Jewish World Review Jan. 16, 2003/ 13 Shevat, 5763

Marianne M. Jennings

Marianne M. Jennings
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"My ex is a minority, so I deserve special treatment"


http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | A law school admissions committee, steeped in its special-track minority candidates, came upon a file that had nothing about the applicant's "ethnic" background. A faculty member followed up with the candidate in this phone conversation:

"We noticed you checked off the box for 'Hispanic' in your law school application, . . . Could you tell me a little about yourself in that regard?"

"My ex-husband was Hispanic, and I had a baby by him."

"We do not view a woman who has had a baby by a Hispanic father as having acquired the father's ethnic status. . . . we will go ahead and handle your application under our non-diversity applications process."

Prof. John Martinez, Univ. of Utah, tells this story in, "Trivializing Diversity: The Problem of Overinclusion in Affirmative Action Programs." (Harvard Blackletter Law Journal). Hey! There's no Harvard Whiteletter Law Journal, or even whiteletter law.

Such a story should be an epiphany for the thinking man, woman, or gender disorder victim. Affirmative action (AA) has gone amok, causing racial gaming in law school admissions. Instead, Professor Martinez advocates the use of deprivation factors, in lieu of race, as a proxy for achieving diversity. Social justice is served, he claims. Marxists are always so altruistic.

Under deprivation admissions, the hard-knock life counts. Oh, the boxes we'll see for deprivation screening: "Unwed mother - white father," "Unwed mother - minority father," "Reformed crack addict," "White male who pays child support --ex-wife, wench," "Molested as a child," "Molested by a priest as a child."

Trotting down paths other than that of ability reduces us to quibbling one-upmanship. Scores and GPAs be damned, pitiful souls, arise! Prof. Martinez assumes that deprivation runs along racial lines. It's AA without nasty constitutional issues.

AA, a misguided tour de force, has invincibility because the "racist" label is hurled at those who dare point to its flaws. But flawed it is. In the 95 scholarly articles on AA that I reviewed, there are several admissions, as it were, about AA's deficiencies.

First, race is not a good proxy for sacred diversity. Law schools using race quotas discovered that they were admitting too many minorities whose parents were brain surgeons, thus depriving them of the ghetto flavor they crave in their classrooms.

Second, minority admissions programs brought unqualified and marginal candidates. A Law School Admission Council study found grade point average and LSAT score "were the strongest predictors of bar exam passage." Lowering both for minority admits leaves them struggling to pass the bar. Minority pass rates, including second- and third-tries, are 10% below whites'.

Law professors are undaunted. Don't eliminate special-track admissions; toss bar exams, substitute apprenticeships, count pro bono work, or give take-home exams. How about graham crackers during the exam? Heck, if they've been deprived enough, just make them lawyers. AA proponents create a world with no merit or distinction, except in race. A nation nearly divided itself and lost its sons to banish such contemptible divisiveness and genetic judgments.

Racial quotas and special admissions programs drive a wedge between Americans, creating racial tension. Jesse Helms ran an ad during the 1990 elections that depicted a white worker crumbling a job-rejection letter while the narrator explained that a less qualified minority applicant got the job.

The ad resounded with voters because Americans think AA is wrong. Gallup's five surveys in the last decade find that 84% of Americans believe ability should be the determining factor. Only 10-11% feel minorities should be given preferential treatment. Americans understand what Justice O'Connor wrote in Metro Broadcasting v. FCC, "(a)t the heart of the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection lies the simple command that the Government must treat citizens as individuals, not as simply components of a racial, religious, sexual, or national class."

Law school admissions are on the tips of many tongues because the U.S. Supreme Court is about to hear the Bollinger v. Grutter case in which a white female with a higher LSAT and GPA was denied admission to the University of Michigan law school even as minorities with lower numbers were admitted.

Mr. Bush should take the same position as president that he took as governor of Texas. Bush opposed racial preferences in public universities, instead admitting students who graduated in the top 10% at their high schools. Diversity increased.

I hope that's not waffling I smell coming from the White House. Mr. Bush, who once said quotas "pit one against another," but stinging from Lottgate, hesitates. When it comes to equal rights, even pauses in conviction are troublesome.

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JWR contributor Marianne M. Jennings is a professor of legal and ethical studies at Arizona State University. Send your comments by clicking here.

