Racial diversity as a goal is neither good nor bad. The rightness or wrongness turns on how the goal is achieved.
The latest in diversity-seeking news: the U.S. House of Representatives approved $1 million in funding for diversity recruitment at West Point. The school’s “internal goal” falls between 130 to 169 black admittees, but the average is 82 over the last 10 years. The diversity campaign supposedly will help West Point reach the goal. (Source)
How?
The Center for Equal Opportunity (CEO) published a study titled, “Racial, Ethnic and Gender Preferences in Admissions to the U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Naval Academy,” which showed that both service academies lowered standards for black admittees, and the academic qualifications gap between blacks and whites was “substantial.”
The gap between West Point admittees was smaller than the Navy’s gap, and the one between whites and Hispanics was smaller. The study concludes that Hispanics don’t benefit from admissions preferences at West Point, and there’s no evidence that Asians receive preferences at either academy.
Bruce Fleming, a professor at the Naval Academy, exposed his school’s two-tiered admissions process.
This process, from my perspective, is the wrong way to achieve racial diversity.
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