Here is a very interesting article on Affirmative Action and the cases against Harvard and UNC-CH coming up in front of the SCOTUS. Here just a few quotes from the article:
“Yet average Americans and elite-university officials view admissions policies in radically different ways. Many of the former imagine a meritocracy in which students who work hard to develop their talents are rewarded by admissions to selective colleges that will then help them advance in life."
"Universities have a far different vision, in which no one deserves admission. Instead, an admissions committee’s job is to create an educationally optimal environment on campus. That involves recruiting top students from every racial group. Yet, colleges also want to achieve academic excellence and racial diversity as cheaply as possible, because the cost of scholarships for needy applicants competes with faculty salaries, student amenities, and other priorities.“
“To its credit, Harvard picks classes that look like today’s racially diverse America; indeed, most undergraduates are students of color. But the school does not actually reflect America. Research by the economist Raj Chetty shows that Harvard has 15 times as many students from the richest fifth of the population as the poorest fifth. About as many students come from the top 1 percent by income as the bottom 60 percent. A multiracial aristocracy is more inclusive than an all-white aristocracy, but it is still an aristocracy. Likewise, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill claims to be “the University of the people.” Yet students in the top income quintile are 16 times as numerous on campus as those in the bottom fifth."
“These schools, and many like them, have managed to create racial diversity without much economic diversity. Statistical analyses of evidence produced in the litigation show that Harvard and UNC give Black students more than twice the admissions boost that economically disadvantaged or first-generation college students receive. (At Harvard, the boost for legacy students is also much larger than for first-generation college students.) Seventy-one percent of Black, Latino, and Native American students at Harvard come from college-educated homes with incomes above the national median; such students are in roughly the most advantaged fifth of families of their own race. This is trickle-down economics.”
I have always understood that college admissions at highly selective schools have had preferences for the children of rich parents, legacies, and children like my own (students of color from educated households whose incomes are middle to upper middle class levels). I have seen some past discussions on keeping the status quo for racial diversity’s sake and to right our country’s past wrongs, but it is tough when the current status quo almost completely removes lower income people of all races from the equation (Honestly, low income families have never been part of the equation). I believe that no matter the final SCOTUS decision in the Students for Fair Admission vs. Harvard case, someone will feel aggrieved and continue this fight, but I am pretty confident that in the long term, those with the most money will win.
. I remain skeptical that the focus often seems to be on race instead of wealth and power in these conversations.