That always fascinates me. Sure – poor blacks and whites are getting screwed, but given the way race operates if we had solely class-based affirmative action, its likely that minorities would still be underrepresented because you can always fill a job or a college with poor whites faster (because there are more of them). The class/race debate is all about pitting poor whites against blacks. Why not help both?

(a)blacks and Latinos are inherently inferior, or (b) we still have not overcome the legacy of racial discrimination,

(c) There are cultural reasons why some groups are more represented than others. Blacks are not “inherently inferior” so much as their culture is not as geared towards college admissions as are Asian and white cultures. Take two families, one of which insists that their high school career be geared as much as possible to the best college as possible, and the other where the importance of college is not stressed nearly so much… you’re going to get different results regardless of “inherent” traits.

There are good pro-AA arguments to counter this, namely that killing affirmative action reinforces the notion that minorities are not college material. Or that in order to reverse the mentalities in communities where college preparation is not as widespread you have to strongly reward those within said communities that do more college prep.

But to suggest that affirmative action supporters are either racists or must admit that racism is such a big force in American society that AA are required is, in my view, a QED that prematurely ends discussion.

Interestingly enough, the subject of higher education is where I’m the most sympathetic to the plight of the middle class. On any number of subjects, I think the poor deserve vastly more support than they’re getting/than the middle class. However, I think there’s a middle class squeeze when it comes to education. It’s incredibly difficult to afford or attend a good school but without the advantages of the wealthy or the dedicated assistance to the poor, the middle class have few supports, little sympathy, and high bills.

A few points.

First, one problem that very few people talk about with race based educational statistics is that we paint a very inaccurate picture of “Asians” with an oversized model minority brush.

The success of Americans of Chinese, Japanese and Korean descent tends to mask the comparatively low performance of pacific islanders, Filipinos, and South Asians generally.

Second, I think there’s something to be said for socio-economic diversity, but just as there are issues of racial adjustment and sensitivity on campus, I think there’s an enormous learning curve for universities in supporting poor students. Getting them/us in the door is great but succeeding in university is another issue with another solution.

Increasing the number of students matriculating to college from underrepresented groups is good but it’s only part of the puzzle. There’s a big push to get kids into college. Then a big drop off in supporting them afterwards and not all universities are as supportive as 35K/year should afford

Third, affirmative action of any stripe only works as long as there is an eligible pool. Currently, only 57 and 53 percent of Hispanics and Blacks graduate high school in four years.

Fourth.

In that situation, affirmative action is absolutely necessary to restore a meritocracy – it doesn’t stand in the way of meritocracy. In other words, it’s an attempt to approximate what would happen in a discrimination-free environment.

This is golden.

My experience at Yale was that the advantages of an upper middle class/wealthy lifestyle were expectations not exceptions. It was assumed your parents were professionals. It was assumed you had access to the informal networks of support and general knowledge base that so exemplify the privileged (largely white) classes in America. Not that there was a stigma for not having these things but they were seen as normal, not privilege.