Actual diversity comes from meaningful measures

By Jay Augsburger

We hear a lot about "natural" prejudices, by which we subconsciously discriminate against those who are unlike us, but sometimes these prejudices are turned on their heads. When I taught at Summerbridge, an enrichment program for sixth- and seventh-grade public school students this summer in Cincinnati, I taught to a student body that was up to 90 percent African-American. Many of the teachers, who were mostly white, thought that the substantial majority of black students created an unexpected reverse bias. The teachers felt uncomfortable working with the white minority, who often travelled as a pack and were even labelled with the special term "Appalachians." Black students occasionally attempted to bridge the palpable racial gap, but in the end the endeavor failed. Two of the five Appalachians quit the six-week program; none of the black students did. It was a disaster for an organization that prides itself on being diverse.

Stereotypical black-white racism is not the only prejudice our society faces. Any minority group can be discriminated against, and we should be careful not to attribute our prejudices to race when they are actually generated by the literal sense of the word "minority"—a population that differs from the larger group to which it belongs.

On Mon., Sept. 18, Newsweek published a set of articles detailing the status of race in America. One article gleefully noted that the U.S. census had increased its ethnic categories from three (black, white, and "quadroon") in 1860 to 30 in 2000. I suppose we should be proud of our diversity and slap ourselves on the back for being able to classify everyone so thoroughly, just like animals at a zoo. If nothing else, it shows that we are adopting the Bullworth solution to racial tension: mixing races until we are all the same color.

According to Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Richard Shaw, race is never a deciding factor in admission to Yale. "We take a holistic approach to undergraduate admissions," he said, also noting that applicants have such strong academic records that the admissions staff has the liberty to focus on multiple criteria beyond grades and test scores. On the other hand, public universities in California have not been allowed to consider race in their admissions since Proposition 209 passed in 1996. UC Berkeley has seen a precipitous drop in minority admissions since this date, but overall minority enrollment has held steady across the UC campuses. Students who might have matriculated at the Berkeley campus before 209 now end up at lower-rated Irvine, Davis, or Santa Barbara, which have all seen increases in minority enrollment. Supporters of the proposition argue that this "cascading" puts all students in an academic climate where they can thrive; opponents call it resegregation.

There is no perfect solution, but court decisions striking down affirmative action are forcing politicians to try. Last November, Florida Governor Jeb Bush enacted the sweeping "One Florida Initiative." Traditional affirmative action was outlawed in favor of more "race-neutral and legally defensible" college admissions strategies, such as greater consideration of socio-economic background, increases in need-based financial aid, and substantial contributions to the lowest-performing public schools. Additionally, the top 20 percent of every Florida high school graduating class is guaranteed admission to a state university. After one year of race-blind admissions and outreach programs, minority enrollment skyrocketed by 12 percent, despite legions of protesters and critics.

Some proponents of affirmative action in higher education point to a 1999 survey of Harvard and Michigan law students that showed most students believe that diversity adds quality to their learning experience. But survey results are often misleading. If "diversity" implies racial diversity, how could a well-mannered, politically-correct student deny that a variety of races is inherently good, even if the academic standards are necessarily lowered for certain students? Yet if "diversity" implies a wide variety of skills and talents (as it usually does at Yale), the university is clearly better off. Diversity enhances undergraduate education, but not when it lowers the academic bar with grossly uneven admission standards for ethnic minorities.

Affirmative action has served its purpose; it has enabled minorities to gain jobs, status, and educational opportunities that they would not otherwise have received in a tense climate. But now we must stop apologizing for past wrongdoings and start evaluating candidates for universities and jobs based on merit rather than skin color. The final push toward racial equality must happen with new vision that can distinguish between more than black and white.

Jay Augsburger is a senior in Saybrook.

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