A conservative U.S. Supreme Court seems likely to strike down decades old “race-conscious admissions” at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. Such a decision could bring protests, even civil unrest. Is it worth it?
I’ve long supported closing K-12 racial achievement gaps and wider recruitment to increase diversity in universities. Most hiring or admissions committees have someone pushing to expand the pool to seek well qualified candidates from underrepresented groups. I was and will remain that person.
Yet decades of watching higher education’s racial preferences in action have convinced me that, as usual, Thomas Sowell was right. Contrasting successfully integrated organizations like the U.S. Army, where no soldier thinks the officer bossing them around got there due to their race, higher education bureaucracies have prioritized symbolic “equity,” meaning quotas, over merit, reinforcing white privilege in the process. Real world experience says it’s time to end racial preferences and reembrace merit admissions.
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