Racial Preferences May End, but the Fight Will Continue
FAIR Advisor John McWhorter, a supporter of socioeconomic considerations in college admissions, counters the argument of historian Richard Rothstein who is against socioeconomic preferences, arguing that they would leave unaddressed the needs of middle-class black applicants.
“…The idea that these factors [such as the wealth gap and racism] make it immoral to expect a middle-class black kid to pull off the grades and test scores that a white middle-class kid does is, frankly, condescending. In this, I speak not just for my nerdy self but the legions of middle-class black kids I grew up around, and the further legions there are today…”
“Rothstein notes, for example, that middle-class black people have much less accumulated wealth than whites tend to…But the question is whether the wealth gap, in particular, requires that we change standards. In New York City, for example, immigrant families with little accumulated wealth regularly send their children to the most competitive high schools in the city. It is often argued that it is unfair to compare black students to immigrants, because they had a particularly pronounced incentive to come here and are therefore likely to push their kids harder than we have a right to expect native-born parents to…[this] leaves [Rotherstein’s] wealth gap explanation wanting…”
“In our race discussions, I often can’t help detecting a quiet sense that black people just aren’t made for the school thing and that a moral society must grade all of us on a curve. I see this less as antiracism than condescension, a mild form of racial prejudice, which is neither a gift nor a compliment.”
