Guest post by The Janitor:
On October 10, 2012, the Supreme Court will hear the case of Fisher v. University of Texas. Abigail Noel Fisher feels that racial minorities – and only racial minorities – took her seat at UT. When we look at the facts, however, it’s difficult to see how affirmative action – and only affirmative action – is to blame for Fisher not being admitted at UT.
Every year colleges admit legacies, athletes, kids with rich donor parents, etc. But for some strange reason we don’t see Supreme Court cases against these admissions criteria, even though they have nothing to do with academic merit.
Fisher applied to UT – a highly ranked university – with a GPA of 3.59 out of 4.00 and an SAT score of 1180 out of 1600. UT has a “Top 10%” rule whereby they admit the top 10% of Texas high school students each year. 81% of the freshman class at UT is admitted through this process; it is notable to observe that Abigail Fisher was not among them.
Nevertheless, even if Fisher had high test scores – which she didn’t – perfect test scores still do not entitle anybody to a seat at the university of their choice. As the Law School Admission Council aptly stated in their amicus curiae brief in Grutter v. Bollinger:
It has been the consistent position of LSAC that there is no entitlement to a seat in law school, regardless of one’s test scores and undergraduate grades.
Thus, it stands to reason that even if affirmative action did not exist, Abigail Fisher still would not have been admitted at UT.
Schools like UT reject thousands of qualified applicants every year, both Black and White. In 2004, for example, 422 Black students with LSAT scores of 150 or more (out of a perfect score of 180) were denied admission to ALL (as in 100%) of the ABA-accredited law schools to which they applied (source). Yet unlike Fisher, these Black students did not feel entitled to bring law suits against the schools which rejected them.
After Fisher v. University of Texas is heard by the Supreme Court, make no mistakes about it, the conservative Roberts Court will strike down its 2003 ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger which allows universities to consider race as one of several factors in creating a diverse student body. Affirmative action will finally be wiped off the books in higher education. But it won’t be killed because we’ve achieved any sort of reasonable level of racial diversity in our colleges or universities and it won’t be killed because it’s unfair to Whites (Whites make up 72.6% of the U.S. population yet make up 75.2% of all college/grad students). No, instead, it will be killed because when things don’t go the way they’re supposed to for certain people who have a strong sense of entitlement, they need somebody to blame.
The Janitor is an attorney and a law professor and blogs at The Urban Politico.
See also:
- The Urban Politico
- Wikipedia: Grutter v. Bollinger – the 2003 ruling where the Supreme Court said universities could use race-consious diversity as a guideline when accepting students so long as it did not amount to a quota system (seats set aside for racial minorities).
- colour blind racism: the four frames
- white privilege mindset
- “Too Asian”
Someone please tell her to sit her ass down.
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It takes a special sort of racist myopia to presume that it’s the BLACK’S fault that you didn’t get what you wanted (deserved). Especially if you’re not even in the top 10%.
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I see three things in this case:
1. White entitlement rears its ugly head…yet again.
2. Affirmative action is to blame…yet again.
3. Blame it on minorities…yet again.
Did I miss anything?
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What college did she end up attending?
If I was her, I would have sat my ass down and studied at a local college for a year or two, then transferred to UT Austin if I really wanted to attend that school…this is stupid.
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I’m amused by the many white commenters on other forums regarding this case. Some white people are saying qualified whites are being held back due to affirmative action, and that proves there is blatant discrimination against white people overall. I mean, really?
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Abagond, i have a vid that addresses this how do i post it?…while this article is good, it is still very misinfomative about what Affirmative Action is and who it has historically benefited.
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@ Phoebe
Post the link to the video.
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White entitlement pure and simple. “Girl go have seat”.
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Wow, this girl just feels that because she’s white she’ automatically entitled admission to the school. As I said previously, “Girl go have a seat”.
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@Abagond et. al,
I hope this link works…if not i will try posting it again.
