OVER THE LAST 20 years, affirmative
action policies adopted by several U.S.
universities in their admissions have
been challenged, either by voters or in
the U.S. Supreme Court, as promoting
“reverse discrimination” against white
and Asian students.
What happens when these challenges
succeed? In states where affirmative
action has been banned, universities
often struggle to maintain diversity. For
example, enrollment of black students at
the University of California at Berkeley
dropped from 8 percent in 1990, the
year California instituted its affirmative
action ban, to 2 percent in 2015. These
statistics are cited in “Even with Affirmative
Action, Blacks and Hispanics Are
More Underrepresented at Top Colleges
Than 35 Years Ago,” an article published
August 24, 2017, in The New York Times.
Such outcomes have inspired a
new report from The Education Trust,
which argues in favor of keeping
race-conscious admission policies
in place. Headquartered in Washington,
D.C., the nonprofit is dedicated to
closing “opportunity gaps that disproportionately
affect students of color and
students from low-income families.”
Released in January, the report
outlines three reasons that race-conscious
policies are essential to
eliminating racial disparity in higher
ed in the U.S. First, these policies
counteract practices that have historically
excluded underrepresented
minorities. Second, racial inequality
persists largely because race-conscious
policies have been banned. Finally,
proxies for race—such as income and
geography—often produce little or no
increase in students’ racial diversity.
The report cites several reasons
why alternative strategies don’t work.
For one, 46.2 percent of black undergraduates
gravitate to community and for-profit colleges, compared to just
35.4 percent of white undergraduates.
In addition, the report points out,
“White students from high [socioeconomic
status] backgrounds are nearly
2.8 times more likely to attend selective
colleges than Black students from similar
socioeconomic backgrounds.”
Persistent gaps also exist in completion
rates and upward mobility. White
students are up to 17 percent more likely
to graduate than black students from
similar economic backgrounds. Moreover,
only 27 percent of black children
from low-income backgrounds rise to
the top 40 percent of adult earners, compared
to 46 percent of white children
from similar backgrounds.
The report outlines ten strategies to
counteract racial inequality. For example,
its authors recommend that schools
adopt affirmative action and holistic
approaches in their admissions. They call
for schools to focus more on grade point
averages and less on merit-based criteria
such as Advanced Placement courses,
which are unavailable to students at
many underresourced high schools. They
also suggest that federal and state governments
invest more in historically black
colleges and universities, tribal colleges,
and other minority-serving institutions.
“A true antiracist agenda must focus
on aspects of a postsecondary education
outside of just access and completion,”
the authors conclude. “[Do] the faculty
and staff reflect our diverse nation? Is
the campus environment safe, welcoming,
and affirming for students of color?
… These are the type of questions racial
justice advocates should adopt as key
organizational priorities.”
Read the report's complete findings in "Hard Truths: Why Only Race-Conscious Policies Can Fix Racism in Higher Education.”