Friday Quick Links
Voting Rights Act – On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Voting Rights Act does not require election officials to consider race when redrawing districts if blacks are a minority in the area. Disappointed with the decision, the New York Times says, without any irony at all, redrawing districts based on race moves us toward ”a colorblind future.” Worth reading is Roger Clegg’s take on the issue.
New LSAT Proposed – A pair of UCLA-Berkeley professors have proposed ditching the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) in favor of a test that won’t have such a negative impact on blacks and Hispanics. (Source)
Instead of focusing on the ability to analyze, say the professors, potential law school admittees should be judged on “effectiveness factors” like writing ability, stress management, listening (oh, brother), and researching. Why the professors believe putting more emphasis on these qualities and less on analytical thinking would result in a higher admissions rate for blacks and Hispanics is a mystery to me…unless the factors are applied only to blacks and Hispanics. But that would be illegal in California, Washington state, Michigan, and Nebraska.
Reverse Discrimination – 75 white firefighters in Chicago settled a 23-year-old “reverse discrimination” case for $6 million. (Source)
Because black firefighters failed or didn’t score high enough on the test to receive promotions, the department “race normed” the results – adjusted scores by assessing blacks and Hispanics based on a lower standard.
