University of California-Berkley, Keepin' it Real

When universities give preference to one race over another, it will create resentment between races, widening the divide, and give the benefited race a sense that they are victims and need to be helped. The most noticeable case of this is perhaps the University of California-Berkeley which became almost the poster child for inequality in admissions in 2000. John Moore, the former chairman of the university regents, spoke out against what he considered the unfair practice of Berkeley’s admissions, where white and Asian applicants were seemingly
discriminated against (Yang). He reported that the university (not just UC Berkeley, but also UCLA, and UC Santa Barbra) would admit black and Hispanic students with below average SAT scores over similarly qualified white or Asian students. The president of UC, Robert Dynes then asked his own office to investigate Moores’ “outrageous” claims.

The results of their study were grim. They found that, given the same qualifications, a black or Hispanic student would have a 54% chance of being admitted, while a white student would only have 24% chance of being admitted (Yang)!

It gets worse.

Moore expanded on their findings in 2003 study when he found that hundreds of below average SAT scores were being admitted and thousands of higher-than-average scorers were being rejected. And more than half of those students with below average scores were black and Hispanic students.

How do you think these applicants would feel if they found out their race was the reason they were rejected from the school of their choice? Do you think they would be understanding that the school wanted diversity or do you think they would be feel like race was more important than how hard they might have worked in high school? I think such a policy, which puts so much emphasis on race, also creates a false importance of race in the minds of those it affects; shattering the idea of true equality that America has been trying to promote.

Political science professor, Andrew Hacker commented on the situation at Berkeley and Affirmative Action when he said that it is “a disservice, by placing them in a college for which they are not properly prepared,” (Hacker, 163). Citing his own study which found that, of the underrepresented students who were admitted even though they were below Berkeley’s standards, only 20% end up graduating.