<p>** I adamantly contend that if Affirmative Action was abolished, diversity levels would drop in top tier schools. Why? Consider:</p>
<p>According to data from the Census bureau
( <a href="http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0104552.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0104552.html</a> )</p>
<p>As of 2005, rough 2,114 thousand black households are within the 35K to 50K bracket as opposed to 13,944 thousand white households within that same bracket. That is roughly a 15:100 ratio. Assuming one child from each of these households, you have 15 blacks competing with 100 whites for x amount of spots. If we adjust for the “Achievement Gap” in terms of Academics, which places those 15 blacks academically lower than the 100 whites in terms of SATs, GPA, etc, the blacks have even less of a chance of competing with 100 whites. The immensity of such a problem is evident, the blacks would no longer have the advantage of being considered based on race;</p>
<p>IF considered based on INCOME, there is absolutely NO ADVANTAGE and with lower average academic scores, there is VERY LITTLE advantage.</p>
<p>Of course, there are blacks who are in the higher income brackets. But the median income for blacks is 17696 less than the median for whites. In addition, there are only 1092 thousand black households with an income over 100K, as opposed to 17,126 thousand white households within that same bracket, a ratio of roughly 54:856. Therefore, for every upper bracket black, there are FAR more upper income whites.</p>
<p>Thus it is clear that for every black of higher socioeconomic status, there are far more whites competing for the same spot of the same status. And for every black of low income there are many more whites competing for the same spot. Adjusted for the Achievement Gap, according to which on average blacks perform worse than whites, without AA and with a system based purely on socioeconomic status, blacks would be present in extremely small amounts." **</p>
<p>I'm sure you read that before, but I still feel that the argument is still germane to the debate. You stated that:
"Some people claim that Ivy Leagues would be different, namely, without racial preferences, they'd be loaded with affluent Whites from Northeastern boarding schools. I disagree. I believe that the number of qualified high students from across the country far exceeds the number of affluent White boarding school students. Race-blind admissions would not create a homogeneous all-White Ivy League."</p>
<p>Although some people may believe this, it is not what I am asserting. I contend that the under representation that would occur due to socioeconomic AA is a combination of the Achievement gap, which places blacks on a lower academic level (on average) than whites, and a direct result of the fact that there are far more white households than black households. Thus whites and blacks of the same socioeconomic brackets would be competing for the same spots, but blacks would be at an inherent disadvantage (of course, on average) compared to whites pursuant to the achievement gap.</p>
<p>At the top tier of academia, the situation would become more pronounced, because not only would blacks be at at inherent disadvantage according to the Achievement gap, but because of the natural bell curve of scores in standardized testing, even fewer of them would even be viable candidates at the very top tier schools.</p>