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Stigma and Affirmative Action

Thursday, June 26th, 2003

Best case I’ve seen yet for the stigma argument (and I apologize, I really can’t remember where I read this — but it wasn’t originally my idea):

If affirmative action doesn’t stigmatize blacks in higher education, would affirmative action supporters have a problem with publishing the names, GPAs and standardized test scores of everyone in a grad or law school class? What about posting a list of names of those students who got in via racial preferences and those who didn’t?

If there’s no stigma associated with affirmative action, what’s the objection?

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 26th, 2003 at 2:03 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

10 Responses to “Stigma and Affirmative Action”

  1. #1 |  Julian |  June 26th, 2003 at 6:25 pm

    I saw that as well. I was interested to note that when they were asking minority pro-affac protesters at schools (on CNN) whether they thought it had played a decisive role in their admission. And to a one, they said no. So while AA is apparently vitally important to guaranteeing diversity, they can’t seem to find anyone for whom it made a difference…

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  2. #2 |  Bones |  June 27th, 2003 at 2:15 am

    Because, a large part of the admissions process is subjective (essays for instance) and thus it isn’t possible to draw a clear line between in-by-preferences and wouldn’t-have-made-it.

    Also, you would have to include in this list wouldn’t-be-here-if-his-daddy-wasn’t-a-legacy. And I gurantee you daddy would make sure that this sort of thing would never be published.

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  3. #3 |  BurnOneDown |  June 27th, 2003 at 8:54 am

    I think it unwise for libertarians to use the stigma argument against AA, regardless of it’s validity. To quibble over the practical effects of AA vis-a-vis race relations, therefore deviating from the central libertarian point that racial preferences have no place in state-funded institutions, is to compromise the power of that message, which should stand as the singular libertarian objection to AA.

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  4. #4 |  Matt |  June 27th, 2003 at 9:43 am

    What kind of quandry will we have when a person who is admitted into a college with the assistance of affirmative action has a child apply to the same college but is subsequently denied access because said college had to douse the policy of legacy admissions?

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  5. #5 |  roger |  June 27th, 2003 at 9:47 am

    Bones -

    First, I do agree that a large part of the admissions process is subjective, as I believe it should be.

    However, the issue of legacies is just a distraction in a discussion of AA. Legacies exist at private institutions (at least I’ve never heard of any at a public school).

    Any private organization, be it Yale or Augusta, should be able to admit anyone they choose, for whatever subjective reason they choose. If I am not supporting them with my tax dollars, then I couldn’t care less who they do or don’t admit.

    When my money funds an institution, I don’t want ANY preferences given, other than merit alone. This includes legacies and AA, both of which are inherently discriminatory.

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  6. #6 |  tb |  June 27th, 2003 at 10:41 am

    Roger—do you consider athletic ability merit? The U of M policy gave the same number of points to a scholarship athlete as to a minority–therefore assuring a minority athlete was admitted.

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  7. #7 |  roger |  June 27th, 2003 at 1:39 pm

    tb -

    No. As long as I am footing the bill, I don’t want preferences in athletics either.

    I’m not sure how my tax dollars being spent by Ohio State football are actually going to accomplish anything at all, besides simply wasting money. Don’t get me wrong, I love football; I just can’t see why my money should be involuntarily sent to pay for the football program at a college with which I have no affiliation whatsoever.

    I have no interest in seeing a bunch of people with the intellectual capacity of a dog turd going to college (on my dollar) to play a sport and SUPPOSEDLY get an education. On the other hand, I REALLY have no desire in seeing a bunch of Engineering students playing football.

    Wait, on second thought, that might be pretty cool.

    Admittedly, I have NO idea how to rectify the situation, besides eliminating college sports altogether. What can it really hurt? Most of the people going to college on an athletic scholarship are not doing it because of the fine education they will receive.

    With the NBA’s growing interest in drafting high-schoolers, I figure college basketball might be the first to go…

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