Miss Fisher’s thinking is rooted in the Social Parasite Theory–meaning that “qualified” whites–when not accepted into top universities–immediately begin to fantasize that the reason they didn’t get in was in fact due to Affrimative Action being granted to minorities–particulary those that classify themselves as black/African-American. This mode of “white” thinking is prevelant in corporations as well throughout North America and the rest of the Western “white” world…
The only way to dispute these baseless lies based on anti black rhetoric is to counteract them with truth…
I will let the video speak the rest.
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One problem with the argument put forth by this post (“colleges reject qualified applicants regularly for any number of reasons, so what’s the problem with including race as a factor?”) is that there are simple variations of that model which have been deemed unlawfully discriminatory. For example, consider an institution or an employer which utilizes a negative bias towards black applicants.
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Many of the racist whites who are against affirmative action don’t even want minority input about the issue of diversity. They are against affirmative action and don’t care what blacks or Hispanics have to say about affirmative action. Don’t believe me? Read their material and their comments.
It’s paternalism where they are saying “they know what is best” for blacks and Hispanics.
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A few things I’ve learned about whites regarding this situation:
1. When things don’t go their way…sue.
2. Affirmative action, which is for white females, wasn’t “enough”. They want it all.
3. When things go wrong, blame a brown person.
4. It’s not “entitlement”. Whites really do deserve the best for simply being white.
5. If anyone disagrees with them, it’s reverse discrimination.
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Aba
Please don’t take Randy’s bait. He’s absurd now.
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phoebe,
The video is beyond excellent. Thanks for sharing it with us.
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[…] "On October 10, 2012, the Supreme Court will hear the case of Fisher v. University of Texas. Abigail Noel Fisher feels that racial minorities – and only racial minorities – took her seat at UT. When we look at the facts, however, it’s difficult to see how affirmative action – and only affirmative action – is to blame for Fisher not being admitted at UT. Every year colleges admit legacies, athletes, kids with rich donor parents, etc. But for some strange reason we don’t see Supreme Court cases against these admissions criteria, even though they have nothing to do with academic merit. Fisher applied to UT – a highly ranked university – with a GPA of 3.59 out of 4.00 and an SAT score of 1180 out of 1600. UT has a “Top 10%” rule whereby they admit the top 10% of Texas high school students each year. 81% of the freshman class at UT is admitted through this process; it is notable to observe that Abigail Fisher was not among them." – MORE – […]
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I wonder if Fisher even realizes that if it hadn’t been for Affirmative Action, white women wouldn’t have been able to attend many law schools — including public ones. Affirmative Action is one of the reasons that so many white women actually have law degrees.
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@ Grace
She wound up going to Louisiana State University.
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@ Phoebe
Good video about how affirmative action was co-opted by white women – who were not seen as a “minority” until there was a policy that benefited minorities.
Best line: Unqualified white people are nearly twice as likely to get into a top university as equally unqualified black people. (A point also made by the picture at the top of the post.)
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@ Phoebe
I like that: Social Parasite Theory. Coming from a people who used to practise slavery and still practise colour-coded capitalism.
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@Randy: One problem with the argument put forth by this post (“colleges reject qualified applicants regularly for any number of reasons, so what’s the problem with including race as a factor?”) is that there are simple variations of that model which have been deemed unlawfully discriminatory. For example, consider an institution or an employer which utilizes a negative bias towards black applicants.
Well that’s not quite the argument put forth by the post. I don’t think anybody is advocating that it is ok to discriminate against people because of their race, be it in college admissions or in the job setting. Instead, the issue in this case is whether race can be used as one minor factor (as in less than 1% or an applicant’s total score) in creating a diverse student body. Fisher has, of course, taken that minor factor and characterized it, incorrectly I might add, as the only reason that she didn’t get into UT.
As a side point, you bring up employers as an example where racial considerations are not allowed but its important to note that the employment context is completely different law than university classroom setting. Employers are strictly prohibited from considering race (even though we know that they do it anyway). Universities, however, are legally allowed to consider race when creating a diverse student body just so long as that consideration does not bestow an significant advantage over other applicants.
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*rolls eyes* I hear this stuff CONSTANTLY. I live here in “The People’s Republic of Austin”. LOL!
