President Joe Biden, reacting to Thursday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning affirmative action in university admissions, said he strongly disagrees with the decision. The court overturned affirmative action 6-3.
While I disagree with the SC decision, I also agree with Biden that a new standard is needed. Race
alone could never cover all the possibilities and struggles students faced growing up, and while it was a "good enough" yardstick, I hope we come up with something better.
As a European, the apparent fixation on race much of the US seems to still have (judging by media I See) is weird and extremely anachronistic. Why would you not look at socioeconomic status instead?
Its good if you guys use new metrics now. I'm not sure it really was good enough-I wouldn't know, but I can't imagine
Because a culture of shared suffering is the only coherent cultural divide left in America. Every other culture has mixed and blended such that it isn't completely obvious you are with one group or another unless you are suffering as part of that group. Even some rich people look poor and poor people can look rich.
I think schools should use something like the zip code a student lives in. That would allow them to look at the demographic makeup and median income of the area, which are much more equitable factors to consider than race alone. It would enable them to increase academic opportunities for those who are underserved by the current system regardless of the student's race. And as we know, here in the US, the poorer zip codes also have more minorities, generally speaking.
I generally agree, but to play devil's advocate: what's to stop well-off parents from purchasing property in a poor area and marking that down as their residence to give their kids an edge?