Reply to Here's how much legacy/athlete preferences matter at Harvard

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Please stop trying to pit Asians against other minority groups. I am black and SO sick of this trope. [/quote]

I'm sorry that you are sick of it but it's reality.  Affirmative action disadvantages Asian Americans, Indian Americans (from the Indian subcontinent, not Native Americans), and Whites.  In that order.  This common experience of being disadvantaged against has created a racial coalition on the other side of affirmative action.  The lawsuit against Harvard was brought forward by Asian political advocacy groups.

[quote=Anonymous]Asians are taking the seats of White students. There are very little Blacks and Hispanics in higher education to make any difference to Asians or Whites, and no one in power would care if Asians took the place of Blacks and Hispanics and vice versa.[/quote]

Neither the numbers in the report nor the political advocacy of the day support your claim.

Bill DeBlasio, the mayor of NYC, is pushing forward a plan that would see NYC's best public schools replace their entrance exams with a subjective admissions model.  Why?  Because Asians are vastly over-represented.  At Stuyvesant high school, Asians represent 75% of the student body even though they are only 15% of the population of New York City.  Asians are literally taking the most seats away from African American and Hispanic students and the mayor of America's largest city has made it one of his top social justice issues.

[quote=Anonymous]That isn’t what the table shows. That table shows what happens if race, legacy and athletics are removed. Does anyone believe that will happen?  That athletes won’t get preferences?

The table does not show what happens if only race is removed.   The real outcome that should be shown is where only race is removed.   In that case based on the study whites will see most of the gains because they get most of the legacy and athletic boost.[/quote]

The table does show what happens if only race is removed, but not explicitly; you have to complete the calculation yourself.

You can extract the exact admissions benefit due to racial preference, for each racial group, by comparing "Model" to the two lines beneath it.  Removing racial preference but retaining legacy and athlete preference, the change would be:

+652 white
-994 african american
-733 hispanic
+895 asian american

On a % basis this is a much greater improvement for the Asian American group.

I'll make three observations in closing.

First, I'm surprised the net benefit to African Americans from the athletic preference is effective zero while for Hispanics it's +97.  Can't Harvard do a better job of recruiting competitive African American student athletes?  The data would suggest a possible bias among coaches that is worth examining.

Second, I view legacy preference as a form of racial preference, given that it definitionally perpetuates racial privilege.  I have no problem using affirmative action preferences to provide some advantage to historically under-represented groups.  How much of a preference there should be is and should be up for debate.  I would also note that within a generation, Asian Americans will start to benefit hugely from legacy preferences as well.

Third, I am appalled at the current state of racial politics in this country.  The discourse has become about blaming others, blaming yourself, and embracing victimhood.  No people in history - ever - have succeeded by embracing victimhood as their self-image.  Lowering the bar the way DeBlasio wants to in NYC is the laziest form of self-destruction.  There is no heroism there.  Only decay.  You can acknowledge the injustices of the past and work to correct them in much more meaningful and effective ways.[/quote]

I don’t know that the math is that easy since the author doesn’t explain how the table is created - I don’t know how they get any of the numbers in the table so forgive if me I’m skeptical that your simple math is the right methodology.  I’d prefer to see the author of the table had reached the number, assuming they are intellectually honest.

But assuming you are correct that Asians see more of the gains when all preferences are removed, why aren’t Asians at a higher raw number than whites when legacy and athlete preferences only are removed?  It doesn’t make sense that the first group of admits are skewed towards whites but that the second group is skewed towards Asians.

I too am appalled at the culture of victimhood in this country, especially that perpetuated by middle class whites. 
[/quote]

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