Incidentally, my son just graduated from UT (with honors) this past May. I told him that in life there are NO free rides and no matter how mannerable he was, how well-spoken or neatly dressed (NO saggin’ here!), he had to work HARD to get where he wanted to be, because he would ALWAYS be judged by the larger society according to the color of his skin, unfortunately. I told him that as a young Black man in America, the dominant power structure expects NOTHING more from him than to be in one of three places: on the corner, in jail or DEAD. I asked him to “steamroll” over those expectations.
He kept his grades HIGH in the years before college, and once UT accepted him (NO help from so-called affirmative action or anything else) so that he could get into his core major more quickly, he did his basic requirements at Austin Community College for at least 3 summers. He had a goal of graduating in EXACTLY 4 years, and he DID that.
If the young lady will get over her angst and do some work for a change, perhaps this would not even be an issue.
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Abagond:
When black folk start calling out white colleges and universities for setting up “Glorified Plantations” disguised as athletic departments, that’s when i’ll pay attention to this issue. Black male and female athletes are allowed to attend because they’re “Cash Cows” in every sense of the word. On the other hand, blacks who actually have real brain power have to jump thru all kinds of hoops to gain admission, which is bs. These colleges should love having intelligent black women and men at their schools, but, the college system is not about “Higher Learning.” It’s about keeping blacks out of the loop. If i or another black person don’t have this or that degree, we can’t get in the club. Connect the dots black people…Education/Politics/Journalism/Entertainment. In time, it will crumble just the same as white mainstream media and the music bizness. Anything built on a foundation of lies and deceit will die a slow and painful death over the course of time…Ditto!
Tyrone
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I like how her failing to get admitted is more or less entirely her fault, and yet she feels not only that she deserved that seat in her college of choice (for no particular reason), but that SOMEONE simply MUST have stolen it from her. Delusional idiocy and entitlement at its finest.
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This is a follow up on Phoebe’s video, showing the unexpected consequences of such social engineering:
It;s rather interesting that what he describes was happening to black Americans in the ‘ 60s, as well as Jamaicans (see Errol Miller and Peter Espeut.)
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It would come as no surprise to me that the same men who were sacrificed for the white women are now on the Venn diagram intersection of PUA websites, race realism ,and the manosphere, bitching and moaning about losing what they think is rightfully theirs to women and ‘the blacks’,
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Fischer’s case is hilarious, to me.
I earned a 1260 SAT (pre-dumbing down of the test) score and graduated from high school with a 3.65 GPA, yet I wasn’t granted admission to the major schools in my own state. In fact, the sole “elite” school that showed interest in me was Auburn (a school that sent no less than 6 recruitment letters to my home, the last two letters offering a partial scholarship that would have covered my tuition and nothing else. I would have taken the offer, but I wasn’t ready to move 1,000+ miles from home…) AA should have given me a boost (black male, child of immigrants, impoverished neighbourhood), yet my best shot would have been to become a minority from a distant state (and you know what happens when strange black men show up in the wrong areas) to reap the benefits. She’s just a barking dog, and her bite is as weak as her bark.
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I am a white male that initially got rejected from their their universities of choice. Instead of going on about it being a Person of Color’s fault, i took more courses, showed to the university i could perform (got an A- average) and lo and behold: i got in to my university of choice.
This year I will graduate from my university of choice and I can say this whole-heartedly —– NOONE that gets into university does not deserve to be there. More than that, if a university student cannot keep up, they won’t and will be filtered out fast.
Take responsibility for yourself and leave worrying about your classmates to your professors and administration. Thats what I say to all the people that rail against affirmative action policies in the university.
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The Janitor:
Admissions is a zero-sum game. How using race as a determining factor not “discriminatory”? That statement appears trivially self-falsifying.
The Janitor:
According to a study by Princeton sociologist Thomas Espenshade, Asian-Americans needed a 1550 SAT to have an equal chance of getting into an elite college as white students with a 1410 or black students with an 1100. [out of 1600].
I’m no admissions specialist, but that does not sound like a “less than 1%” factor.
