It seems that throughout our time at Boston University, racial tensions have skyrocketed, if not in terms of frequency, then in the scope of media attention. And the case of Fisher v. University of Texas is no exception to the rule, even though the circumstances may be a bit different.
Fisher v. University of Texas was brought to the Supreme Court for the second time on Wednesday after being sent back to the lower courts in 2013 — Abigail Fisher, a white graduate of Louisiana State University, has come forward to argue that she was rejected from the University of Texas at Austin in 2008 because of her race.
Texas’ admission policy “grants automatic admission to the University of Texas at Austin to students in roughly the top 10 percent of the state’s high schools. That part of the program, which accounts for 75 percent of the student body, does not directly consider race but increases racial diversity largely because many high schools in the state are not diverse,” an article in The New York Times read.
In laymen’s terms, Fisher believes she has been discriminated against because of the color of her skin. If this doesn’t upset you yet, this certainly will: in hearing this case, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia called for a restructuring of affirmative action at its core, arguing, “There are those who contend that it does not benefit African-Americans to get them into the University of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less-advanced school, a less — a slower-track school where they do well,” CNN reported.
A huge misconception about affirmative action lies in the idea that schools only choose students of color in order to meet racial diversity quotas. A practice such as this would of course be unconstitutional. But race doesn’t make or break admission to any particular school — or at least, it shouldn’t.
Instead, students who are black automatically have the cards stacked heavily against them. Racism is an integral part of United States’ history, which has been proven this week with both Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim sentiments and Scalia’s suggestion that black students simply aren’t good enough to attend certain schools. Affirmative action is necessary, if for nothing else, as a means for compensating the inherent inequality that has plagued these Americans for their entire existences.
Unfortunately, so many people agree with Scalia — they argue black students aren’t smart enough, or aren’t trying hard enough. But how well can a person succeed if their opportunities for success are already so limited by the color of their skin?
In that case, this certainly isn’t about black students not being smart enough to function well at the university. Instead, it is about the culture at that school and schools like it being inherently favorable or admissible for the majority (read, white population) of students who attend.
The fact that this white woman’s case has gone up through the higher courts twice now is honestly embarrassing. Fisher received a college degree from a different decent public institution, yet she still seems to feel threatened by the fact that she was rejected from this university. Did it ever occur to Fisher that she simply wasn’t good enough to get into the university? Did it ever occur to Fisher that maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t an issue of race at all, but one of academic achievement, extracurricular ability, test scores and all of the other holistic factors that college admissions officers consider? We’ve all been rejected, but the college admissions process is all about perspective.
Fisher’s attempt at proving the university discriminated against her because of her skin color just goes to show how entitled she and people like her are. Regardless of her socioeconomic status, which we are unaware of, Fisher’s skin color automatically handed her more advantages than her black colleagues. Fisher had the deck stacked for her, and she just may have failed anyway. Even still, she will have the upper hand going forward.
Of course it would be nice to say that everyone — regardless of race — could get into school based upon merit, as Scalia’s colleague Justice Clarence Thomas has suggested in the past, but that just seems like a societal impossibility. In order for something like this to occur, we would arguably have to go back in time and change the cultural structure of this country. And, at least right now, it seems much easier to restructure the college admissions process than it does to restructure the entire American social system that impedes its black and other minority citizens.
Even with affirmative action in place, the individual admissions counselors who look at your application still have their own preconceived idea of what “black” means, as race is a simply a social construct. So is gender. So as those line items appear before an admissions counselor, they can be interpreted in infinitely many ways.
We like to think the underlying reason behind attempting to cultivate a racially diverse campus at most colleges is to provide students with a look into worlds they may not have otherwise experienced. But somewhere along the way, this turned into a struggle of numbers to see which school can be the most diverse. Even still, if nothing else, a student’s time in college should make him or her a more enlightened, better human being. And there should be a wide array of circumstances that will make him or her question his or her values and beliefs. If schools weren’t diverse in at least some capacity, many of us would graduate and step into a real world we still knew nothing about.
