Diversity Obsession
November 22, 2017
learning. Rather than have a knee-jerk response for or against diversity, I think we should ask just what is diversity and whether it’s a good thing. How do we tell whether a college, a department or another unit within a college is diverse or not? What exemptions from diversity are permitted?
Seeing as college presidents and provosts are the main diversity pushers, we might start with their vision of diversity. Ask your average college president or provost whether he even bothers promoting political diversity among faculty. I’ll guarantee that if he is honest — and even bothers to answer the question — he will say no. According to a recent study, professors who are registered Democrats outnumber their Republican counterparts by a 12-1 ratio (http://tinyurl.com/gpp4svq). In some departments, such as history, Democratic professors outnumber their Republican counterparts by a 33-1 ratio.
American Contempt for ...
Best Price: $8.71
Buy New $13.37
(as of 06:35 EST - Details)
There is one area of college life where administrators demonstrate
utter contempt for diversity, and that’s in sports. It is by no means
unusual to watch a Saturday afternoon college basketball game and see
that the starting five on both teams are black. White players, not to
mention Asian players, are underrepresented. Similar underrepresentation
is practiced in college football. Where you find whites overrepresented
in both sports is on the cheerleading squads, which are mostly composed
of white women. If you were to explore this lack of racial diversity in
sports with a college president, he might answer, “We look for the best
players, and it so happens that blacks dominate.” I would totally agree
but ask him whether the same policy of choosing the best applies to the
college’s admissions policy. Of course, the honest answer would be a
flat-out no.
The
most important issue related to college diversity obsession is what
happens to black students. Black parents should not allow their sons and
daughters to fall victim to the diversity hustle, even if the diversity
hustler is a black official of the college. Black parents should not
allow their sons and daughters to attend a college where they would not
be admitted if they were white. A good rule of thumb is not to allow
your children to attend a college where their SAT score is 200 or more
points below the average of that college. Keep in mind that students are
not qualified or unqualified in any absolute sense. There are more than
4,800 colleges — a college for most anybody. The bottom-line question
for black parents and black people in general is: Which is better, a
black student’s being admitted to an elite college and winding up in the
bottom of his class or flunking out or being admitted to a less
prestigious college and performing just as well as his white peers and
graduating? I would opt for the latter. You might ask, “Williams, but
how will the nation’s elite colleges fulfill their racial diversity
needs?” My answer is that’s their problem.
Walter
E. Williams is the John M. Olin distinguished professor of economics at
George Mason University, and a nationally syndicated columnist. To find
out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators
Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page.
Copyright © 2017 Creators.com
Previous article by Walter E. Williams: Stalking H
No comments:
Post a Comment