Reply to Predictions for what happens when the SC bans affirmative action?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think it will vary. Some schools will be happy to just enroll the best students and other will drop aa in favor of economic diversity [/quote]

You make it sound like wanting diversity is at odds with enrolling the best students. I find these assumptions to be suspect. Like the posters who define merit as whatever benefits them the most.[/quote]

The way diversity is defined and implemented today, yes, it is absolutely at odds at enrolling the best students. There is such a huge skills gap between the average URM and non URM applicant, that there is a serious shortage of equivalently qualified URM applicants in the application pipeline. If a college insists on getting anything close to proportional representation despite this, then by definition they have to pick lower qualified URM students to fill their class. The only way to claim that diversity does not affect quality today, is to redefine the very meaning of the word merit to something nonsensical, like Harvard did by introducing spurious variables like the personality ratings into the mix.

Also in every country where diversity is actually present, it has led to destruction of social cohesion, social trust and increase in friction. The former Yugoslavia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Myanmar being some examples) Diversity advocate have only recently recognized this because now they are insisting on "inclusion" as being another responsibility of the non URM pool. This is just code for non URM's having to walk on eggshells, so as not to trigger or piss off URM's on campus. It's a fool's errand. Human kind is tribal by nature and just like diversity brought strife all over the world, it is destroying America's campus environment today.[/quote]

So America so far managed to stay intact(ish) as a society despite being likely the most diverse society in the world.  I have a real concern about this intactness once the Supreme Court cancels affirmative action and we likely lost half of more of African American admits from top universities, especially from the public schools (private institutions will likely find a way to hold on).  We have been telling African American, and to a lesser extent Latinx, applicants for decades that all they have to do is get good grades in school, while everyone else has to cure cancer in addition.  If affirmative action is abruptly cancelled, these students will not be competitive for top admissions, and will not regain that competitiveness for generations.  I am concerned about society staying cohesive.  If that falls apart, we would wish for the world where 25% of admissions to top schools went to somewhat less deserving students.[/quote]

Most likely this decision won't have much impact. Schools will find ways to admit who they want and life will continue.[/quote]

I sure hope so, and I say this as a mom of a white unhooked student who got to HYPSM by going far above and beyond the school program.  I would rather she ended up at UMD and we have an intact society.  No one benefits from civil strife.

Affirmative action does need to be phased out because living in a society where having a Cuban grandfather somehow improves one's odds of entering a top university is also destructive, but we cannot drop it immediately.  It could end badly for the society as a whole, while certainly benefiting the few students who would be admitted to top schools for actual achievements.

I guess I want it all.  I want our society to grow top talent (i.e. more meritocracy)2 while I also feel that it would be duplicitous to drop this immense difference in admissions standards on unsuspecting African American students.  [/quote]

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