{"id":1724573,"date":"2022-11-04T06:06:04","date_gmt":"2022-11-04T10:06:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1724573"},"modified":"2022-11-04T09:18:54","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T13:18:54","slug":"apologists-for-race-based-college-admissions-cant-explain-its-educational-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/apologists-for-race-based-college-admissions-cant-explain-its-educational-benefits\/","title":{"rendered":"Apologists for Race-Based College Admissions Can\u2019t Explain Its Educational Benefits"},"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\">20<\/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%2Fapologists-for-race-based-college-admissions-cant-explain-its-educational-benefits%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=1724573&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--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/UNC-e1667442233578.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday heard\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/supreme-court-to-consider-challenges-to-race-conscious-admissions-policies-at-harvard-unc-11643035684?mod=article_inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">two cases<\/a>\u00a0challenging affirmative action-based admissions policies at the University of North Carolina (UNC) and Harvard University. The hearing was sometimes tense, and justices asked both sides tough questions. U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar and lawyers representing the two schools struggled to answer three key questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), a group founded by activist Edward Blum, brought both lawsuits, alleging the race-based admissions policies at UNC and Harvard discriminate against white and Asian American applicants. Both schools and their defenders argued that \u201cseeking the educational benefits of diversity is a compelling interest of the highest order and that universities may consider all aspects of an applicant\u2019s background [including race] to build a thriving campus community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>What Is Diversity?<\/h2>\n<p>When Justice Clarence Thomas <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/oral_arguments\/argument_transcripts\/2022\/21-707_9o6b.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">asked<\/a> Ryan Park, North Carolina\u2019s solicitor general who defends UNC, what diversity is, Park had difficulty coming up with a clear and concise definition other than\u00a0saying\u00a0it is about a \u201cbroadly diverse set of criteria that extends to all different backgrounds and perspectives and not solely limited to race.\u201d When Justice Brett Kavanaugh <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/oral_arguments\/argument_transcripts\/2022\/21-707_9o6b.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">queried<\/a> Park whether UNC would consider an applicant\u2019s religion under his diversity definition, Park admitted that, unlike the race question, there is no box to check for one\u2019s religion on the application form. <\/p>\n<p>Harvard\u2019s lawyer, Seth Waxman, also acknowledged that Harvard\u2019s holistic admission process doesn\u2019t consider an applicant\u2019s religious beliefs. Park and Waxman have difficulty defining diversity because they know it is politically correct to speak of diversity in broad terms. But in practice, the schools they represent care about only one diversity aspect: racial quotas.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Neil Gorsuch <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/oral_arguments\/argument_transcripts\/2022\/21-707_9o6b.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pressed<\/a> Park: \u201cHow do you distinguish between what this court has said is impermissible, a quota, with what you argue should be permissible going forward, which is diversity. How can you do diversity without taking account of numbers?\u201d Park wasn\u2019t able to provide a satisfactory answer other than insisting that UNC achieves \u201cdiversity\u201d by looking at the individual applicant through its holistic process, which includes race as one of many factors.<\/p>\n<p>Gorsuch responded that diversity had been used \u201cas a subterfuge for racial quotas\u201d on college campuses. Prelogar, the U.S. solicitor general, proved Gorsuch was right when she\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/oral_arguments\/argument_transcripts\/2022\/20-1199_6537.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">warned<\/a>\u00a0the court that \u201ca blanket ban on race-conscious admissions would cause racial diversity to plummet at many of our nation\u2019s leading educational institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>None of these diversity advocates were interested in discussing that college campuses, including at UNC and Harvard, lack intellectual and ideological diversity. For example, Harvard\u2019s own\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/less-than-two-percent-of-harvard-faculty-is-conservative-survey\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">survey<\/a>\u00a0shows that less than 2 percent of its faculty identifies as conservative. Alan Dershowitz, a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/less-than-two-percent-of-harvard-faculty-is-conservative-survey\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a>\u00a0in an interview that Harvard\u2019s \u201cemphasis on race and gender may well reduce academic diversity.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Harvard is not diverse in many other ways too.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/oral_arguments\/argument_transcripts\/2022\/20-1199_6537.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Cameron Norris<\/a>, attorney for SFFA, states that about \u201c9 percent of incoming freshman at Harvard are conservatives. Harvard is 82 percent wealthy. There are 23 rich students for every one low-income student on campus.\u201d Yet to those in charge of elite institutions like Harvard, none of these other diversity measures matter as long as they can demonstrate racial diversity on campuses.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>What Are the Educational Benefits of Diversity?<\/h2>\n<p>Thomas drilled Park on the educational benefits of diversity. Unable to provide any quantifiable measures, Park focused on some qualitative \u201cfeel good\u201d measures: \u201cDiversity of all kinds leads to \u2018a deeper and richer learning environment,\u2019 leads to more creative thinking and exchange of ideas, and, critically, reduced bias between people of different backgrounds and not solely for racial backgrounds.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Thomas clearly wasn\u2019t satisfied with such an answer and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/therecount\/status\/1587105304483069953\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told<\/a>\u00a0Park, \u201cI didn\u2019t go to racially diverse schools, but there were educational benefits.