Hail to the Victors Diverse

June 24, 2003

By Daniel M. Ornelas

 

On Monday of this week, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a duel decision regarding the use of Affirmative Action in college admissions: it is acceptable, provided that race is treated subjectively. The ruling acquiesces with the current admission policy of the University of Michigan's law school, where, although race is a factor in admissions, it not the deciding one. Each applicant is individually reviewed by a board of representatives from the law school and every facet of the person is examined. In the opinion of SCOTUS, this does no harm, constitutionally speaking.

 

Contrast this with their distaste for the University of Michigan's undergraduate admissions system, where a predetermined quantity of "points", in this case 20, is awarded to minority applicants out of a possible 160 points available. This objective treatment of whole classes of individuals was, correctly, ruled unconstitutional.

 

So am I the only one to be left wondering… what?

 

This is a sad new low to which the Court has sunk, in more ways than one. Obviously the first and most glaring disappointment is the judicial train wreck that is this decision. At its heart, what is most stunning is the fact that five members of SCOTUS believe not only that diversity is more important to universities than equality, but also that they think the federal government is somehow empowered to promote this bastardized version of diversity.

 

It is another sad example of the liberal solution to virtually all of society's ills: treat the symptoms, not the disease. This road is easier, and, as is often the case, wrong. As Rush Limbaugh mentioned on his radio program this morning, if diversity is what made the United States so great, why do we need Affirmative Action now? For the majority of our history, America has been more diverse and more tolerant than any other nation. To say that we need Affirmative Action now, is to say that at the peak of our society, we are still, as a whole, racist.

 

Here's another dirty little secret that no self-respecting white liberal (not that there exists such a person, for the nature of liberalism is to hate oneself, one's race, one's nation) would admit. The very people who pushed for the protection of affirmative action programs which they claim are necessary to avoid the racism still present in America, are the same people who would be passing judgment on minority applicants! In other words, they are asking SCOTUS to save them from their own subconscious bigotry.

 

And what are the tangible benefits of the diversity that is to be brought about? Black and Latino upper-middle class kids can mingle and share stories from different country clubs with white upper-middle class kids. This is no sarcasm; this is truth. Consistently, studies have shown that those minorities who receive benefits from Affirmative Action are not those from inner cities, the students who are truly at a disadvantage. Rather, Michael Jordan's children will be among those most likely to gain from SCOTUS's ruling. How noble.

 

And why is no one in the mainstream media asking for the opinions of Asian-Americans? It is they who are most harmed by today's ruling, even more than whites. The reason for this is that there is a disproportionate number of Asian-Americans in colleges and graduate school when compared to their overall populations in the nation. I know personally what fears lurk in their hearts, as two of my close friends, one Indian, one Thai, who shirk whenever possible from divulging their ethnicity out of concern that being Asian will hurt their chances in today's "diverse" medical school environment.

 

This insistence on diversity is not the original reason for instituting affirmative action programs. It is instead a fall-back position, one adopted after the flaws exposed in the primary motive: to right past discrimination. Yes, white man's guilt. And yet, SCOTUS ruled that this is not a compelling incentive for Affirmative Action. So liberal academia went back to the drawing board and resettled on today's arguments to the Court. But all the while, whenever they are called to defend Affirmative Action by the rare television reporter who has the temerity to call them on their hypocrisy, they evoke images of men in white sheets and bring on camera sob stories about "hate" crimes committed by ignorant white men and claim that racism is still so terrible in this country that without Affirmative Action, blacks and Latinos would again be reduced to second-class citizens.

 

And there it is. The true reason liberal academia pushes daily for more affirmative action programs, to send a message to all minorities: you need us. You need us to help you succeed. You can't make it without us, so don't even try. Why study hard trying to get a perfect GPA when you can get more "points" from the color of you skin?

 

Liberals today know that there will be no end [to] Affirmative Action. The world will never be quite as diverse as they want it to be. Even though the last lines of the majority's decision hope for the termination of such programs in twenty-five years, we all know that once entitlements are distributed, they are never recalled. Instead, they will sit in their bulldozer and pave over any opposition now or in the future with accusations of racism and bigotry.

 

Today, the Supreme Court had an opportunity to put an end to all this madness, as it once ended the injustice of segregation. Instead, like so many politicos in modern times, it took the "moderate" route, the sunny middle road, and in the process, lost that much more of its credibility. The fear of taking a side drove the majority on the Court to an incorrect and inconsistent decision.

 

It's okay to be racist… a little.