by Bruce Thornton<\/p>\n
Defining Ideas<\/em><\/p>\n In\u00a0Fisher vs. University of Texas<\/em>, the Supreme Court heard legal challenges to the University of Texas\u2019s admissions policies, which allow consideration of an applicant\u2019s race in order to promote \u201cdiversity\u201d among the school\u2019s students. Such racial preferences are widespread in university admissions. In 80 percent of elite schools, they amount to the equivalent of a 100-point boost in SAT scores, according to research by UCLA law professor Richard Sander and journalist Stuart Taylor.<\/p>\n But even if the Supreme Court strikes down the use of race as a determining factor in admissions, the institutionalized racism and discrimination of university race-conscious admissions criteria will not necessarily be eliminated. Universities will continue to promote identity politics ideology under the guise of \u201cdiversity.\u201d<\/p>\n In the oral arguments for\u00a0Fisher<\/em>, the conservatives on the Supreme Court left unchallenged the idea of \u201cdiversity\u201d as a pedagogical good, focusing instead on the use of race as \u201cthe determining factor,\u201d as Chief Justice Roberts said, in admissions decisions.<\/p>\n But promoting \u201cdiversity\u201d has been the chief rationale for problematic race-based admissions since the 1978\u00a0Bakke vs. University of California<\/em>\u00a0case. In theBakke<\/em>\u00a0decision, Justice Lewis Powell put forth the idea that a vaguely defined \u201cdiversity\u201d could justify taking account of race. Powell argued that only a \u201ccompelling state interest\u201d could justify exceptions to Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act\u2019s ban on discrimination by race. In fact, \u201cdiversity,\u201d along with its presumed pedagogical boons, was such a \u201cstate interest.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2003, in\u00a0Grutter vs. Bollinger<\/em>, the Supreme Court confirmed Powell\u2019s reasoning. As Justice Sandra Day O\u2019Conner wrote, the Constitution \u201cdoes not prohibit the law school\u2019s narrowly tailored use of race in admissions decisions to further a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body.\u201d As long as explicit numerical quotas were avoided, universities could take race into account when admitting students.<\/p>\n Justice Clarence Thomas\u2019 dissent in\u00a0Grutter<\/em>\u00a0identified the fatal flaw of such reasoning: the \u201crefusal to define rigorously the broad state interest\u201d served by \u201cdiversity.\u201d Nearly a decade later, there still remains a dearth of empirical evidence that shows the assumed \u201ceducational benefits\u201d that serve a \u201cbroad state interest.\u201d Indeed, in their recent book\u00a0Mismatch<\/em>, Sander and Taylor show how racial preferences often harm minority candidates by putting them into academic environments for which they are not qualified, thus ensuring they do poorly or drop out. Likewise, there has not been a coherent, specific definition of diversity itself, which has allowed the concept to be politicized.<\/p>\n Faux Diversity vs. Real Diversity<\/strong><\/p>\n Now blessed by the Supreme Court, \u201cdiversity\u201d has become an article of faith in universities and colleges, accepted without question or analysis of the idea, even in spite of its problematic consequences. It is a self-evident good that often trumps other criteria in admissions, hiring, and curriculum decisions. But \u201cdiversity\u201d is a dishonest and incoherent concept. It is premised on an ideologically skewed interpretation of history in which the white man has oppressed and excluded the \u201cother.\u201d<\/p>\n The falsity of the ideological construct of \u201cdiversity\u201d is best understood by contrasting it to genuine diversity. Real diversity is enormous in its variety, encompassing scores of ethnic groups, economic strata, regions, political views, and religions. A poor, Catholic, Mexican-Indian immigrant farm worker, for example, is quite different from a middle-class, suburban third-generation mestizo Mexican-American. Yet, at a superficial level, both can be labeled \u201cHispanic.\u201d This doesn\u2019t tell us anything about what each can uniquely offer to campus \u201cdiversity.\u201d<\/p>\n After all, the middle-class Mexican-American will probably have more in common with a middle-class white kid than with the Indian immigrant, who is less likely even to attend college in the first place. Yet, in the university, the second \u201cHispanic\u201d applicant will be courted and presumed to offer more \u201cdiversity\u201d than a poor rural white kid who probably resembles the Indian farm worker in many respects.<\/p>\n The complexities of actual diversity are ignored by its more superficial variant. The contradiction in most universities\u2019 idea of diversity is that it functions in terms of stereotypical, simplistic, race-based categories that ignore all of the other ways in which people are diverse, ways that could actually enrich the university. For example, most universities today are secular and philosophically materialistic; they could use the intellectual diversity that more religious believers might bring to the student body. Wouldn\u2019t those perspectives confer \u201ceducational benefits\u201d in the classroom, providing alternative points of view that might enrich the learning experience of their classmates?