Perspectives: A “Legacy” of Racial Injustice in American Higher Education
It’s admissions time again — this month admissions staff at the nation’s elite institutions are cooped up for days, scrutinizing hundreds of college applications. It’s also legacy time again….
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:30 pm
“In the current day, few Blacks and Latinos benefit from legacy preferences”
There is the real gripe summed up in one sentence. It’s laughable that there is so much concern about students being admitted to the same schools as their parents at an apparently higher rate than would be admitted otherwise when the very same people loathing this policy are fervent supporters of affirmative action, a program with a much broader impact and far more casualties. As long as AA programs are designed to lower standards for some and raise standards for others, preferential policies like admitting children of alumni will flourish as well. Preferences beget preferences, always have.
January 22nd, 2008 at 4:29 pm
It is ridiculous to compare legacy admits to affirmative action policies. Legacy admits perpetuate a system of institutionalized preference largely based on class and race - largely middle to upper, and white.
Affirmative action is a policy that seeks to counter institutionalized oppression - racism, sexism, ableism, etc.
Affirmative action does not lower standards. That is actually a not too clever, age-old rhetorical ploy used by the dominant paradigm to dilute discourse on the purpose of affirmative action.
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:51 pm
“It is ridiculous to compare legacy admits to affirmative action policies.”
Not so. Let’s take a look at where your arguments break down.
“Legacy admits perpetuate a system of institutionalized preference largely based on class and race - largely middle to upper, and white.”
Yes, just like affirmative action going after “underrepresented minorities,” inner-city youth and “underpriveleged” minorities. Any criteria other than merit will have negative impacts on the groups that preferences do not favor.
“Affirmative action is a policy that seeks to counter institutionalized oppression - racism, sexism, ableism, etc.”
Institutionalized how? Are you talking about policies that bar certain races, genders and abilities from admission? Those haven’t been legal (at least not against women, minorities and the handicapped) since the 60’s. The only disparities in admission rates at the top institutions can be easily explained by looking at test scores and gpa’s. If you think that groups do poorly on these tests because of their race, then you are racist.
“Affirmative action does not lower standards.”
It does for the groups that receive preferential treatment. Also the groups that don’t receive preferential treatment (males of Asian and White origins) must achieve higher scores to be admitted to the same institution as groups who receive preferences (women, Blacks and Hispanics.) The end result is a student body made up of higher achieving Whites and Asians competing against a group of lower achieveing Blacks and Hispanics. Don’t believe me? Let’s do the math.
1500 spots for incoming freshman.
300 spots desired for Blacks.
200 spots desired for Hispanics.
3,000 Whites apply with a median test score of 1000 for the group.
450 Blacks apply with a median score of 1000 for the group.
250 Hispanics apply with a median score of 1000 for the group.
To enroll 300 Blacks, the top 67% of Blacks are accepted to the school.
To enroll 200 Hispanics, the top 80% if Hispanics are accepted to the school.
Whites and Asians make up the majority of the remainder of students accepted but only the top 33% of applicants are admitted.
While the top Black, Hispanic, White and Asian students are probably on par with each other, there is a large difference between the average White and Asian student admitted and the average Black and Hispanic student admitted because admissions officers had to lower standards to admit the groups who received preferential treatment. The same disparities likely occur for the legacy admits but to a lesser degree since a parent’s education and intelligence are often passed on to their children.
Here is one of many studies that proves this point:
http://www.ceousa.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=196