Up

01/07/03: Why libs will never have a Rush Limbaugh
01/02/03: The year that was
12/26/02: Capital offenses, power and Harry Potter
12/20/02: Mundane superlatives cause trouble
12/09/02: Let the sacking begin
12/05/02: Amazing Grace that saved me from my CO2 emissions
11/27/02: Free speech, Harvard, and First Amendment looneys
11/25/02: Eminem culture
11/14/02: Hollywood trash
11/04/02: Patron Kennedy Saints
10/28/02: What the snipers and Moose taught
10/22/02: Nobel Prizes and other ventriloquist acts
10/17/02: The window on the liberal mind and war
10/14/02: Leaders don't change; followers do
10/07/02: Do it yourself
09/27/02: Hosers rise again
09/20/02: Girly gridiron
09/13/02: Erudite buffoons
09/11/02: One year later, crass demands, greed, and litigation are back --- but rights are diminished
09/06/02: Public schools: An unqualified success
08/30/02: The Shakespearean tragedy of affirmative action
08/23/02: Hollywood Joe's admission
08/15/02: Cheapskates
08/08/02: Ode to a coal miner
08/02/02: Sarah Brady's gun gift
07/26/02: Don't do it, Tiger
07/18/02: Reality Muppets
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07/02/02: From the eye of the storm
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05/30/02: Of big hair and sanity
05/24/02: Should I embrace liberalism?
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01/24/02: Tolerance does not mean stupidity
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01/03/02: The year that was
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12/13/01: Curbing brats
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11/29/01: The disappearing art of grading
11/21/01: The Big Two-Five
11/13/01: You can never find a lib when you need one
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05/25/01: Baseball has not been so good to me
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05/11/01: Selective precaution
05/04/01: Grades: Equality of students, by students, for the students
04/27/01: The Horowitz revelations as seen by a college professor
04/20/01: First, let's kill all the tests
04/13/01: The continuing mistake of underpricing electricity
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03/29/01: If it weren't for the parents, we might accomplish something
03/23/01: The melt down of the academy
03/15/01: Columbine redux: Moral infants
03/09/01: The lessons of Tom and Nicole
03/01/01: Pardon the temporary outrage
02/23/01: In defense of homework
02/20/01: A Message for faith-based organizations: Don't take the money, just run
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01/26/01: The challenge to be better than we have been
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11/13/00: When it's broke, fixing it wouldn't offend the Framers
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08/18/00: Resenting the accusations of racial prejudice
08/04/00: Women: Their own worst enemy
07/21/00: Hillary: Our longshoreman First Lady
07/21/00: SUVs: The root of all evil
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06/14/00: Sex and the City: The shallow but vulgar female
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05/23/00: The new mollycoddling coach
05/16/00: On adultery and leadership
05/12/00: Taking your lumps
05/02/00: Elian: There's never a liberal around when you need one
04/25/00: Life's circle and tenderness
04/18/00: Womyn who want it both ways
04/11/00: The monsters we're raising with the ergo proposition
04/05/00: Endowing the Hooters Chair for Literature Appreciation
03/28/00: Dr. Laura: The passive/aggressive kid's mom
03/21/00: Dough and campaigns
03/14/00: The volunteerism of conscription and pomp
03/07/00: Hope and pray that religion remains a force in politics
02/29/00: Ditzes in TV Land
02/22/00: Cranky nitpickers make writing a [sic] experience
02/15/00: Those chameleon 60s activists
02/08/00: McCandidate McCain: Flirting with principles
02/01/00: The demise of marriage
01/25/00: Stroke of the pen, law of the land: Clinton's Camelot
01/18/00: Off the Rocker Rorschach Test
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01/04/00: Struggling mightily amidst the comfort
12/23/99: Confused fathers
12/14/99: Drop-kicking the homeless
12/07/99: Turtles and teamsters, side-by-side in Seattle
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11/22/99: Compassionate conservative: Timing and targets
11/18/99: The elusive human spirit and accountability
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10/28/99: Live by litigation, die by litigation
10/22/99: Jesse, Warren, Cybill, Donald and Oprah
10/14/99: Inequality and injustice: It's the big one
10/05/99: Dan Quayle, morals and schoolyard bullies
09/30/99: The monsters of epidermal parenting
09/21/99: The Diversity Hoax
09/15/99: Waco Wackos
09/09/99: Selective censorship
09/01/99: The village, the children, judicial imperialism and abortion
08/24/99: Naughty Newt?
08/17/99: In defense of Boy Scouts and judgment
08/10/99: Ruining the finest health care system in the world
08/03/99: Nihilism and politics: ethics on the lam
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07/20/99: "Why me?" How about "Why us?"
07/13/99: Bunk, junk & juries
07/06/99: An Amish woman in a Victoria's Secret store
06/30/99: That intellectually embarrassing Second Amendment
06/24/99: Patricia Ireland eat your heart out --- but check out the recipe in 'women's mags' first
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06/17/99: True courage is more than just admitting troubles

© 2002, Marianne M. Jennings