Affirmative action was supposed to “help” blacks. It imposed quotas on schools and businesses and governments to require them to pick a certain number of blacks, whether or not the blacks were prepared for the work or schooling. (And most blacks, let us remember, are products of the worst government schools in the country — even though those schools often are funded at levels higher than white schools, as in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.)
But a recent study by UCLA law professor Richard Sander showed that blacks were hurt, not helped, by affirmative action. Gail Hariot, a University of San Diego law prof, writes in The Wall Street Journal:
Easily the most startling conclusion of his research: Mr. Sander calculated that there are fewer black attorneys today than there would have been if law schools had practiced color-blind admissions–about 7.9% fewer by his reckoning. He identified the culprit as the practice of admitting minority students to schools for which they are inadequately prepared. In essence, they have been “matched” to the wrong school.
The problem is that, under affirmative action, blacks sometimes end up at schools for which they are not qualified, such as Harvard Law School. So they struggle and drop out, whereas they might have done much better at a lower-level school, such as a state law school. In some cases, blacks waste years of their lives and pile up debt, yet end up dropping out or flunking the bar exam, meaning they wasted a good part of their lives and hocked their future to the banks.
These blacks’ lives are ruined just so some liberals can feel all giggly inside that certain quota targets have been met, their guilt has been assuaged, and they are superior to the rest of us.
Not surprisingly, politically correct censors have the long knives out. Heriot writes:
Unfortunately, fair-minded scholars are hard to come by when the issue is affirmative action. Some of the same people who argue Mr. Sander’s data are inconclusive are now actively trying to prevent him from conducting follow-up research that might yield definitive answers. If racial preferences really are causing more harm than good, they apparently don’t want you–or anyone else–to know.
Sandler wanted to get data from the State Bar of California to confirm his research, but the State Bar wouldn’t let him! Yet the information, coming from state law schools and private law schools that receive tax money, was paid for by taxpayers — you and me. So we can’t see the data our own money paid for.
This is another reason to bury affirmative action once and for all.
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