As a scholar of race and education, I am enjoying the national public debate over affirmative action. Like any professor who discusses race in their classrooms and publishes on race, I simply enjoy when we discuss race in public.
With the Michigan appellate court striking down the state’s ban on affirmative action in mid-November, the discussion, or the debate rather, will only continue — a continuing debate of race that is healthy for America.
During this debate, I have felt like that brother who becomes excited every time he sees his sibling reading since he is notoriously averse to non-fiction books. However, whenever I look down and read the fine print of the affirmative action discussions, my excitement turns to concern, like the brother when he walks over, looks down, and sees the title of his sibling’s novel. Is that the only thing he likes to read? What about something non-fiction?
The title of our affirmative action novel reads: “Racial Preferences in Admissions for Blacks — Good or Bad.” Is that the only discussion we like to have? What about something based wholly on reality?
Many of the supporters and virtually all of the opponents of affirmative action fail to discuss racial preferences for Whites. Both sides presuppose that, with affirmative action in place, Blacks have more racial preferences in admissions than Whites. That is the faulty premise loudly powering the engine of the debate. That is the fiction we have all been reading.
Let’s define racial preference. A conservative website seeking to “stop the divisive emphasis on race” defines it as the granting of “favorable treatment on the basis of race.” I will use this definition. When there are “racial preferences” in the admissions process, a student is more likely to receive “favorable treatment” due to the color of his or her skin. I say more than likely because, as we all know, thousands of Blacks every year are rejected from colleges who use affirmative action policies.
So is it really true? Does affirmative action really give Blacks more racial preferences in admissions than whites? Is it really better to be Black than White when applying for a college that uses affirmative action?
