All Posts Tagged With: "affirmative action"
University of California System Rejecting Taxpayer’s Wishes
54% of California voters, amended the state constitution to prohibit public institutions from considering race, sex, or ethnicity
In 1996 Proposition 209, supported by 54% of California voters, amended the state constitution to prohibit public institutions from considering race, sex, or ethnicity. It was widely described as anti-affirmative action designed to end racial preferences.The University of California system has been accused of rigging its admission practices to overturn that voters’ decision. The recent resignation of a UCLA professor and member of its admission’s committee because he was refused access to admission’s data has created widespread angst and even anger.
For its part UC says it is obeying the law while adopting a “hollistic” approach to admissions relying less on grade point averages (GOA) and college aptitude scores like the SAT and ACT, and more on such things are community involvement and a subjectively refereed admission’s essay.
Critics are raising cane pointing out that only 5% of less qualified whites and being admitted while 75% more blacks are calling it “reverse discrimination”, and pointing out it is a disservice to admit unqualified students because they drop out - the drop put rate for blacks in 2007 at a sampled UCLA school was 41.6%; 15.2% for whites and only 10.2% for Asians.. They point to SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) scores 400 points lower for admitted blacks than white students.
Proponents like Sociologist Darnell Hunt, director of the Ralph Bunche Center for African-American Studies at UCLA routinely raise three arguments including: the prior admission policy was a failure; GPA and standardized test are not objective measures of merit, and UC’s mission mandates diversity. Hunt says it is the responsibility of a tax supported institution, like the UC system to educate future leaders in science, business and art for their communities.
Notwithstanding the arrogance that only UC can fulfill that leadership mandate the issue is exploding because of unanswered questions about the part, if any, race played in the Ivy League educations of Barack and Michelle Obama.
Deaffirming Action Tricky
Fifty-eight percent (58%) believe society should be allowed to work out its own problems, while only 22% believe it is the role of the government to legislate social outcomes.
This 2001 review by John McWhorter’s “Losing The Race” is a must read.
Forty-six percent say affirmative action programs are no longer necessary. But nearly a third (32%) believe that affirmative action should continue. A majority of Americans (54%) say a candidate’s position on affirmative action programs is important in determining how they will vote.
John McCain’s got a stony response when he rejected affirmative action as presently constituted from a black audience on Friday, but even Barack Obama has problems with the government’s use of a quota system to advance women and minorities. Both men are careful, too, to suggest that something needs to take its place.
Fifty-eight percent (58%), for example, believe society should be allowed to work out its own problems, while only 22% believe it is the role of the government to legislate social outcomes. An identical 58% also oppose government programs that give special treatment to women and minorities, as opposed to 26% who favor them.
But when voters are asked specifically about “affirmative action,” opposition drops somewhat — to 46% — while the level of support stays roughly the same at 28%.
Only 11% of voters rate affirmative action as a success. Twice as many (22%) say it’s been a failure, but over two-thirds of Americans (64%) rate it as “somewhere in between.”
A well-intentioned program dating from the 1960s, affirmative action has now become a political catch phrase, particularly among some white voters, for what is seen as mandated quotas based on special treatment or even reverse bias. For many minority voters, however, opposition to affirmative action is viewed as racism. A dichotomy that is very near the core of what passes today for racism.
Efforts to eliminate affirmative action in government hiring and college enrollment have been going on for several years now on the state level, including successful efforts in California, Washington and Michigan. This November voters in Arizona, Colorado, and Nebraska will consider proposed amendments to their state constitutions outlawing special preferences for minorities and women. When employers are choosing between prospective workers across racial and gender lines, 42% say most employers pick the best person for a job, while 35% say they do not.
Forty-six percent (46%) of Americans say that affirmative action discriminates against white men, although 31% disagree. A majority of white voters see such discrimination while a strong majority of African-American voters do not.
For women, affirmative action is a slightly more important issue than it is to men, with 59% of female voters saying a candidate’s position is important to them. A plurality of women voters (38%) oppose affirmative action versus nearly as many (32%) who favor it. By contrast, 55% of men are against affirmative action while only 23% support it.
Seventy-six percent (76%) of African-American voters think affirmative action programs should be continued, but only 24% of whites feel that way. Over half of white voters (53%) think the programs are no longer necessary.
Over a third of black voters (36%) say affirmative action has been a success, a view shared by only eight percent (8%) of whites.
Among Democrats, 44% favor affirmative action, but only 17% rate it as a success. Sixty-nine percent (69%) of Republicans oppose affirmative action, and just 4% see it as successful. Close to half of unaffiliated voters (47%) are in opposition, and only 7% think it has worked.
Sixty-three percent (63%) of those who plan to vote for Obama say the candidate’s position on affirmative action is important to their vote. Only 45% of likely McCain voters feel that way. About half of Obama voters (49%) believe affirmative action should be continued, while 68% of McCain voters say it’s no longer necessary.
The real question at this point is, where exactly do the candidates themselves stand on the issue? The voters aren’t sure. Seventeen percent (17%) say McCain is in favor of affirmative action, 29% say he opposes it, and 54% don’t know. As for Obama, the first African-American likely to be the presidential candidate of a major political party, 45% say he favors affirmative action, nine percent (9%) think he opposes it, and almost half (46%) aren’t sure where he stands.