Race in College Admissions Enforcer
One lawyer has become a crusader against race in college admissions. He was profiled recently in “The New York Times.”
There was an article in “The New York Times” a couple of days ago entitled “Unofficial Enforcer of Ruling on Race in College Admissions” written by Adam Liptak that we wanted to bring to the attention of our readers. Essentially, the lawyer who argued the case for Abigail Fisher against the University of Texas before the United States Supreme Court has threatened colleges that they will be embroiled in litigation should they choose to continue race-based college admissions practices. As he is quoted in the piece on race in college admissions in “The New York Times,” “Those universities that continue using race-based affirmative action will likely find themselves embroiled in costly and polarizing litigation.” Guess his prediction from June hasn’t held true yet!
This lawyer by the name of Edward Blum is trying to get former high school students to sue the colleges that denied them admission — in spite of their great grades and SAT scores — because of their race. As we can see it, a major issue that Mr. Blum will face is that countless students are denied admission to highly selective colleges each and every year in spite of perfect or near-perfect scores and grades. The highly selective college admissions process is a holistic one. A student with great grades who can’t write a powerful, moving statement isn’t going to have a chance against the student with great grades who submits excellent college essays. And that’s only for starters. Who in their right mind would volunteer to be a part of Mr. Blum’s crusade? We see what’s in it for him. It makes him a legal crusader with profiles in “The New York Times” but what’s in it for the student? Years after the case is over, when one Googles the young man who chose to sue, this will pop up. Does a student really want a future employer to know he tried to sue the college that denied him admission? Likely not.
Do highly selective colleges discriminate against applicants based on race? Absolutely! Asian and Asian American applicants, for instance, are discriminated against year after year at many highly selective universities. But are the lawsuits of Edward Blum going to do anything about that? Likely not. Will it give him publicity? Oh yes. He’s already secured that…
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1 Comment
This reminds me of the piece 60 minutes did in the 90’s about a girl who wanted to go to Texas A&M her whole,life. The family sacrificed and sent her to a private feeder school. She finished, if memory serves me correctly 8th in her class, and she did very well, but was rejected. An African American student from another school was accepted, and she did not really want to go there. She struggled daily to keep up and had a tutor in every subject. She hated it. She would have gladly switched places with the girl who got rejected. That girl had no back up colleges I place, because she was sure she’d get in A&M and wound up in a local community college waitressing to help pay back all the money her parents paid to help her go to her dream school. It was sad for everyone in involved. They pointed out that the white girl on paper was smarter, but the school wanted diversity. People were complaining about reverse discrimination.