<\/p>\n Additionally, given that faculties are overwhelmingly liberal, a concern with genuine diversity surely would include the recruitment of conservative students and faculties. But the admissions officers at elite colleges and universities are not worried about having too few Christians or Republicans. Indeed, a sure-fire way for a candidate to be blacklisted in academia is to profess a belief associated with conservativism or Christianity.<\/p>\n Moreover, of all the various categories of diversity\u2014whether ethnic, economic, political, or religious \u2014 most universities are really interested in only those minorities that the Civil Rights industry recognizes: Hispanics, African Americans, and occasionally Third-World \u201cpersons of color,\u201d no matter how rich and privileged they may be. Indeed, in the\u00a0Fisher<\/em>\u00a0oral arguments, the University\u2019s lawyer explicitly said that a minority applicant from a privileged background would add diversity to the university. It helps that these minority groups have organized vocal lobbies adept at putting together telegenic demonstrations or applying political pressure whenever an administrator does something they don\u2019t like.<\/p>\n Less politically connected groups, however, don\u2019t count when the university frets over diversity. Armenians were subjected to genocide in Turkey, and those who immigrated to America in the early 20th century were discriminated against in California for decades. Real estate covenants in many neighborhoods excluded Armenians along with blacks and Mexicans. But Armenians are not considered to be as \u201cdiverse\u201d as a black dentist\u2019s son who grew up in Menlo Park.<\/p>\n Many other ethnic groups, such as Portuguese, Italians, South Asians, Russians, and Poles, are lumped together into the meaningless category \u201cwhite\u201d and thus, no matter how poor or underprivileged, no matter how long their history of exclusion and discrimination may be, they are deemed irrelevant for increasing campus diversity and providing their classmates with \u201ceducational benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n Identity Politics by Another Name<\/strong><\/p>\n This brings us to the real basis for the definition of diversity prevalent today, which is that it includes only those who were victims of white oppression, prejudice, and racism. The black or the Hispanic student \u2014 deemed to be a victim of racist oppression no matter what his economic advantages may be \u2014 is courted in order to bring his presumed experiences of oppression to the privileged enclaves of academe.<\/p>\n In other words, most academic \u201cdiversity\u201d is really about white guilt and minority payback, a way for affluent, liberal educators to compensate for their privilege by bestowing\u00a0noblesse oblige<\/em>\u00a0on middle or upper class representatives of the oppressed minority \u201cother.\u201d Meanwhile, poor minority students \u2014 and poor white students, for that matter \u2014 are underrepresented on university campuses. At the 200 most selective universities, only 5 percent come from the bottom 25 percent of the income scale.<\/p>\n As for the minority students who are admitted under the lowered standards that result when race trumps merit, what \u201ceducational benefits\u201d do they receive from interacting with students from other groups? Given the self-segregation on many campuses evident in race-based fraternities, clubs, dorms, graduation ceremonies, eating and socializing areas, and courses in ethnic studies programs devoted to the culture minority students presumably already know and supposedly can share with their white classmates, there are not many \u201ceducational benefits\u201d moving in either direction.<\/p>\n There is also the stigma that many minority students feel on campus because they know they were admitted under less stringent criteria than many of their peers. Unsurprisingly, minority students often earn lower grades, have a harder time passing licensing tests such as the bar exam, earn fewer degrees in science and engineering, and suffer higher dropout rates than whites and Asians. In 2010, the Education Trust reported that while 60 percent of whites graduate in six years, only 49 percent of Hispanics and 39 percent of blacks do. Young people are paying a steep price so administrators can preen about their \u201ccommitment to diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite these problems, diversity has become a thriving industry in American universities, with administrators, programs, and grant money for faculty seeking ways to enhance diversity in their classrooms and in their research. Given diversity\u2019s outsized presence on campus, it is doubtful that a Supreme Court decision striking down the University of Texas\u2019 race-conscious admissions criteria will stop admissions officers from finding other ways to admit minority applicants who don\u2019t meet the academic requirements.<\/p>\n Universities can simply add a proxy for race such as \u201covercoming challenges or difficulties\u201d or \u201cobstacles overcome,\u201d and weigh those subjective factors heavily enough to overcome any deficiencies in grades or test scores. This sort of procedure is already in use at some colleges, and some research indicates that it functions as a substitute for race. Richard Sander\u2019s research on UCLA\u2019s admissions procedures found that a higher percentage of blacks and Latinos are accepted than whites and Asians with the same \u201cholistic score,\u201d which is a composite of GPA, standardized test scores, and essays documenting \u201cobstacles overcome.