and Derek Bok's 1998 book, The Shape of the River. According to Beinart, the book shows "empirical evidence of net sociological gain" among the beneficiaries of affirmative action

But in the four years since it was first published, The Shape of the River's empirical evidence has not been subjected to any critical analysis — despite numerous attempts by researchers eager to dispute Bowen and Bok's claims.

"The data is in the hands of the Mellon Foundation, whose long-time president is, of course, William G. Bowen," says Harvard professor Stephan Thernstrom, coauthor of America in Black and White with wife Abigail Thernstrom. "I'm a little surprised that Beinart would uncritically cite the data."

While the Mellon Foundation research-proposal guidelines say that Bowen and Bok's database is available to all qualified researchers, the guidelines also include this caveat: "Requests for access … must go beyond a general desire to recheck results; they should instead offer sound reasons for believing that there is a likelihood of error or misinterpretation in the work of others …"

In other words, before critics have access to Bowen and Bok's data, they must first prove the former college presidents wrong — something difficult to do without access to the study in the first place. This academic catch-22 led the Thernstroms to write that "the remarkable guidelines that set forth its policies governing access to this material strongly suggest that no scholar with any reservations about racially preferential policies need apply."

When sociologist Robert Lerner applied for access to the database, for instance, he was denied on the grounds that the records he requested "were obtained on the strict condition that they would never be made available to persons outside the Foundation."

As the Thernstroms point out, the foundation's reticence forces would-be critics to approach the data on Bowen and Bok's terms: The former college presidents control not only which pieces of information are studied by the academic community, but also how analysts view and categorize the data.

Normally, such conditions on free inquiry would provoke howls from the academic community. But that hasn't been the case with The Shape of the River. "The only publicity [this issue] got was a little piece in The Chronicle of Higher Education," says Stephan Thernstrom.

Even the data that the Mellon Foundation has released to the public is not as definitive as Beinart would have it. According to Beinart, Bowen and Bok demonstrate in The Shape of the River that "black students at prestigious universities graduate at higher rates, attain more advanced degrees, and earn higher salaries than black students with the same SAT scores at less-selective schools."

But some scholars disagree with Bowen and Bok's conclusions. "It certainly is true that preferentially admitted students at elite schools then go on to elite professional schools," says Thernstrom. "But they do so for exactly the same reasons they got into the elite schools in the first place." As for Bowen and Bok's claim that the beneficiaries of affirmative action go on to earn high salaries, Thernstrom points out that a piece of research done with Bowen and Bok's own database shows no correlation between an individual's university and future income.

Bowen and Bok's data is also limited to 28 elite colleges and universities, including Princeton (where Bowen was once president) but not Harvard (where Bok was once president). A larger sample might yield different results. And as NR's Ramesh Ponnuru pointed out in his review of The Shape of the River, Bowen and Bok's own data demonstrates that beneficiaries of affirmative action have lower grades and graduation rates than their classmates.

Beinart says that on the topic of affirmative action, the American right is "engaged in a dialogue of the deaf — with itself." But that's not due to a lack of effort on the part of conservatives. Before there can be a dialogue on the topic of racial preferences, the Mellon Foundation has to start talking.

[white trash redneck]

The true test of the conservative principles of the Bush administration will be how it addresses the injustice of affirmative action.

[untenured]

Any time academic researchers won't release their data there ought to be a strong inference that the findings are suspect.

[07055]

New Republic editor Peter Beinart's recent TRB column takes conservatives to task for supporting color-blind public policy while also arguing for racial profiling at airport checkpoints.

Let's see---how about taking to task liberals who insist on color-blind air transport but then consider color to be the most important factor in hiring and education?