Affirmative Action for Elites . . . Not that there's anything wrong with that

In his popular course about justice, Michael Sandel spends a class session discussing with the students the modern debate about affirmative action.  As he invites the students to offer their views on the subject, the discussion soon reflects the same arguments we have now rehearsed for over a generation: the practice of affirmative action is either unfair and discriminatory, or else needed to correct past injustices or the way to attain a diverse student body.  This is not terribly surprising.  But one student in particular caught my attention. He argued that

 "racial discrimination is illegal in this country, and I believe that it was African-American leaders themselves, when Martin Luther King said he wanted to be judged not on the color of his skin, but by the content of his character, his merit, his achievement, and I just think that to decide solely based on someone's race is just inherently unfair.  I mean, if you want to correct based on disadvantaged backgrounds, that's fine, but there are also disadvantaged white people as well.  It shouldn't matter . . ." 

The student conceded, in response to a question from Sandel, that grades and tests scores are not enough; "there is more than that.  Universities need to promote diversity."  His objection focused on the one factor, race, that he argued applicants could not control.

There is a lot in that exchange, and again, there is really nothing new there. But later in the conversation, in response to a point to a student, Sandel asked about legacy admissions.  Should those exist?  Are they fair? These were uncomfortable, difficult questions, and the student's response reflected that fact.

"I do believe that, in terms of a legacy admission, you shouldn't have a special preference, I mean, there is a legacy admission, you could argue, as another part of diversity.  You could say it's important to have a small percentage of people that have just several generations of their family attend a place like Harvard."

Even while saying this, the student wasn't hedging.  Race was just different.  To him, legacy considerations  "should not be an advantage factor like race.  That should just be another part of promoting diversity." Sandel pushed him one final time, and asked him whether "alumni status, should it count at all." The student paused a moment, and then, unsurprisingly,  said "yes. it should count."

This is the ugly underside of the debate over racial preferences and university admissions.  Richard Kahlenberg, a longstanding participant in this debate, argues in this morning's New York Times that legacy admissions are the biggest affirmative action program in the country.  He argues that they are bad policy, illegal, unconstitutional, and unknown around the world.  To the charge that legacy is often used as a tiebreaker among applicants, he offers a recent study that concluded that legacy standing is the equivalent of 160 points on the SAT (on a 400 to 1600 point scale), which is close to the gain attributed to racial factors.

Where are the marches and lawsuits fighting against this injustice?  Where is Ward Connerly when you need him?  And how do we explain the contrasting reactions?  Or put another way, can we conclude, with any degree of certainty, that criticisms of affirmative action are tinged, at some level, by racism?

I have two reactions.

Back to Class . . . and Race

The debate over the use of race in public policy is in full swing, at least as far as elite opinion is concerned. I can’t really figure out why. Michael Lind issued the latest salvo yesterday, writing in salon. Unfortunately, as it is often the case with this issue, his essay does little to persuade. The reasons become obvious after reading the first few paragraphs: those who assail racial preferences and those who defend them cannot even agree on a set of basic premises. This is a debate where people are talking past one another.

Race, class, and the recession

Apropos this post from Luis on our alma matter, the Michigan Law School, comes stories here from MSNBC and here from the NY Times about how the economic downturn is affecting black employment. Both articles are worrisome because they tell the same stories for different classes of black people

The MSNBC story focuses on the black lower to middle class and narrates how the recession is having a disproportionately negative impact on those classes. The NY Times story focuses mainly on the black middle to upper class. These are highly educated black people, specifically black men, and they can't find jobs. The MSNBC story seems to be more about the intersection of both race and class. The NY Times story is more about race. Why are the faces at the bottom of the well always the same ones?