Race and the Admissions Puzzle

As a 2000 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, I was dismayed to learn that President Bush had filed a brief in support of a white student denied admission to the law school ("U.S. Says Michigan System Is Equivalent to a Quota," news article, Jan. 17).

My education would have never been as strong as it was if I had attended a segregated institution, which Michigan would become without an affirmative action program. Part of what makes Michigan Law School great is its diversity.

I fear that if the university loses the case, the law school will become 95 to 99 percent white and Asian, and that members of the top-notch faculty will run away to private schools unburdened by this decision.

I beg the Supreme Court not to overturn affirmative action, and shame on President Bush for pushing it to do so.

It is common for poor Asian and other students to attend these same crummy schools and move on to higher education.

Larry Elder tells a story about a time he went to the library and a bunch of black kids were outside the library on skateboards. Their moves were awesome, they were very good on the skateboard and had obviously practiced a lot to get those moves down. Larry entered the library and what did he see? A bunch of Korean kids...STUDYING. Larry's point was, who's going to succeed later on in life, those black kids who spent their time perfecting skateboard moves, or the Korean kids who studied?

Consider the case of a brand new school built in a blighted urban area...Within a few years, the maintenence crews have all but given up on repairing graffitti and vandalism, the staff realizes that a too large percent of the students have no desire to learn and those who do can't function in the environment of disfunction and fear created by gang bangers and others. The best staff leave to better assignments, the school is run down and can't attract good teachers, the student body has ceased to be educated... and then......................Maxine Waters screams the schools are failing and need more money.

This is exactly what happened to my high school in the inner city of Chicago! When I started as a freshman, it was a brand, spanking new school, just built. When I graduated four years later, it was a dump...broken windows, graffiti, it had been totally trashed. All the good teachers had left in disgust. There were frequent riots, during which the principal would lock himself in his office and cower in terror. No female white student dared walk across the front courtyard of the school alone. You had to have some male relative meet you after school and walk you across. Needless to say, there wasn't a lot of learning going on. You just tried to survive day by day.

This kid just loves AA at University of Michigan because it kept out the sons of daughters of those dirty old hillbillies who worked in the automotive industry foundaries and assembly lines. He undoubtedly felt more "diverse" sitting next to the son or daughter of an African American lawyer groaning under the weight of the money he sucks out of the poor folks who live in his slum housing.

The dirty little secret of Affirmative Action is that it mainly benefits the "Black Elite" and their children. The black underclass is mostly not in a position to take advantage of AA at elite schools, AA admission into the managerial ranks of the Fortune 500, or "minority business/contractor setasides". It is the Black upper-class scheming with the White upperclass against the white working class

>>The dirty little secret of Affirmative Action is that it mainly benefits the "Black Elite" and their children<<

Actually, it mostly benefits white women, but, you are right, the children of upper middle class blacks are big winners, also.

I want to refocus the thread on the racist attitudes behind Affirmative Action, however-the author of the letter to the Times proclaims boldly, "Without Affirmative Action, the U. of Michigan Law School would become segregated".

But he does not tell us why.

What does that tell you about him?

Here, in the proverbial nutshell, is the liberal view- that the lesser races, blacks and hispanics simply do not have the capability of getting into good schools

This just might be since the public schools are so bad.

on their own merits or of succeeding at anything.

The liberals have screwed up our public schools for minorities and everyone. So then they demand affirmative action for college admissions to cater to the students they didn't properly educate. What we need is school choice but the teachers unions are rabid against it.

What are the the actual consequences of Affirmative Action to the individual "beneficiaries"? Their graduation rates are far, far lower than their classmates who didn't receive the "boost" according to John McWhorter in Losing the Race.

Who does that serve? Personally, I don't think I can think of a worse thing you could do than admit a person into an environment that they as an individual can't succeed in.

For instance, what if I was given a boost and admitted into MIT? Well, there's no way I'd be able to compete in that environment. Say it took me 3 semesters before I finally washed out. There I'd be out who knows how many thousands of dollars on tuition, out 18 months of my life (time and money, the two assets that can never be replaced) and likely despondent at my prospects of ever successfully competing in college.

I'd be FAR better served at a school like Temple where my classmates are comparatively similar to me than to what I'd come up against at MIT.

Yet People like Mr.. Lamel seem to want to admit unqualified people to sit in class with him to give him a better experience. Talk about looking at other people like your own private pet.

Owl_Eagle

”Guns Before Butter.”

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