Net Race Neutral Summary

Throughout history, the United States of America has often been described as a “melting pot,” meaning a place where many different types of people blend together to form one, unified nation. If this description of the United States is accurate, it is crucial to ensure that all of these different individuals are able to live in harmony with one another. This is especially true at the collegiate level of education. In the last few decades, liberal arts colleges have made it their mission to increase diversity on their campuses. Diversity comes in several forms, particularly class-based and racial. This undertaking is one that should be prioritized at colleges across the country. There is significant evidence that diverse college campuses produce stronger, more intelligent individuals. With diversity come enhanced social development, stronger critical thinking skills, and heightened self-awareness. These features produce stronger individuals, thus strengthening the community at large.

Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States founded primarily for the education of African Americans. Prior to the mid-1960s, HBCUs were virtually the only institutions open to African Americans due to the vast majority of predominantly white institutions prohibiting qualified African Americans from acceptance during the time of segregation. As such, they are institutional products of an era of discrimination and socially constructed racism against African Americans (Joseph, 2013). Successfully, millions of students have been educated in spite of limited resources, public contempt, accreditation violations, and legislative issues. The purpose of this research paper is to discuss

It’s unfortunate that even in today’s society that institutional racism is something that happens in the everyday life of many people, especially minorities such as African Americans and Hispanics. Koppelman (2014) defines institutional racism as “establish laws, customs, and practices that systematically reflect and produce racial inequities in American society” (Koppelman, 2014, p. 189). One example of where institutional racism is prevalent is in standardized testing in schools. There has always been a question of whether standardized testing, in particular the SAT’s, have been fair to minority students. Even though the SAT board feels that the test has been researched to include questions that give students from different races and

At least four Supreme Court justices believe that affirmative action is unconstitutional. Chief Justice John Roberts has said that “the way to stop discriminating on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race”. This viewpoint offers no differentiation between “race consciousness” and “racism”, but is a quite common opinion. This sort of viewpoint is what may drive America towards class-based rather than race-based affirmative action. Because of the disparities in income and wealth, minorities are as likely as whites to benefit under a class-based policy. However, there’s a certain perversion to admission policies like this, policies like UT’s “top 10” program. These policies leverage their racial diversity via neighborhood, and thus public high school, segregation. As Jamelle Bouie write in a Slate article on the

In the article, “How Race becomes Biology: Embodiment of Social Inequality” by Clarence C. Gravlee, Gravlee argues that race, and the assumption of race in everyday life, makes the difference in biology much more clear and affects the life cycles of people due to their perceived race (Gravlee, 51). The author provides, using both his research and others’, an argument against the complete notion that race is only a social construct (Gravlee, 53). Through a series of statements, Gravlee states that race shouldn’t simply be excluded from anthropological discussion, but incorporated into present views regarding healthcare and impacts on society.

Everyday the future in America looks brighter for the issues dealing with race and identity. Brave souls are not letting racism, class discrimination, or sexism hold them back anymore. Furthermore, the fight for a balanced society that pushes for equality is on the horizon. As we close on an era, based on purely the skin of the person, we need to analyze the impacts of the Ethnicity paradigm and Class paradigm on politics of the 20th century. Race and Ethnicity are used interchangeable in everyday conversation, however; they are not the same. In Howard Winant and Michael Omi, Racial Formation book, they outline in the first few chapters the weakness of examining race based on the ethnicity/ class paradigm. Although the paradigms

“Affirmative Action may not be a perfect system, but there should be no doubt that it has endangered many successes. It has opened the doors of America’s most elite educational institutions to minority students, granting them unprecedented opportunities” (Ogletree 12). Thanks to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson a policy that prohibits employment and education discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, and sex is offered today to those who suffer from said discriminations (A Brief History). Affirmative action has opened abundant openings for minorities, allowing the cycle of going to college to be passed down generations and provided job opportunities that otherwise would not be considered by most. Affirmative

According to the dominant theory the affirmative action was firstly introduced to deal with two types of social disruption in the 1960s as campus protests and urban riots in the North. However, this article is based on different theory as dominant theory's empirical evidence is limited. It examines the initial reason for advent of race-conscious affirmative action in 17 undergraduate institutions in the United States. And according to the research this article concludes that there were two waves that contributed to affirmative action: 1) first wave in the early 1960s introduced by northern college administrators 2) second wave in the late 1960s introduced as a response to the protests of campus-based students. This article will help me to establish the main reasons for introduction of race-conscious affirmative action in undergraduate

Throughout many of the affirmative action legal cases, one of the main arguments from proponents is that it is necessary in order to right the wrongs of past racial discrimination. Some say that affirmative action is justified because even though white applicants may be more qualified, this is only because they did not face the same hardships as their minority counterparts (Rachels, Ethics, 1973).  Many argue if we do not integrate disadvantaged minorities into mainstream social institutions, they will continue to suffer the discrimination that has plagued our country for centuries and that this is detrimental to not only the minorities but also society as a whole (Anderson, 2002, 1270–71). However, the debate has recently shifted to the benefits of diversity in the classroom which the Supreme Court has affirmed as being a positive thing

One of the most strived for things in life is academic excellence however the path to it is never easy. Author Thompson Ford’s article “How To Understand Acting White” outlines Stuart Bucks arguments about the irony of desegregation in education. A separate essay written by, Alfred Lubrano, “The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts” has similar ironies about the average college student. If Ford was to read Lubrano’s essay, Ford would come to a more complex conclusion by incorporating arguments and concepts from Lubrano’s essay. Ford may utilize Lubrano’s essay to expand on certain concepts such as the proximity effect, socioeconomics, and the level of education in top tier schools to further explain the “acting white” phenomenon from his own article.

In this landmark case Allan Bakke, a white applicant to the University of California, Davis Medical School, sued claiming his denial of admission on racial grounds was a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The standing rule at the time was that race may be a factor in determining admission to educational institutions; however it cannot be the sole determining factor.

Barbara Grutter (plaintiff) which is a resident of Michigan who was denied admissions into the University of Michigan Law School. Lee Bollinger (defendant) was president of the University of Michigan. Grutter filed this suit because the University had discriminated against the basis of race. Supreme Court ruled that the use of affirmative action in school admissions is constitutional if it treats race as some factor. Is affirmative action still necessary for guaranteeing equal access to educational opportunities at elite universities and graduate schools? Should admissions decisions be based solely on academic criteria and merit?

In the United States’ current political climate, “racism” is a term thrown around so often that it almost begins to lose its original definition. The same can be said when discussing and analyzing the success rate of minority students in higher education. People are inclined to jump to the conclusion that a faculty member or institution is inherently racist instead of looking at all of the factors involved in a student’s success. The three main factors that I will be covering over the course of this essay are school tuition rates, Affirmative Action policies, and how schools handle discipline. While there are cases of inarguable racism within higher education, an in-depth analysis of the factors stated above will prove that “racism” is not

When I first started researching Fisher vs. Texas, I believed discrimination in college applications was very wrong and unlawful. I believed everyone should have a fair opportunity to go to the school of their choice. As I researched the issue more, it became apparent to me that diversity is truly important to our learning experiences while in college. In college, diversity has taught me many different viewpoints and has helped me understand different cultures. The learning aspect is important but I also believe that students that come from poorer communities and challenging childhoods should have an opportunity to attend top universities. The alarming differences in pay will only continue to increase if African Americans and other races do not have the opportunity to attend college. Diversity is important to the American culture and we need equality for all races to move forward as a country.

Issue- Can race diversity be taken into account when deciding admissions to a public University?