Query
Do university affirmative action programs serve to
fulfill civil rights objectives? Why or why not?
Essay
“You do not wipe
away the scars of centuries by saying: Now you are free to go where you want,
and do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please.
You do not take a
person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him
up to the starting line of a race and then say, "you are free to compete
with all the others," and still justly believe that you have been
completely fair .… [T]he task is to give 20 million Negroes the same chance as
every other American to learn and grow, to work and share in society, to
develop their abilities—physical, mental and spiritual, and to pursue their
individual happiness.” ~President Lyndon Johnson 1965
Reverse Discrimination?
Although the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 made it illegal for colleges and universities to discriminate against
applicants based on gender or race, proving that bias has occurred is very
difficult. Such as the discrimination found by employers in the recruiting
process, applicants who are rejected are not made aware of the reasons why they
were not chosen. Therefore, colleges and universities created special “affirmative
action policies” to ensure their schools attain the greater diversity. “Methods
vary” explains FindLaw, “but affirmative action refers to the special
consideration given to women, racial minorities, and members of other
historically excluded groups.”
Opponents of affirmative action are calling this “reverse
discrimination” and in an unusual twist, a white male college applicant successfully
sued the University of California Medical School at Davis under the ground that
he was discriminated against because of his being white. Becky Little tells us “Bakke
sued the school at Davis—which had rejected him twice—because he argued that
the school had discriminated against him by admitting students of color with
lower medical scores than his.”
In 1978, Davis’ reserved only 16% of its spots for
classes for students of color each new year. The case was posed to the court as
whether Davis’ affirmative action policy was in violation of the 14th
Amendment’s equal protection clause and also the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
When the court ruled in his favor, the country was
in an uproar. 40 years later in 2018, Davis’ Law Review held their daylong
symposium on the case titled “Bakke at 40: Diversity, Difference and Doctrine”
Top legal experts were drawn to the discussion. At the time of the ruling, the
courts did no reject affirmative action, only that specific quotas; recall Davis’s
“16 out of 100 spots”.
Hanging by a thread
NPR’s Bill Chappel relates
that Harvard is facing a similar lawsuit. Harvard is accused of “Racial
Balancing” and treating Asian-Americans unfairly. “Affirmative action policies
even by the Harvard model have been hanging by a thread basically since Bakke.’
— Brian Soucek, UC Davis School of Law professor and the law review’s faculty
advisor”
The Digital Encyclopedia
BallotPedia reports that >19% of 4-year universities in the U.S. listed race
considerations on their website. With eight states banning a consideration of
race for university admission. How can states achieve the melting pot and
de-segregation of the initial intent of the Civil Rights act of 1964 if they
are not allowed to consider applicant race when judging entrants? Presumably if
there are more white applicants, even if the entrants were allotted blindly,
there would, statistically, be more whites, simply because more had applied.
This leads us directly to
our initial query. Is Affirmative Action fulfilling the Civil Rights act of
1964?
More diverse than it was in the 60’s.
To levy a proclamation to
universities to include minorities, without establishing a equal/inclusive legal
foundation on which to do so gives power in a variety of ways. Some universities,
such as Davis in 1978, allotted a minority of seats to minority students. Was
16% enough? What it is now? Let’s check University diversity statistics on College
Factual. Of notice is the cover picture on the website proudly proclaiming
diversity among colleges shows a picture of 7 youth, of which 6 of which appear
Caucasian, and 1 black woman. Indeed, the pie chart tells us that “UC Davis
Boasts excellent racial diversity” and “far above the national average”, with a
% of black students that is too small for the pie slice to register a number. Harvard
on the same database gives us a more robust diversity. Black students still do
not yield enough of the slice to warrant a number, however, other races are
represented in larger proportion. 56 years after the Civil Rights bill? One would
think, no, it didn’t work.
If you consider that “working”
I propose that if
Affirmative Action had not shaken up the world of education and work, then our
society would not have included minorities in the amount we do see, even if it
is not anywhere near equal. However, our nation is not equal. 15 states have
>20% minorities as population. [Patterson]. Mr. Justice Powell concludes “Racial
and ethnic classifications of any sort are inherently suspect and call for the
most exacting judicial scrutiny.” That how Universities are currently doing is
less messy and complicated as the brutal past on which our country was founded,
even if not the best option, is preferable.
Bibliography
BallotPedia. State data on colleges considering
race in admissions. n.d. 27 Mar 2020.
<https://ballotpedia.org/State_data_on_colleges_considering_race_in_admissions>.
Chappell, Bill. Harvard Accused Of 'Racial
Balancing': Lawsuit Says Asian-Americans Treated Unfairly. 15 Jun 2018. 27
Mar 2020.
<https://www.npr.org/2018/06/15/620368377/harvard-accused-of-racial-balancing-lawsuit-says-asian-americans-treated-unfairl
>.
Factual, College. University Student Population
Stats. n.d. 27 Mar 2020.
<https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/university-of-california-davis/student-life/diversity/>.
FindLaw. Affirmative Action and College Admissions.
n.d. 27 Mar 2020. <https://education.findlaw.com/higher-education/affirmative-action-and-college-admissions.html
>.
Meyer, Carla. Affirmative Action: ‘Hanging by a
Thread Since Bakke’ : Law School Symposium Examines 40-Year-Old Court Ruling.
30 Oct 2018. 27 Mar 2020. <https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/affirmative-action-hanging-thread-bakke>.
PATTERSON, THOMAS. We The People. 13th. New
York: McGraw, 2019. page 155.
POWELL, MR. JUSTICE. Regents of the University of
California v. Bakke (No. 7811). 12 Oc 1977. 27 Mar 2020.
<https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/438/265>.
745 words not including
opening query, quote and bibliography
POL200 Liljeblad Spring 2020, Mendocino College
POL200 Liljeblad Spring 2020, Mendocino College
