{"id":157153,"date":"2021-02-21T16:30:20","date_gmt":"2021-02-21T21:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=157153"},"modified":"2021-02-21T16:43:15","modified_gmt":"2021-02-21T21:43:15","slug":"yale-law-students-said-a-top-journal-was-racist-admissions-data-suggest-otherwise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/yale-law-students-said-a-top-journal-was-racist-admissions-data-suggest-otherwise\/","title":{"rendered":"Yale Law Students Said a Top Journal Was Racist. Admissions Data Suggest Otherwise."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fyale-law-students-said-a-top-journal-was-racist-admissions-data-suggest-otherwise%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=157153&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The <em>Yale Law Journal<\/em> on Friday released admissions data in the face of a week-long pressure campaign in which activists alleged that blacks are underrepresented on the masthead. The numbers demonstrate the opposite, showing that blacks and other minority groups are overrepresented on the prestigious journal relative both to the student body at large and the general population.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The conflagration began on Tuesday after a <em>Journal<\/em> editor, Gavin Jackson, resigned, saying he felt &#8220;used and tokenized&#8221; in his position.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jackson&#8217;s resignation elicited furious statements from a raft of affinity groups at the law school, which are demanding that the <em>Journal<\/em> &#8220;prioritize anti-racism&#8221; over meritocratic selection, the postings show.\u00a0The controversy played out on a student message board, the postings from which were reviewed by the <em>Washington Free Beacon.<\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"posts-content__category-widget md:hidden -ml-4 -mr-4 my-8 px-4 py-6 bg-gray-100\">\n<h4 class=\"mt-0 text-red-600 font-medium font-sans uppercase\">Recent Stories in Campus<\/h4>\n<ul class=\"list-none p-0\">\n<li class><a class=\"text-black block mb-3 pb-3 border-b border-white\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/campus\/yale-law-students-said-a-top-journal-was-racist-admissions-data-suggest-otherwise\/\"><strong>Yale Law Students Said a Top Journal Was Racist. Admissions Data Suggest Otherwise.<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li class><a class=\"text-black block mb-3 pb-3 border-b border-white\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/campus\/this-week-in-campus-insanity-vol-32\/\"><strong>This Week in Campus Insanity Vol. 32<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li class><a class=\"text-black block mb-3 pb-3 border-b border-white\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/campus\/harvard-launching-app-to-help-students-find-inclusive-bathrooms\/\"><strong>Harvard Launching App to Help Students Find Inclusive Bathrooms<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The activists made no concrete demands about numeric representation but alleged &#8220;inequities&#8221; in <em>Journal<\/em> admissions. &#8220;<\/span>Meeting with affinity groups to present platitudes about valuing diversity in the admissions process is insufficient,&#8221; the Black Law Students Association said. &#8220;The <em>Journal<\/em> must commit to fundamental changes to its governance structure, admissions policy, submission plan, and slating that will ensure this perpetuation of racism does not ever happen again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The numbers tell a different story, however. Not only are blacks and Hispanics admitted to the top law school&#8217;s most prestigious journal at a higher rate than their white counterparts, but their admissions rate\u201461 percent\u2014is higher than that of any other ethnic group.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/embeds\/495412470\/content?start_page=1&#038;view_mode=scroll&#038;access_key=key-npiMU1qVGPhA0EmqGnn9\">admissions statistics<\/a> demonstrate how demands for diversity can persist even when minorities are well-represented in relation to the student body at large. They also show that the activists making those demands do so, at times, when the underlying data aren&#8217;t on their side.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1448416\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width:626px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1448416 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-21-at-2.22.36-PM.png\" alt width=\"626\" height=\"446\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\" style=\"width:626px;padding: 5px\">The <em>Yale Law Journal<\/em> released its 2020 admissions data on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The <em>Journal<\/em> is<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/taxprof.typepad.com\/taxprof_blog\/2019\/07\/2019-meta-ranking-of-flagship-us-law-reviews.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">consistently ranked<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the top law review in the country. Its alumni include three current Supreme court justices and top members of the Biden administration, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan. <em>Journal<\/em> articles often wield outsize influence in legal debates.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Becoming a <em>Journal<\/em> member involves a gauntlet of tests and essays on citation rules and legal scholarship as well as a &#8220;diversity statement,&#8221; and fewer than 40 percent of applicants make the cut.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Journal<\/em> editor-in-chief Rachel Sommers did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Among the organizations alleging the <em>Journal<\/em>\u2018s admissions practices are racist: the Black Law Students Association, the Middle Eastern and North African Law Students&#8217; Association, the Asian Pacific American Law Students&#8217; Association, the South Asian Law Students&#8217; Association, the first-generation students&#8217; affinity group, and the LGBT affinity group.