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EDITORIAL: The real issue is class, not race
When will it be the right time to reach for a colorblind society?
REP. STEVEN NASS, R-Whitewater, declares it “only the beginning of the fight,” but what we really wonder about is when the end will come.
Nass was referring to the unanimous 16-0 vote by the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, to approve an admissions policy in which an applicant's race can be a deciding factor.
Nass and critics believe that is a racist policy, even if it is intended to confront and correct historic racism.
Supporters defend the practice as an effort to provide opportunities for minorities, and to build a diverse environment on campus that will benefit all students.
IT IS POSSIBLE, in our view, to break the argument down to this:
If it's acceptable to award admission to a black student based at least partly on his race, does that mean it's also acceptable to refuse admission to another student because his skin is white?
University officials would be reluctant to state it quite that bluntly. Nevertheless, it's obviously their position. Only so many kids will be admitted. If some get in because their skin is the right color, others will be eliminated because their skin is the wrong color.
What's really at work here in the minds of the liberal university social engineers, is that racism can only exist when whites discriminate against minorities. Policies that discriminate against whites don't count.
THAT KIND OF thinking and admissions criteria is hopelessly stuck in the 1960s, which shouldn't be surprising. The radical ‘60s defined the present-day environment on college campuses. From civil rights to the anti-war movement, the campus crowd is recapturing its lost youth.
But even a casual observer knows much has changed since the 1960s. That's not to say racism is a relic of the past. The growing African American middle class, however, is testimony to the fact that most racial barriers have fallen.
So it is not race that should play a significant role in admissions, so much as it is lack of privilege. The rising cost of higher education is pricing lower- and middle-class students off campuses. Money is the real impediment to a four-year education, for all races, and should be taken into consideration far more than race.
YES, A CONFLICTED U.S. Supreme Court narrowly ruled that race can be weighed as one of many factors in admissions policies. But the court also made its discomfort clear, suggesting such discriminatory policies should be phased out. Instead, the UW system is phasing in discrimination in a much more important way.
That's a mistake. Nass and his colleagues should continue to fight. Much the same result, we believe, could be accomplished by keeping the focus on providing breaks for deserving students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
The eventual goal should be a colorblind policy, and a colorblind society. If this is not the right time, when will the right time arrive, and how will we know it when we see it?
REP. STEVEN NASS, R-Whitewater, declares it “only the beginning of the fight,” but what we really wonder about is when the end will come.
Nass was referring to the unanimous 16-0 vote by the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, to approve an admissions policy in which an applicant's race can be a deciding factor.
Nass and critics believe that is a racist policy, even if it is intended to confront and correct historic racism.
Supporters defend the practice as an effort to provide opportunities for minorities, and to build a diverse environment on campus that will benefit all students.
IT IS POSSIBLE, in our view, to break the argument down to this:
If it's acceptable to award admission to a black student based at least partly on his race, does that mean it's also acceptable to refuse admission to another student because his skin is white?
University officials would be reluctant to state it quite that bluntly. Nevertheless, it's obviously their position. Only so many kids will be admitted. If some get in because their skin is the right color, others will be eliminated because their skin is the wrong color.
What's really at work here in the minds of the liberal university social engineers, is that racism can only exist when whites discriminate against minorities. Policies that discriminate against whites don't count.
THAT KIND OF thinking and admissions criteria is hopelessly stuck in the 1960s, which shouldn't be surprising. The radical ‘60s defined the present-day environment on college campuses. From civil rights to the anti-war movement, the campus crowd is recapturing its lost youth.
But even a casual observer knows much has changed since the 1960s. That's not to say racism is a relic of the past. The growing African American middle class, however, is testimony to the fact that most racial barriers have fallen.
So it is not race that should play a significant role in admissions, so much as it is lack of privilege. The rising cost of higher education is pricing lower- and middle-class students off campuses. Money is the real impediment to a four-year education, for all races, and should be taken into consideration far more than race.
YES, A CONFLICTED U.S. Supreme Court narrowly ruled that race can be weighed as one of many factors in admissions policies. But the court also made its discomfort clear, suggesting such discriminatory policies should be phased out. Instead, the UW system is phasing in discrimination in a much more important way.
That's a mistake. Nass and his colleagues should continue to fight. Much the same result, we believe, could be accomplished by keeping the focus on providing breaks for deserving students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
The eventual goal should be a colorblind policy, and a colorblind society. If this is not the right time, when will the right time arrive, and how will we know it when we see it?
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