POL200 Do university affirmative action programs serve to fulfill civil rights objectives? Why or why not?

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 14^th 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