Affirmative action is based on a view of equal protection that
compensates for historical and present prejudice and lack of
opportunity. It is premised on the notion that some of us start behind
the eight ball and need an extra boost to achieve basic access.
Favorable
treatment for blacks is controversial because it appears to be applied
in zero sum contexts. If
you favor a black person, you have to disfavor a white one and that's
the seasoning upon which Mr. Blum's cases are all based. It is not the
definition of equal that
causes the controversy. it is the adverse effect on whites, or in this
case, proxy white replacement negroes.
In the case of
Harvard University, it would be trivial to favor blacks while protecting
replacement negroes serving as proxies for poor whites. You see,
kibutzim Blum pretends to be unaware of the historic legacy of Blacks in
America - thus his elite racist bootlicking antics. Blum could of
course trivially solve the zero sum angle he seeks to exploit by going
after the 30% + alumni legacy admissions. Blum lacks the historical
perspective, ethical fiber, and testicular fortitude to go after any
elite affirmative action, well, because, these selfsame racist elites
are the folks who pay his bills.
Ivy League "affirmative action" began shortly after World War II. It
was stimulated by the GI Bill, which made college possible for veterans
who never would have dreamed of going to college, let alone to an Ivy
League university. The GI Bill demonstrated there was untapped national
talent out in flyover. They found public high
school students in the South, Midwest, and Far West with school records
rivaling the best of the prep schools. Even when some public high
school scores were slightly lower than preppy competitors, admissions
committees sometimes chose the provincial public high school student
over the privileged alumni legacy. They recognized high achievement in the
face of educational and cultural disadvantage.
As a consequence, Harvard and its Ivy sisters began recruiting a few good men out beyond the inbred Lovecraftian prep schools and elite
academies of New England and the Atlantic Coast. The Ivies understood that there
was more promise in the lesser academic record than in the marginally
better academic record. Moreover, they wanted a more diverse student body.
This was the original affirmative action”. It transformed the Ivies
into truly national and meritocratic institutions instead of elite
regional colleges for those with wealth, privilege, and pedigree.
Only when the same principles of national diversity and meritocratic
selection—based on recognition of high achievement and the overcoming of
disadvantages—came to include black student admissions, did we experience white backlash and resentment.
NYTimes | At the heart of the case
is whether Harvard’s admissions staff hold Asian-Americans to higher
standards than applicants of other racial or ethnic groups, and whether
they use subjective measures, like personal scores, to cap the number of
Asian students accepted to the school.
“Harvard
today engages in the same kind of discrimination and stereotyping that
it used to justify quotas on Jewish applicants in the 1920s and 1930s,”
Students for Fair Admissions said in a court filing.
Harvard, which admitted less than 5 percent of its applicants this year, said that its own analysis did not find discrimination.
A trial in the case has been scheduled for October.
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