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">To combat that racism, several group leaders said, the <em>Journal<\/em> should embrace political activism, using<\/span> &#8220;<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">its<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">entrenched power to mitigate the impacts of white supremacy and classism.&#8221; It should also &#8220;prioritize anti-racism&#8221; over its traditional &#8220;gatekeeping function.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;We lament that once again, the burden of advocating for equity at<\/span> <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Journal<\/span><\/em> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">falls onto the shoulders of students of color who are already overburdened members of affinity groups,&#8221; the statement from first-generation students reads. The LGBT group berates the <em>Journal<\/em> for its &#8220;white ableist culture,&#8221; and the Black Law Students Association accuses it of &#8220;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">tokenizing and failing to reward the incredible contributions of students of color.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But tokenization is what the missives effectively advocate. Blacks comprise 16 percent of <em>Journal<\/em> admits, and Latinos almost 30 percent\u2014even though they make up just 7 percent and 11 percent percent of the student body, respectively. Increasing the share of these groups on the <em>Journal<\/em> would make it less representative of Yale Law School than it currently is.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The black, LGBT, and first-generation affinity groups did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Data suggest the law school already has an aggressive affirmative action program; activists are demanding that its beneficiaries receive another leg up at the school&#8217;s top journal. Though Yale does not publish the racial breakdown of its Law School Admission Test scores, in 2004 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jbhe.com\/news_views\/51_graduate_admissions_test.html\">only 29 blacks<\/a> scored above 170 on the test nationwide, according to the <em>Journal of Blacks in Higher Education<\/em>. Yale&#8217;s median LSAT is 173. Furthermore, the admissions rate for black applicants at Yale Law School is <a href=\"http:\/\/stevewatson.info\/readings\/culture_controversy\/Black-quota-at-YLS.pdf\">as high as 50 percent<\/a>\u00a0compared with just 10 percent for the school overall, data from previous years show.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The emphasis on identity over scholarship is not unique to the <em>Journal<\/em>. It has affected every aspect of the law school, from its culture to its course offerings.<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;People are very willing to throw out words like \u2018bigoted&#8217; and \u2018racist&#8217; whenever it suits their narrative,&#8221; one student told the<\/span> <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Free Beacon<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Following Brett Kavanaugh&#8217;s confirmation, &#8220;there was a crusade against civility as an oppressive mode of engagement.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This crusade has had academic costs.<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;I have struggled to find serious legal topics taught in a seminar format,&#8221; the law student said. Seminars that are taught include &#8220;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Is That Racist?: Theory and Methods for Diagnosing and Demonstrating Racism&#8221;; &#8220;Intervening in the Criminalization of Youth and Queer and Trans Individuals: Seminar and Practicum&#8221;; and &#8220;Critical Race Theory,&#8221; which the school promised to offer every year in the wake of George Floyd&#8217;s death.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the roots of Yale Law School&#8217;s identitarianism arguably date back much further. In 1969,<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Macklin Fleming, an alumnus of Yale Law School,<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalaffairs.com\/storage\/app\/uploads\/public\/58e\/1a4\/ae3\/58e1a4ae36717528770103.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">predicted<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">that his alma mater&#8217;s affirmative action policies would spiral out of control.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;Demands will be made for elimination of competition, reduction in standards of performance, adoption of courses of study which do not require intensive legal analysis, and recognition for academic credit of sociological activities which have only an indirect relationship to legal training,&#8221; Fleming wrote in a letter to the dean. &#8220;These unhappy prospects flow from the abandonment of an objective system of admission based on intellectual aptitude.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yale can&#8217;t say it wasn&#8217;t warned.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"my-8 hide-print\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1526555381173-4\" class=\"mobile-250 desktop-90\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Yale Law Journal on Friday released admissions data in the face of a week-long pressure campaign in which activists alleged that blacks are underrepresented on the masthead. The numbers &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2273879,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-21-at-2.22.36-PM.png","fifu_image_alt":"Yale Law Students Said a Top Journal Was Racist. Admissions Data Suggest Otherwise.","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-21-at-2.22.36-PM.png","fifu_image_alt":"Yale Law Students Said a Top Journal Was Racist. 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