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@JT,
Are you suggesting that if bias does exist, the subject of the bias should simply “try harder”?
Would you offer the same advice to a woman or black person who was denied access to educational opportunities or employment opportunities because of gender or race?
I doubt your comment would pass a “double-standard test”.
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@Satanforce,
Wow…that is a good assessment video (basically the Nomarriage.com and HappierAbroad.com masterminds are the offspring of those ww that Affirmative Action benefited.)I wonder if they know that without their mom’s AA benefits,they wouldn’t be able to have the financial and social privilege to go abroad and get Asian and Eastern European women for sex tourism???
@Abagond, thanks for letting me post it. I feared it may be too hard hitting and i am still looking into Social Parasite Theory…
@Jt, exactly! Universities have ways of weeding those out who can’t cut the mustard. The redeeming thing though as you said is that readmissions/re applying is ALWAYS a possibility for those who are willing to work for it. Miss Fisher is no exception. Her GPA is great, but she would have had more leverage applying to smaller, independant institutions…in her case, i think something more sinister is at work, like nepotism that didn’t pan out the way she expected, :-).
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@ Randy: Admissions is a zero-sum game. How using race as a determining factor not “discriminatory”?
Because, once again, it’s not a controlling factor. It’s no more discriminatory than using community service, student leadership, work experience or any other host of criteria that have more weight at the Univ. of Texas.
According to a study by Princeton sociologist Thomas Espenshade, Asian-Americans needed a 1550 SAT to have an equal chance of getting into an elite college as white students with a 1410 or black students with an 1100. [out of 1600].
I’m no admissions specialist, but that does not sound like a “less than 1%” factor.
You’ve made the mistake of conflating two separate issues here. One is the process used by the Univ. of Texas here in this Fisher case, the other is “getting into an elite college” in general. The “less than 1%” factor of race comes from the Univ. of Texas. So we’re not just talking about elite colleges in general, we’re specifically talking about UT.
UT uses a top 10% rule which fills approximately 80% of the Freshman class. For those students who don’t make the top 10% (like Abigail FIsher), UT then uses a “holistic review” score in order to determine admissions. The holistic review score is comprised of 2 parts: (1) Test Scores & Grades and (2) a “Personal Achievement Index.” This Index, in turn, is based on 3 things: (1) an essay; (2) another essay; and (3) a “Personal Achievement Score”. The “Personal Achievement Score” is comprised of 6 parts: (1) leadership potential, (2) extracurricular activities, (3) honors and awards, (4) work experience, (5) community service, and (6) special circumstances. The “special circumstances” factor is broken down into seven attributes; 1 of those 7 attributes is race (another is socioeconomic status, FYI). In other words, race is literally 1/7th of 1/6th of 1/3rd of 1/2 of the holistic review system used at the Univ. of Texas. When you run the math, that means that race accounts for exactly 0.39% of the total admissions criteria at UT (hence, less than 1%).
How race — and only race — could have prevented Fisher from gaining admission at the Univ. of Texas is difficult to imagine.
Finally, consider the following: Data from Univ. of Texas shows that there were White students with lower GPA and SAT scores than Fisher who were admitted, and there were also Black and Latino students with higher GPA and SAT scores than Fisher who were rejected.
So we shouldn’t be quick to jump to the conclusion that race played a roll in somebody’s rejection or admission when so many other factors are considered.
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So I believe most of us are in agreement that Affirmative Action only benefits white women. So who cares if it’s struck down because of this retarded chick? I believe that once it’s struck down we’ll be forced to find real solutions for educating and employing black people.
Maybe then we can address the fact that we send our children to schools where they are taught they are less than white people, where their history is restricted to a paragraph in history books telling them they were slaves until a white man freed them.
Maybe we can setup an educational system that affirms black children instead of marginalizing them. White kids get to sit in tax funded classrooms and be trained that they’re superior and blacks kids have to stumble upon youtube videos to learn they were/are more than slaves.
Is there any reason we should care if AA is struck down?
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@JT – excellent story. Thanks for sharing.
