This past Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard one of the biggest cases dealing with the issue of race in the preceding 6 years: Abigail Fisher vs. University of Texas.
In summation, Fisher, a white woman, applied to UT in 2008, but was denied admission to the university, while other people who were "lesser qualified" than Fisher gained admittance.
“There were people in my class with lower grades, who weren't in all the activities I was in, who were accepted into UT. And the only difference between us was the color of our skin," Fisher remarks.
Fisher is challenging UT, claiming they use the issue of racial classification to admit less qualified students to the university, while students like herself, are then turned down, all because they didn't have the acceptable skin color to help the university reach a statistic for diversity, also known as "racial balancing" which was banned by the Supreme Court.
The verdict is still out, but those at home following the issue may inquire how this case was elevated to the Supreme Court. In 2003, the University of Michigan had a similar case, but won, even though heavily cautioned about their "narrow tailored" criteria regarding race and diversity. Primary schools in Seattle and Kentucky using race as a "tiebreaker" for admission to their schools had their decisions nullified.
So how can the same concept of using race to gain diversity, and consequently admission (or in Fisher's case, denial) have so many different rulings? I believe it's because we're still walking the fine line of being accused of discrimination. Society feels the need to almost overcompensate when dealing with a situation that contains race, and while I concede that we do need to factor in our sensitivity to this civil rights issue, I can't help but compare it with a person who has a disability and struggles with society treating them as an equal. I feel society often tries to create an advantage for the disadvantaged, even though all the disadvantaged want is to be seen as equal.
The times we are living in are incredible. First people complained that we were not seeing enough minorities in colleges and universities. Now, people are up in arms because white students are being denied because of their race. I find it interesting that people say we are not a racist society, and then issues like this come up and we realize that race issues are everlasting.
ReplyDeleteWhile reverse racism can emerge from affirmative action or racial balancing the system is still vastly in favor of white students. As of fall 2011 non-Hispanic white students made up 50.4% of the undergraduate population while Black, Asian, Hispanic, Native American and foreign students divided up the other 50%. If they're systematically discriminating against White students at the University of Texas they're doing a very poor job.
ReplyDeleteFrom working in Admissions for two years at a huge public institution, this issue was brought to me before. We received close to 30,000 application and the school had about 42,000 students yet only 8% were of any minority (black, Hispanic, etc ).People still argued with me about students getting in just because they were Mexican or not getting in because they were white. I agree with James that if they are discriminating against white students they are doing a very poor job. And just a random thought..she has no idea exactly what her classmates had or what they were involved in outside of her seeing them in class. She should just apply to another school.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Fisher's notion that others gained admittance purely on race is a large leap without knowing all of the other factors. Applying to colleges is so subjective that I can't believe this was actually elevated to the Supreme Court and not dismissed purely on lack of evidence regarding racial bias.
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