Racial Imbalances and Preferences
The New York Times reports on a common phenomenon: the academic achievement gap between whites and Asians and blacks and Hispanics.
Among eighth graders who took the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test for entry into New York City’s elite schools like Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, and Brooklyn Tech, only a small percentage of blacks and Hispanics received scores that would qualify them for admission. Among those offered admission, only six percent were black and seven percent Hispanic. Thirty-five percent of Asians and 31 percent of whites were offered admission.
In analyzing the results, the Times found “a significant gap” in performance and “a dearth of blacks and Hispanics” who took the test. Despite a 16-month test prep institute, the gap remains. The obvious result is that few poor and so-called racial minorities are represented at top schools.
Administrators may be tempted or feel pressure to narrow the gap by lowering standards for minority students, such as watering down the test and giving more weight to skin color and less weight to grades and scores. No matter what fancy name people want to use for this phenomenon, its plain name is racial preferences.
The American Civil Rights Institute advocates socioeconomic affirmative action in lieu of race and sex preferences. Rather than interpreting economic disadvantages to be racial in nature, admissions committees can achieve colorblind policies by taking into account that students of all races are faced with economic disadvantages. Helping people isn’t the problem. Discriminating against people based on the color of their skin is the problem.
Read what Ward Connerly has to say about socioeconomic affirmative action.