I had a similar story when applying to law school. I did about average the first time I took the LSAT and when I applied I didn’t get into any of the schools that I really wanted to go to, and what I did get into wasn’t exactly a great deal. So I sat out for an entire year, studied the LSAT for an entire summer, took several practice exams, and then retook the exam and got a much higher score. When I reapplied to the same schools with my higher score I got in and the rest is history.
When I got rejected that first time, the last thing that would have ever come to my mind was that it was somebody else’s fault that I didn’t get in. That takes a special kind of ego that is beyond my comprehension.
But I can’t be entirely mad at Abigail Fisher. Those of us in the legal profession know how these plaintiffs get here: an interest group needed a very specific person who was not in the top 10% but had decent grades and test scores, was white, and was denied admission. Once they found Abigail Fisher they convinced her (or perhaps confirmed for her?) that she was wrongly rejected by UT’s use of affirmative action and that she could sue them for discrimination. Once she heard that it probably didn’t take too long for her to agree to allow the interest group to file the suit on her behalf and here we are.
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@Phoebe, Thanks for the video. Very informative. Good job as always.
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@JT
You make some good points. I came down hard on racist whites on my previous post. My opinion is If problems arise with affirmative action, like Fmr President Clinton said “Mend it, but don’t end it” (for now)
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@Randy
Stop crying about not having enough privileges
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As a woman, Abigail Fisher directly benefits from affirmative action. I’m unsure how then, she’s blaming affirmative action for her failure to get into college lol.
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The Janitor:
Two points:
1. Community service, student leadership, work experience, etc are indicators of capability and accomplishment, which one would expect a selection process to evaluate in making a decision. Race and gender are demographic characteristics over which a person has no control.
2. On the one hand you’ve stated, “I don’t think anybody is advocating that it is ok to discriminate against people because of their race” and then now you’re basically saying “ok, they discriminate on race but not that much”. Can you not see the apparent incongruity between those two statements? If stealing is morally objectionable, then a small amount of stealing is also morally objectionable.
The Janitor:
You are correct and I have made that error. While this case is manifesting as “an instance which may address the broader practice and principle”, your post was specifically about the case.
The Janitor:
If race has any consideration in the admissions process, then the number of students who are rejected due to race is likely a non-zero number. Whether or not Fisher is in that cohort is up to the court.
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Black People
When we stop making everybody else rich on the planet, that’s when this issue will go away. Black students don’t attend historically black colleges and black people don’t have an economic infrastructure to support the hiring of college educated blacks. As long as blacks have to beg other races of people to employ us, we’re gonna be at the bottom…Period! Asians have their own, Spanish folk have their own, Whites have their own. Black folk are the only racial group in this country that have to depend on others to employ them…That’s A Major Problem!
Tyrone
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@ The Janitor
Thank you for explaining that to Randy. He still didn’t get it but that’s because he’s a dumba** not because there was anything wrong with your explanation.
@solesearch
I agree with your point. Affirmative action isn’t really working in it’s current form.
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Tyrone,
Forgive me, but I don’t see how this case is an example of black people making everyone rich. Granted, you are correct, but this topic is about a disgruntled white woman who claims she didn’t get into a top university because of affirmative action when it’s been shown that it benefits mostly white women.
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Abgigail is silly. In all honesty if I saw her. I would punch her. She just cant accept the fact that she WAS NOT QUALIFIED! Their were 168 blacks and hispanics who scored higher on the SAT then higher and didnt even get accepted. But do we see any of them crying and whinning about it and blaming the white man of racism. White people are known to do this. When they dont get their way 90% of the time they always tend to blame the miniorites.They have this entitlement mentality that when things dont go their way they always come up with some BS excuses instead of accepting things for what they really are. They come up with some dellusionals excuss such as reverse racism,white guilt,affirmative action,anti white,white genocide etc…this girl needs to get over it..she has been offered scholorships from LSU but yet that wasnt good enough? Lol
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And not to get too further off topic here, Tyrone, blacks have tried to re-establish themselves by themselves, but as history has shown, that has always been met with resistance and terrorism resulting in them being further oppressed and suppressed because in the end White America doesn’t want black people to advance on their own which is funny considering how they always tell us to work harder.
