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Affirmative Action Backfires
wall street journal ^ | August 26, 2007 | GAIL HERIOT

Posted on 08/26/2007 12:14:09 PM PDT by 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 ...

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: academia; affirmative; affirmativeaction; attorneys; black; blacklawyers; blackstudents; highereducation; law; lawschools; lawyers; racialpreferences; schools; sowell; tothecontrary
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To: Graybeard58

Neither am I. Maybe that means we’re not interesting.


61 posted on 08/26/2007 2:07:43 PM PDT by Tax-chick (Gravity! It's not just a good idea, it's the law!)
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To: Tax-chick; Graybeard58; BIGLOOK

You all are very interesting.

8-)


62 posted on 08/26/2007 2:15:19 PM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: george76; Tax-chick; BIGLOOK
This is interesting!

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

63 posted on 08/26/2007 2:25:34 PM PDT by Graybeard58 (Remember and pray for SSgt. Matt Maupin - MIA/POW- Iraq since 04/09/04)
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To: Graybeard58; george76

They can call the heads “Hillary” and “Obama.”

I’m shutting down due to thunderstorms. Thanks for calling me interesting :-).


64 posted on 08/26/2007 2:28:05 PM PDT by Tax-chick (Gravity! It's not just a good idea, it's the law!)
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To: Graybeard58
Aha! The Scales of Justice....

(revised and updated).
65 posted on 08/26/2007 2:30:33 PM PDT by BIGLOOK (Keelhauling is a sensible solution to mutiny.)
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To: Tax-chick; BIGLOOK

I think you’re interesting too but I am going to try to forget I saw the pun from BIGLOOK.


66 posted on 08/26/2007 2:34:54 PM PDT by Graybeard58 (Remember and pray for SSgt. Matt Maupin - MIA/POW- Iraq since 04/09/04)
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To: Graybeard58

“I”I’ll add a plug for Walter Williams.</I>

WW maybe great but I quit listening to him
when he was filling in for Rush and made the remark
“Black men are so virile they can’t close the casket
on them” Totally uncalled for in MHO.


67 posted on 08/26/2007 2:35:00 PM PDT by WKB (It's hard to tell who's more afraid of Fred Thompson; The Dims or the rudibots.)
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To: WKB
I didn't hear that but you are right. Uncalled for.
68 posted on 08/26/2007 2:36:27 PM PDT by Graybeard58 (Remember and pray for SSgt. Matt Maupin - MIA/POW- Iraq since 04/09/04)
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To: george76

Affirmative action always backfires. People don’t know if a minority-member professional is actually qualified, or just got the job because of his color. My personal favorite example of this is black columnist Leonard Pitts, who actually received the (affirmative action) Pulitzer prize for his columns. This whining, racist crybaby couldn’t write a grocery list without blaming Whitey for something, yet they gave him a Pulitzer based on his race.


69 posted on 08/26/2007 2:45:21 PM PDT by ozzymandus
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To: WKB

It’s called a joke. If you had looked up, you might have seen it passing way over your head.


70 posted on 08/26/2007 2:47:06 PM PDT by ozzymandus
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To: Drango

Most students take the test on a computer now, but you still have anonymous numbers.


71 posted on 08/26/2007 2:48:28 PM PDT by ReagansShinyHair
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To: george76

BUMP


72 posted on 08/26/2007 2:51:00 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: Graybeard58
I'd read Dr. Sowell's condemnation of affirmative action years ago. Others have also but where has it gotten us. The current liberal position defends past shortcomings and promotes more of the same. Liberal solutions to problems are suspiciously socially static.

I'm off to the zoo now. The petting zoo is open only an hour.

Sorry for the pun.......Not!
73 posted on 08/26/2007 2:54:18 PM PDT by BIGLOOK (Keelhauling is a sensible solution to mutiny.)
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To: ozzymandus

I’ve seen dead horses that were funnier.


74 posted on 08/26/2007 3:07:02 PM PDT by WKB (It's hard to tell who's more afraid of Fred Thompson; The Dims or the rudibots.)
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To: ozzymandus

From your home page

“It’s all my fault. I was wrong and you were right. Feel better?”

I accept your apology.


75 posted on 08/26/2007 3:08:45 PM PDT by WKB (It's hard to tell who's more afraid of Fred Thompson; The Dims or the rudibots.)
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To: george76

There’s nothing “affirmative” about it. Just another little word ploy to cover up what it really is, ie. discrimination against Anglos and males. . . . and now Asians.

The statistics cited herein mirror my own observations from my law school and professional career. Raise the bar too high and the black faces tended to disappear . .and quickly.


76 posted on 08/26/2007 3:14:45 PM PDT by A_Former_Democrat
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To: WKB

You’re pretty worked up about not having a sense of humor, aren’t you? Must be a small, bitter life you lead.


77 posted on 08/26/2007 3:19:34 PM PDT by ozzymandus
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To: Tax-chick
but there's only so much you can do with teenagers who can't read well.

This is exactly right. If you can't read well, and comprehend what you are reading, you really can't do well in any other subject. Also, if the middle-school or high schooler is not doing well in math, it is because they never truly learned the basics.

Trying to fix it in high school is too late. The problems we are seeing, are problems at the elementary school level. Yet, so few people seem to understand this.

78 posted on 08/26/2007 3:28:20 PM PDT by LibertarianLiz
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To: LibertarianLiz; Tax-chick
The problems we are seeing, are problems at the elementary school level.
. . . if not at the cultural level even before that.

I am in favor of vouchers or anything like that which puts the "inner city" parents in control of their children's education. Some of them, undoubtedly, will drop the ball - but then, the ball is systematically dropped now as it is. IMHO the only ones for whom the ball is not now dropped are ones whose parents take responsibility for seeing that their children respect learning, and study.

To me, putting the parent in charge takes away the excuses. And if you know no one will buy excuses, you just might get on the ball and look after business. And Affirmative Action is all about excuses. Let parents who as children had no use for school, go back into that school with something in their pocket that that school really wants - their children, and the $$$ for their children's education that comes with them. Then watch the percentage of parents who attend parent-teacher conferences skyrocket. IMHO.


79 posted on 08/26/2007 4:15:22 PM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which liberalism coheres is that NOTHING actually matters except PR.)
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To: ozzymandus

I have a sense of humor,
But thinking about a dead man in a coffin
with a hard on just doesn’t register as funny.
If that turns you on then may be you are
the one with the ...”small”... bitter life.


80 posted on 08/26/2007 6:48:57 PM PDT by WKB (It's hard to tell who's more afraid of Fred Thompson; The Dims or the rudibots.)
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