Affirmative Action Backfires

wall street journal ^ | August 26, 2007 | GAIL HERIOT

[george76]

Have racial preferences reduced the number of black lawyers?

Three years ago, UCLA law professor Richard Sander published an explosive, fact-based study of the consequences of affirmative action in American law schools in the Stanford Law Review. Most of his findings were grim, and they caused dismay among many of the champions of affirmative action--and indeed, among those who were not.

Easily the most startling conclusion of his research: Mr. Sander calculated that there are fewer black attorneys today than there would have been if law schools had practiced color-blind admissions--about 7.9% fewer by his reckoning. He identified the culprit as the practice of admitting minority students to schools for which they are inadequately prepared. In essence, they have been "matched" to the wrong school.

Students who attend schools where their academic credentials are substantially below those of their fellow students tend to perform poorly.

in elite law schools, 51.6% of black students had first-year grade point averages in the bottom 10% of their class as opposed to only 5.6% of white students.

Under current practices, only 45% of blacks who enter law school pass the bar on their first attempt as opposed to over 78% of whites. Even after multiple tries, only 57% of blacks succeed.

The rest are often saddled with student debt, routinely running as high as $160,000, not counting undergraduate debt. How great an increase in the number of black attorneys is needed to justify these costs?

The problem is that the admissions officer's job is to enroll students, not to draw the risks of failure to their attention. Indeed, in some cases, the officer may be frantic to enroll minority students in order to comply with the stringent new diversity standards ...

[Tax-chick]

Thomas Sowell pointed this out many years ago.

[george76]

yes ?

Thomas Sowell pointed this out many years ago.

[Tax-chick]

Yes.

(I was just giving a plug for Dr. Sowell, America’s greatest living intellectual.)

[Old Professer]

Nobody buys silk purses anymore, plastic is all the rage.

[george76]

Dr. Sowell is a good man. He deserves any plug.

He is unusually correct.

.

[SeaWolf]

It never hurts to remind people of the facts. Remember how much mischief characters like Goebbles created by a steady drumbeat of lies? Imagine how much more powerful the truth is if it is just spoken now and again.

[Lord Basil]

Here is a link to one of his columns discussing this.

[hosepipe]

Racists?... You buy them books they eat the pages..
Affirmative action IS RACISM..

[Drango]

And I'd like to point out that back when...the blue book you filled out in law school exams didn't reveal your skin color to the professor. It had a number not your name, it was color blind (well, except for the color of the book). If you underperformed the rest of the class... it was based upon test scores, NOT skin color, 'cause the teacher didn't know who's test he was grading.

Can't say how they do it today.

[Tax-chick]

If you were serious about helping blacks and other minorities, you would try to get them some decent education long before they reached the college level. But that would require upsetting the status quo with things like vouchers. More to the point, it would upset the teachers' union that supplies millions of dollars in campaign contributions to the Democrats. Politicians find it more expedient to sacrifice the education of another generation of minority students and offer the symbolism of getting them into the kinds of colleges where their poor preparation almost ensures that most are going to fail.

The article Lord Basil linked was published in 1999. Doesn't look like much has changed, does it?

[RavenATB]

I wonder how, with all the available evidence on the failures of liberal social programs, anyone can still conclude that the negative outcomes we continue to see in the black community are unintentional.

[vetsvette]

“Have racial preferences reduced the number of black lawyers?”

Of course, but what’s the downside? Leftists get to feel better about themselves; Democrats get to pretend they’re doing something for black people; and, black people continue to volunteer their servitude to the American left.

Sounds like it’s all going according to plan to me.

[george76]

For anyone, any color, any age, any whatever...it is always best to learn the basics first.

Repeating a year in high school is much better than a social promotion. Learning the subject is much more important.

( We both know this, but lurkers here may not )

[Graybeard58]

(I was just giving a plug for Dr. Sowell, America’s greatest living intellectual.)

I'll add a plug for Walter Williams.

[george76]

That is how they should do it today.

Giving a pass to someone who does not understand a subject is of no longterm benefit...to neither the student nor to their future potential client.

[george76]

Plus this large burden to the failed student :

The rest are often saddled with student debt, routinely running as high as $160,000, not counting undergraduate debt...

[Tax-chick]

I'll add a plug for Walter Williams.

He's a fine man, too!

[Tzimisce]

Yeah, never mind the fact that Affirmative Action is bigoted, racist and separates us by color...

[stephenjohnbanker]

Sowell is a great thinker and writer.