Why Preferences Exist

The ever-present academic gap between the races is one of the main reasons racial preferences exist in 2009. Redressing past injustice and promoting equality are mere platitudes to placate the masses. Reams have been written about the gap—how to close it, narrow it, downplay it, or ignore it. But it’s still with us, seemingly intractable.

USA Today reports on SAT score disparities between people of different races, sex, and income levels. No surprises. The average score gap between Asians and blacks was by far the largest: 347 points. Students of Asian decent averaged 1623; whites 1581; Mexicans 1362;  Puerto Ricans 1345; Indians or Alaskan natives 1448; and blacks 1276. The national average was 1509.

One question I rarely see/hear asked is this: Why do students of Mexican descent, likely from low-income families and whose first language may or may not be English, consistently outscore native-born blacks?

According to the report, female test takers averaged 27 points lower than males. Test takers who reported family incomes of over $200,000 and year and higher scored higher on the SAT than those who reported family incomes of less than $20,000. While it’s true that higher-earning families can afford to send children to better schools and SAT preparation programs, that’s not the end of the story. Lower income whites and Asians on average outscore wealthier blacks.

What will it take to close or significantly narrow the academic achievement gap?

College Board president Gaston Caperton said, “As a country we must do better at providing students of every background equal access to education, equal access to the best teachers, and equal access to the best counseling.”

“Equal access” is a euphemism for more money and more preferences. Millions of dollars have been poured into schools and prep programs, and the gap remains. Children are bused across town and are admitted and denied entrance to schools based on the color of their skin in an attempt to achieve a magical balance of races that will close the achievement gap, and the gap remains. Crying racism generates sympathy and government funds, but the gap remains.

What people are only now starting to talk about publicly is how family structure, or the lack thereof, affects the gap, which shows itself beyond school in employment, rate of imprisonment, etc.

An intact family is one where the children’s parents are married to each other and living under the same roof. Studies have shown that children in these kind of families are better off than children raised by one parent, typically the mother. Fatherless children are more likely to end up having babies out-of-wedlock, drop out of school, use drugs, commit crimes, spend time in prison, and on and on. The rate of out-of-wedlock pregnancy among blacks is a whopping 75 percent. It’s higher in some urban areas.

When it comes to closing the gap between the races, there is no magic fairy dust. People are intuitively aware that money is not the solution, and neither are guilt-tripping and lowering standards. It’s going to take honesty and hard work to even make a dent in the gap.