But back on the subject, Abigail is a true example of white resentment when things don’t go their way. They say they believe in equality, but when it comes, then they get scared silly. They fear of losing their privileges err…freedoms to those they deem are unworthy.
However, this is not a case of equality. It’s a case of racial paranoia. Abagail didn’t get accepted. So, what does she do? Blame affirmative action which she has no idea what it truly is who who it truly benefits. And she is not the only one fearing of being the marginalized. (Of course white people are scared to death of being oppressed) There are cases like this all over the nation.
I find it funny that a group of people who prides itself of racial supremacy is afraid of the “inferior” types oppressing them as if they’re no understandable reason why they should be punished (We all know the reason why they don’t). Not saying they ought to be, but it just shows how broken they really are about history, reality and life itself.
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Excellent comments Brothawolf…
I was wondering this. Where it may seem Obama is bailing out banks and the financial sector, isnt he really trying to save the older Americans who have their retirement and savings tied to these institutions? And, if 70 percent of black America is middle class, arnt many of the black Ameicans who are older and near retirement , deeply affected by if the banks failed?
The other reason to think Obama and the democrats are better is that, the Iraq war was part of a think tank of concervative republicans, Wolfowitz, Chenny, were a couple of people of this think tank, who wrote a manifesto about invading Iraq in 1992…
Administrations do differ greatly in what their agendas could be. I dont think the democrats are writing manifestos about invading other countries…
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SORRY , WRONG THREAD
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(but, good comments here also, Brothawolf)
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“Every year colleges admit legacies, athletes, kids with rich donor parents, etc. But for some strange reason we don’t see Supreme Court cases against these admissions criteria, even though they have nothing to do with academic merit.”
Why are people OK with the fact that colleges use such BS criteria? I mean, donors, legacies, athletic ability – that kind of stuff. I’m guessing that there are laws protecting such practices. Why aren’t people outrages about this?
I’m not American and to be honest your college admission system doesn’t make much sense to me, but maybe I simply know too little about it.
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@Brothawolf
Affirmative-Action was created by Richard Nixon, with the intended purpose of creating an equal playing field…So We Thought! Over the course of time, it became a pathway for white females to advance in education as well as corporate america. Black people have always been used as “Cover” for others who are not black to advance their own agendas. Mexicans have used us to gain clout, Muslims have used the stupidity of black muslims to get over on the people, and homosexuals are doing the same. A lot of this ish flies right over our heads. Whitewomen have been playing blackmen and blackwomen from the start. They’re white, they belong to the majority race in this country, yet, they want everybody to see them as a so-called minority…Why? As black people, we assume that whitemen are the source of all our problems. Whitewomen support a lot of foul ish on this planet, and they’re never called out on it. How does all of this relate to Fisher v. Texas? Affirmative-Action only benefits white females in this day and time, Ms. Fisher has a lot of nerve complaining about a system of admission and hiring that already benefits her as a whitewoman…Ditto! As you rightly stated, other folk on this planet don’t want us to have our own, which is why they hate black people like Abagond, Truthbetold, and yourself Brothawolf. Black folk are seen as a commodity that can be exploited like oil and corn, this is how others see us as a race and the continent of Africa as well…Fake Friends/Real Enemies!
Tyrone
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To Tyrone:
Affirmative-Action was created by Richard Nixon, with the intended purpose of creating an equal playing field..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_10925
http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/aahist.html
No effectively it started with John F Kennedy although arguably it’s beginnings were with Franklin Roosevelt who issued executive order 8802, although it could be argued that Nixon did more to promote and enforce affirmative action laws than Kennedy and Johnson.
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Harvard GSE Forum on Fisher v Texas featuring Lani Guinier & Tomiko Brown-Nagin. Live streaming now: http://hvrd.me/SWLrdJ
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@Tyrone
Oh! I see what you saying now. Thanks for clearing it up.
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Abagond, look for the decision of this case to likely come out this week. Let me know if you want us to do a follow up guest piece.
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@ The Janitor
Yes please!!!
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