\u201d<\/p>\n Given that the \u201ceducational benefits\u201d of this \u201cdiversity\u201d do not exist, it is clear that a commitment to such superficial diversity is an excuse for racial social engineering and ideological proselytizing. After all, if mixing the races in universities is so pedagogically beneficial, we should be agitating for the traditional black universities, like Grambling and Howard, to increase their diversity by admitting more whites, Asians, and Hispanics.<\/p>\n In the end, focusing on the diversity of skin-tone, hair texture, and surname compromises the most important purpose of the university: imparting an education that trains students to think critically and, in so doing, that liberates their minds from the prison of group-think, whether ethnic, cultural, or political, preparing them for a life of political freedom and autonomy. To achieve that aim, the only diversity that matters is the diversity of individual, disagreeing minds.<\/p>\n \u00a92012 Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bruce Thornton Defining Ideas In\u00a0Fisher vs. University of Texas, the Supreme Court heard legal challenges to the University of Texas\u2019s admissions policies, which allow consideration of an applicant\u2019s race in order to promote \u201cdiversity\u201d among the school\u2019s students. Such racial preferences are widespread in university admissions. In 80 percent of elite schools, they amount […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[79,22,120],"tags":[82,62,84,1036],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2S","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7258,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/one-cheer-for-the-schuette-decision\/","url_meta":{"origin":178,"position":0},"title":"One Cheer for the Schuette Decision","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0Front Page Magazine\u00a0 Many conservatives are applauding the recent Supreme Court\u00a0Schuette\u00a0decision upholding the right of the citizens of Michigan to ban racial preferences. As Charles Krauthammer\u00a0writes, the 2003\u00a0Grutter\u00a0decision, which like\u00a0Schuette\u00a0did not ban racial preferences altogether, was correct: \u201cThe people should decide.\u00a0The people responded accordingly. Three years\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3300,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-race-card\/","url_meta":{"origin":178,"position":1},"title":"Obama’s Race Card","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers The liberal media are in full Captain Renault mode, \u201cshocked, shocked\u201d to find race injected into the presidential campaign by a \u201cSwift-boating\u201d John McCain. How shameless can you get? The Obama campaign\u2013\u2013indeed, the whole of Obama\u2019s public existence\u2013\u2013is about nothing other than his perceived\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":527,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-wasted-educational-crisis\/","url_meta":{"origin":178,"position":2},"title":"A Wasted Educational Crisis","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton Pope Center\u00a0Commentaries As former White House Chief of Staff and now Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel famously said, \u201cYou never want to let a serious crisis to go to waste.\u201d The economic Armageddon facing the country\u2019s largest state university system, the 23-campus California State University, undoubtedly qualifies\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7623,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-language-of-despotism\/","url_meta":{"origin":178,"position":3},"title":"The Language of Despotism","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/ FrontPage Magazine Long before\u00a01984\u00a0gave us the adjective \u201cOrwellian\u201d to describe the political corruption of language and thought, Thucydides observed how factional struggles for power make words their first victims. Describing the horrors of civil war on the island of Corcyra during the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The World"","block_context":{"text":"The World","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/war-is-peace-450x337.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7030,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-outdated-business-model-of-diversity-inc\/","url_meta":{"origin":178,"position":4},"title":"The Outdated Business Model of Diversity, Inc.","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In today's divided society, universities would be wise to stress unity and academic rigor. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online\u00a0 Diversity has become corporatized on American campuses, with scores of bureaucrats and administrators accentuating different pedigrees and ancestries. That\u2019s odd, because diversity \u00a0no longer means \u201cvariety\u201d or \u201cpoints of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/600px-Education_-_Red_Grad_Hat-300x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2816,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-obama-administration-and-the-monopoly-on-education\/","url_meta":{"origin":178,"position":5},"title":"The Obama Administration and the Monopoly on Education","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton First Principles Part two of a symposium on the educational impact of Obama and the New Progressivism. Read\u00a0part one\u00a0on the economic prospects and\u00a0part three\u00a0on culture. What changes might we expect in higher education from an Obama presidency? The answer is easy: none. What we will get\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions\/179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}