\u201d Furthermore, Justice Thomas reminded Park that parents do not necessarily send their kids to college \u201cto have fun or feel good or anything like that; they send them there to learn physics or chemistry or whatever they\u2019re studying.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After Thomas pressed Park again to explain the educational benefits of diversity, Park mentioned a study showing racially diverse groups make more efficient trading decisions. Thomas\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/oral_arguments\/argument_transcripts\/2022\/21-707_9o6b.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">replied<\/a>, \u201cI don\u2019t put much stock in that because I\u2019ve heard similar arguments in favor of segregation too.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2018\/03\/13\/evidence-from-norway-shows-gender-quotas-dont-work-for-women\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Evidence<\/a> shows that racial and gender quotas sometimes do not improve an organization\u2019s performance. Not so long ago, Britain\u2019s conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss won\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2022\/sep\/07\/wednesday-briefing-liz-truss-has-appointed-the-most-diverse-cabinet-ever-what-does-that-mean\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">widespread praise<\/a>\u00a0for nominating the most diverse cabinet in the nation\u2019s history. Yet, her most diverse cabinet was short-lived, lasting only 44 days due to flawed policies.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>When Will Race-Conscious Admissions End?<\/h2>\n<p>The one question that defenders of Harvard and UNC struggled with most was when several justices, including Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Samuel Alito, asked when both schools\u2019 race-based admissions would end: \u201cWhen is your sunset? When will you know?\u201d <\/p>\n<p>In her majority opinion in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/supct\/html\/02-241.ZO.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Grutter v. Bollinger<\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0<\/em>(2003), Justice Sandra Day O\u2019Connor famously said that affirmative action in college admission is permissible but not in perpetuity, and \u201cWe expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest\u201d in student body diversity. Almost 20 years have passed since <em>Grutter<\/em>, but none of the defenders of Harvard and UNC was willing to commit to a target date or a set of measures to end race-based admission policies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Park sees no end because \u201cthe compelling interest in diversity\u201d will never expire. Prelogar didn\u2019t think <em>Grutter <\/em>provided a timetable. Instead, she believes the schools should consider race as part of their admission policies until they achieve \u201cmeaningful representation and meaningful diversity on those campuses.\u201d But she couldn\u2019t define \u201cmeaningful representation.\u201d Waxman admitted that \u201cHarvard does not currently, based on its data, expect that in 2028 it will have achieved \u2014 been able to use a \u2014 only race-neutral alternatives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Justice Kavanaugh asked, \u201cif you don\u2019t have something measurable, it\u2019s going to be very hard for this court. If we\u2019re called upon 10 years from now or 20 years from now, it\u2019s going to be \u2014 you know, this is a bit of a replay of the<em> Grutter<\/em> argument, but if we come back to it, OK, are we there yet? What do we look at?\u201d No one could offer him a clear answer. As Patrick Strawbridge, lawyer of SFFA,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/oral_arguments\/argument_transcripts\/2022\/21-707_9o6b.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pointed out<\/a>, at these schools, \u201cThere was no ever \u2014 there was no plan ever to consider sunsetting their use of race.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Monday\u2019s oral argument of these two cases revealed the fundamental objective of affirmative action supporters. They want affirmative action to remain perpetually. Under cover of vaguely defined \u201cdiversity,\u201d they can get away with favoring some races while <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SonofHas\/status\/1587141280366215168\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">discriminating against other races<\/a> consequence-free. They feel justified in their approach because they see America as systemically racist, and no comprise from the right will ever satisfy them. <\/p>\n<p>Knowing this, the only right thing the Supreme Court should do now, in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/racial-discrimination-forever-supreme-court-students-for-fair-admissions-v-harvard-university-of-north-carolina-college-admissions-11667254607?mod=opinion_lead_pos1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">words<\/a>\u00a0of The Wall Street Journal editorial board, is to uphold \u201cAmerica\u2019s principle of equality under the law, by telling [supporters of affirmative action] their time is up.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Helen Raleigh, CFA, is an American entrepreneur, writer, and speaker. She&#8217;s a senior contributor at The Federalist. Her writings appear in other national media, including The Wall Street Journal and Fox News.  Helen is the author of several books, including &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Confucius-Never-Said-Helen-Raleigh\/dp\/1499185278\/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&#038;keywords=Helen+Raleigh+Confucius+Never+Said&#038;qid=1606079469&#038;sr=8-1\">Confucius Never Said<\/a>&#8221; and \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Backlash-How-Chinas-Aggression-Backfired\/dp\/1736008501\/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&#038;qid=1606006113&#038;sr=8-1\">Backlash: How Communist China&#8217;s Aggression Has Backfired<\/a>.&#8221; Follow her on Parler and Twitter: @HRaleighspeaks.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday heard\u00a0two cases\u00a0challenging affirmative action-based admissions policies at the University of North Carolina (UNC) and Harvard University. The hearing was sometimes tense, and justices asked<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1722531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1724573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1724573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1724573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1724573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1722531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1724573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1724573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1724573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}