How Racial Preferences In Education Ruin The Future Of Minority Students
Stuart Taylor, Jr., explains in The American Spectator:
Only 1 to 2 percent of black college applicants emerge from high school well-qualified academically for (say) the top Ivy League colleges. Therefore, those schools can meet their racial admissions targets only by using large preferences. They bring in black students who are well qualified for moderately elite schools like (say) the University of North Carolina, but not for the Ivies that recruit them. This leaves schools like UNC able to meet their own racial targets only by giving large preferences to black students who are well qualified for less selective schools like (say) the University of Missouri but not for UNC. And so on down the selectivity scale.As a result, experts agree, most black students at even moderately selective schools -- with high school preparation and test scores far below those of their classmates -- rank well below the middle of their college and grad school classes, with between 25% and 50% ranking in the bottom tenth. That's a very bad place to be at any school.
This, in turn, increases these students' isolation and self-segregation from the higher-achieving Asians and whites who flourish in more challenging courses. At least one careful study shows that students are more likely to become friends with peers who are similar in academic accomplishment.
Put yourself in the position of manyHispanic and especially black students (recipients of by far the largest racial preferences) at selective schools, who may work heroically during the first semester only to be lost in many classroom discussions and dismayed by their grades.
As they start to see the gulf between their own performance and that of most of their fellow students, dismay can become despair. They soon realize that no matter how hard they work, they will struggle academically.
It is critical to understand that these are not bad students. They did well in high school and could excel at somewhat less selective universities where they would arrive roughly as well prepared as their classmates.
But due to racial preferences, they find themselves for the first time in their lives competing against classmates who have a huge head start in terms of previous education, academic ability, or both.
Researchers have shown that racial preference recipients develop negative perceptions of their own academic competence, which in turn harms their performance and even their mental health, through "stereotype threat" and other problems. They may come to see themselves as failures in the eyes of their families, their friends, and themselves.
Such mismatched minority students are understandably baffled and often bitter about why this is happening to them. With most other minority students having similar problems, their personal academic struggles take on a collective, racial cast.
via @Mark_J_Perry
Once again personal responsibility is a problem as this is not a 'new' thing and word of mouth should have killed this a long time ago.
Hell, it did not take me long to realize what classes were beyond my abilities. My 'job' was to get a degree and if taking a remedial math class was needed then that was what was done.
'Getting a degree' is not the 'job' of these students. Being given a degree because they showed up is their goal.
At the very least the many HS and college althletes that were the 'best' that find their new peer group now includes dudes bigger/faster should have inspired caution.
Sad but the knowledge is out there and if you ignore it you pay the price.
Bob in Texas at November 28, 2015 7:00 AM
Unfortunately, I have to work with many who have a degree, but not the skills or aptitude one would hope accompanies it. Clearly, many colleges are selling degrees, rather than making people earn them.
One exception was a fellow who realized his shortage and fixed that. As he tells it, as a freshman at MIT he enrolled in a second-year math course, because he had done very well in all the advanced math courses his high school could present. To his dismay, he had never seen the fifth or sixth symbol the aide put on the board that first day, and so he promptly left to sign up for the proper, first-year, course. Yes, MIT math is still harder than woodpecker lips!
"But due to racial preferences, they find themselves for the first time in their lives competing against classmates who have a huge head start in terms of previous education, academic ability, or both."
Using the term "head start" is completely wrong in many of these cases. No amount of additional time training can fix some deficits; it's as if someone said LPs can star in the NBA if only they had Affirmative Action.
There are obvious intellectual differences between ethnic groups. Pretending otherwise has only led to wasted resources.
Radwaste at November 28, 2015 8:38 AM
Ben Carson writes about how woefully unprepared he was for (I think?) Yale? He nearly flunked out. He is clearly highly intelligent so he was able to buckle down and catch up, but for most people? Nope.
Duke is already courting my 11 year old. Not too shabby!
momof4 at November 28, 2015 8:53 AM
Ben Carson is an exceptional man, and a student. He had the natural intelligence to overcome a very poor high school preparatory program.
Most people don't. There are certain foundational skills you must acquire in math, the sciences, and English for true college work to make sense to you.
Very few high school students are either getting that advanced prep work, or have the incredible smarts necessary to get by without it.
This is why most affirmative action admissions, and quite a few women find themselves having to go to into something like elementary Ed, or Women's studies, They have opted for a make believe degree in order to maintain their scholarship at a school where are real academic major was above their abilities. The alternative was dropping out which used to happen frequently to about two thirds of the incoming freshmen class when I was in college.
It is much easier to *pretend* to be a sociologist, than it is to be a nuclear physicist.
And I don't know about you, but I don't want to see an MD who got his degree because of affirmative action. Bad enough that the public schools are now filled with affirmative action hires.
I have seen some nurse practicioners who were better doctors than an MD, and I have seen two that appeared to be complete idiots.
So many people have now jumped on this band wagon, that the pay is no better than for a registered nurse ( or so my friends who have been job hunting have told me).
That and the incredible top heavy administration, are a lot of what is wrong with both public schools, and colleges receiving federal money.
Isab at November 28, 2015 1:32 PM
Well, can it really get any worse? We do already have an affirmative action president. Just saying . . .
charles at November 28, 2015 8:15 PM
I think I can relate somewhat. Where I worked before I was a top dog in my field...really in that city. I took a job with another company that strove to hire the best and paid people to move (I got a fair sized chunk of money). I was now maybe average in the pool. It felt really different. Such as should I bother this person with my question?
The Former Banker at November 28, 2015 9:01 PM
Low self imagine when you are in over your head, ain't restricted to minorities,
I know of several people in law school with me that literally had a meltdown and left when they were not getting straight A's anymore.
The competition was still somewhat cutthroat and there were a lot of people being admitted with poor academic preparation, and low LSAT scores.
Most these people had gotten high grades by taking easy courses, as any undergrad that were not graded on the curve.
They had no idea how ill prepared they were for a challenging academic environment.
The bar pass rates got lower every year.
Isab at November 28, 2015 9:57 PM
Somebody say, "Ben Carson"?
Radwaste at November 29, 2015 8:30 AM
There was an article about this a few years back in Harvard Magazine.
That said, the black Ivy-educated folk I've met seem as smart and successful as the white ones to me. The supergeniuses tend to be white or asian, but supergeniuses are not representative of the student body of any school.
I realize anecdote is not data.
NicoleK at November 29, 2015 1:03 PM
Thanks Rad.
Begs the question - how can Carson be "highly intelligent" if he believes that nonsense?!
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at November 29, 2015 2:29 PM
The big bang is a large part of the president's job? Is Carson going to push we all store our grains in stone pyramids?
You didn't build that is at least as ignorant and far more applicable to presidential work. We can all see how well that worked.
Ben at November 30, 2015 8:28 AM
Ben:
The big bang is a large part of the president's job? Is Carson going to push we all store our grains in stone pyramids?
It's not that he has to already know all about every branch of every different field of study. It's that he makes no distinction between his personal superstitions and objective reality.
kenmce at December 1, 2015 5:34 PM
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