So, the SCOTUS has dispensed with college admissions that take into account race. My e-mailbox is bursting with complaints about this decision. (And there's one request after another for money, somehow, presumably, if inexplicably, to challenge it.)
Looked at in a certain way, the SCOTUS was right. It would be a wonderful and large step forward if everything, including college admissions, was "colorblind." But there are two problems.
First, the people who complain now about advantage given to "minorities" didn't make a peep when those same minorities were placed at very firm disadvantage. And every advantage was given to the majority. Even in my lifetime, there were "quotas" for minority admissions, and those quotas were not generous. So the complainers are being hypocritical in complaining. We've spent centuries in this country sending a loud and clear message to minorities that their "place" is not in college. Or at least not a good one. Which certainly doesn't mean that no minority person ever had great success, including success in getting admitted to college. Some of them do. And what minority (especially African-American) people say is that they have to work twice as hard to achieve half as much. From what I've seen, I don't doubt them for an instant.
But second, and really more important, is that the minorities who are no longer given extra consideration for things like college admission are highly disadvantaged in many (and preceding) ways that would prevent them from being adequately prepared to be competitive (or at least successful) applicants. And no one is advocating doing anything about those disadvantages.
The list of those preserved disadvantages is long. Minorities of various kinds are paid less than majority populations. So the parents of imagined future college students are not as well positioned to provide adequately enough for their families, including their children. Minority pregnant women have less chance to be mothers, because they are not treated as well (Why do so many Black women die in pregnancy? One reason: Doctors don't take them seriously (msn.com). Minorities are herded into municipalities and sectors which are not supported as well as are sometimes nearby areas that are majority inhabited. I've written before about two cases that have been in the news about African-Americans whose houses (for sale) were dramatically undervalued until they have Causasian friends pose as the homeowners/sellers. So, had they not relied on their Caucasian friends, they would have walked away from their old homes with far less money to buy a new one, which would have been nicer, and in a better neighborhood. Minorities are charged more for loans, like mortgages, making it again harder to support families. Projects that include taking property by eminent domain are commonly targeted at minority inhabited areas, so life and living are not only less supported, but also less stable. The same is true of establishment of landfills, toxic dumping, and other activities that make life more difficult, and less healthy.
The result of this kind of activity, which is sometimes subtle and hard to detect Jim Crow pressure, makes life as students more challenging and less successful. So, even if we tried to treat all college applicants equally when they apply, they're already unequal for the 17 years before they apply. And the inequality is not an advantage to them.
So, I think in spirit, it would be great if we could make the same general assumptions about all college applicants. But we can't. And a ruling like today's SCOTUS denial simply applies yet a further disadvantage to people who are already at a disadvantage. In fact, they're at lots of them. They don't even have the advantage of telling themselves, as we always claim we in this country tell ourselves, that any opportunity is available to anyone. It isn't.
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