Reply to Affirmative Action should be income-based, not race-based

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]About 30 years ago, Howard was so eager to create more black lawyers that they shaved off the requirements for law school graduation - eliminating five courses that were standard at law schools throughout the country. They figured just get them a J.D. behind their name, even if their educational preparation was lacking.

It quickly backfired. Wiser minds realized that by doing this, they were making a Howard J.D. a "second-class" degree, and the institution would suffer a significant hit to their reputation. They quickly reversed course, and the remaining five courses were put back in as a requirement for graduation.

I bring up this story because, similarly, that is what happens when you have "second-class" admissions standards for blacks. It causes a hit to the reputation of blacks who would have been admitted without the benefit of racial preferences. So in the Harvard example in the post above, a black student who scored a 1400 on his SAT and would have gotten in anyway is likely to have a cloud follow him: Did he get into Harvard by his own merit, or was he one of the blacks for whom an 1100 SAT was deemed enough (given his skin color). [/quote]

Test scores are not the only criteria used. An applicant with 1100 SAT may have other skills/intelligences that are desirable within a college cohort.

Test scores become meaningless when you take into consideration the biases that feed into the whole testing/educational system. In fact, many schools are making SAT/ACT scores optional.

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