Bless Abigail Fisher’s pure white heart. She was a straight A student in high school and even played the cello for good measure. Her sibling and her father attended UT Austin, and that is where she wanted to go. But, sadly for Ms. Fisher, she had to settle for one of Mrs. Field’s alma mater, LSU.(My heart bleeds.) Of course, like so many other white people in “post racial” America, she is sick of being discriminated against, so she is did what any red blooded American would do: she sued.
*Now, four years later, her case is before the Supremes.
The University of Texas says that even without "affirmative action" Abigail wouldn't have made the cut. But Abigail doesn't believe it; she thinks that one of those minorities took her spot. Her spot.
The University of Texas says that even without "affirmative action" Abigail wouldn't have made the cut. But Abigail doesn't believe it; she thinks that one of those minorities took her spot. Her spot.
So can a university select a student body it wants to look like the larger community and society at large? Does having a more diverse student body give students who graduate from said university a better opportunity to compete in the real world? The University of Texas seems to think so.
Republican appointed jurist, Sandra Day O’Conner, writing for the majority in a case styled Grutter v. Bollinger, believes that it does as well. Abigail, --and I suspect most white people in America-- does not.
You can’t use racial quotas, but you can certainly consider race as one of the factors. This seems reasonable to me if you consider other factors such as economic background and family hardships as well. I am all for a poor white kid who has been disadvantaged all of his or her life getting more consideration than a wealthy black kid with all the privileges afforded those with wealth in this country.
To me, there is affirmative action and what the University of Texas is doing. What they are doing is not affirmative action, what they are doing is trying to enhance their student body by bringing people of different backgrounds and experiences together.
But still, should we feel for some woe is me white folks like the ones I read about in Slate Magazine, today?
"I’ll start with the anger. J.R. Constable writes that after taking the community college courses he was told were required, he tried to transfer to California State University at Fresno, only to be told by a counselor there off the record: “ ‘We can’t admit you, because we have too many white males enrolled in your major.’ ” He says, “I was enraged,” and continues:
To me, there is affirmative action and what the University of Texas is doing. What they are doing is not affirmative action, what they are doing is trying to enhance their student body by bringing people of different backgrounds and experiences together.
But still, should we feel for some woe is me white folks like the ones I read about in Slate Magazine, today?
"I’ll start with the anger. J.R. Constable writes that after taking the community college courses he was told were required, he tried to transfer to California State University at Fresno, only to be told by a counselor there off the record: “ ‘We can’t admit you, because we have too many white males enrolled in your major.’ ” He says, “I was enraged,” and continues:
I wish I could say that within a few weeks I got over it, but I still find myself once in a while having the thoughts that I missed a promotion because of my gender, or race. Or that because I'm white I don't have as much potential, or ability. That I was being viewed as a failure. If life is supposed to be so much easier for me, why do I have to struggle so much?
Immediately after the incident, I was at the worst of my self-loathing, I was constantly hating myself for what I was, a white man. I hated myself for what I was becoming, a bigot. Race and gender went from being a non-issue, to being the only issue. I was crushed, and I dropped out of school. I settled in to the fact that because of something that happened to me at conception, that I had no control over, that is an insignificant part of the larger sum of me, I’d been doomed to being at the bottom.
J.R. says he was rejected from Cal State in the early 2000s, after California voters passed a referendum that barred the state from considering race, sex, or ethnicity in public employment, contracting, or education. He says he was told that the school needed more minorities in his major because of a federal funding mandate, and that trumped the state law. He also says he grew up poor, taking care of his disabled mother, and that he’s sure being on the losing side of affirmative action, as he sees it, was a terrible turning point for him."
An email from a man from Austin had the same flavor. When he didn’t get into the University of Texas at Austin law school in the mid-1970s, he was told that he’d met the minimum standard for test scores and grades, “but because of affirmative action and the fact that the University was trying to increase minority enrollment, there were not enough places for me. Tough luck.” He didn’t have the money to attend another law school, since he was living and working in Austin. “I never became an attorney,” he continues. “ I don’t harbor any ill will, but I guess just regret and sadness.
An email from a man from Austin had the same flavor. When he didn’t get into the University of Texas at Austin law school in the mid-1970s, he was told that he’d met the minimum standard for test scores and grades, “but because of affirmative action and the fact that the University was trying to increase minority enrollment, there were not enough places for me. Tough luck.” He didn’t have the money to attend another law school, since he was living and working in Austin. “I never became an attorney,” he continues. “ I don’t harbor any ill will, but I guess just regret and sadness.
I checked on UT’s affirmative action policy in the ’70s. According to a 1994 court ruling, the law school had a separate admissions committee that considered applications from minority students and disadvantaged white students. In 1977, out of 500 applications, the committee admitted 68 minority students and three white students. So it’s true that the law school was trying to increase minority enrollment, and it’s possible that these efforts could have edged out a white student on the margin. For the man who wrote to me, that possibility is enough for a life’s worth of complicated emotion.
Robert Grant, who went to law school at the University of Mississippi in the 1990s, feels bitter about the scholarships he saw go to minority students. He’d just come out of the Air Force, the GI Bill didn’t cover graduate school, and he was working the graveyard shift at a local hotel to pay for school when he ran into a black classmate parking her fancy car. She was on scholarship; he was not. “This is justified as a remedy for past discrimination. Fine,” he writes. “However, I currently have over $100,000 in student loans. ... I wouldn’t be human if it didn’t leave a bad taste in my mouth.” [Source]
How did he know that the black law school student "parking her fancy car" didn't have a rich daddy? Anyway, I feel his pain. Color arousal can be a b*&^# sometimes.
Finally, I wish that you Negroes would leave Stacey Dash alone. So she supports Mitt Romney, there is nothing wrong with that. (Wasn't her biggest movie called "Clueless"?) This is America, and she pretty much has a right to support who she wants to become our president. I know I slammed her on twitter, but I was joking. I was not the person who called her a house slave.
Rip Stacey for her acting career....wait, she has no acting career. OK, fine, rip her for messing with my girl LisaRaye; but not this.
“Believe me I wish things had worked out because I thought Stacey and I were great together. She was my age and we were working it. It was sex-symbol to sex-symbol. But she didn’t want to be there. I was disappointed about that. She had some issues. I’m not sure exactly what those issues were. In the end, she and VH1 made a decision.”
Well, now we know. The poor child was having buyer's remorse over his Oness.
*Pic from Slate magazine.
How did he know that the black law school student "parking her fancy car" didn't have a rich daddy? Anyway, I feel his pain. Color arousal can be a b*&^# sometimes.
Finally, I wish that you Negroes would leave Stacey Dash alone. So she supports Mitt Romney, there is nothing wrong with that. (Wasn't her biggest movie called "Clueless"?) This is America, and she pretty much has a right to support who she wants to become our president. I know I slammed her on twitter, but I was joking. I was not the person who called her a house slave.Rip Stacey for her acting career....wait, she has no acting career. OK, fine, rip her for messing with my girl LisaRaye; but not this.
“Believe me I wish things had worked out because I thought Stacey and I were great together. She was my age and we were working it. It was sex-symbol to sex-symbol. But she didn’t want to be there. I was disappointed about that. She had some issues. I’m not sure exactly what those issues were. In the end, she and VH1 made a decision.”
Well, now we know. The poor child was having buyer's remorse over his Oness.
*Pic from Slate magazine.
0 Comments