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Boston Globe Continues
to Promote Racial Preferences in College Admissions
Advocates Violating the Law; Unfair to Minorities
By Prof. Paul Moreno A wrong message is being publicized about minority students by the Boston Globe. It originated in a study by researchers at UMass/Amherst and the Center for Education Policy. The inaccurate message is that colleges in New England have not tried to increase the number of minorities by lowering the academic standards for them. The study concluded, “New England colleges do not lower standards to admit students of color.” But the truth is that they have done so in violation of the law. All that the UMass study showed is that New England colleges which do give preference based upon race are not admitting minority students who are less qualified than the least well qualified of their white students. But that conclusion, which was publicized by The Chronicle of Higher Education on October 16, is “highly misleading,” says Dr. Robert Lerner. He is an independent consultant who works with the Center for Equal Opportunity, which challenged the policies of UMass three years ago and forced it to appear to change its procedures – at least on their face. Lerner says, “Admission standards are already low in many institutions. If full proportional representation [by all minority groups] is the goal, then we should indeed continue to lower [academic standards] further. These institutions undoubtedly give a massive amount of preference to selected minorities.” The TragedyThe tragedy is that preferences damage minority students and reinforce racial stereotypes, he says, because the minority students are at the bottom end of their classes in terms of academic ability. What good does it do to admit a student who is going to have a difficult time at the school and has a poor chance of graduating? It is no secret that this is what is happening to many minority students, not just in Massachusetts, but across the country. What the study actually shows is “there is a significant amount of discrimination going on [in favor of minorities],” Roger Clegg, general counsel at the Center for Equal Opportunity, told the Chronicle. “The issue is not whether all students have the same floor; the issue is whether students who are above the floor are being treated equally, without regard to race.” He calls the preferential admissions “objectionable, immoral, and illegal.” Encourages Mass. Schools to Violate the LawThe UMass report says that most colleges use race-based admissions but “have kept a low profile on the issue as a strategy for avoiding controversy and potential legal challenges.” In March 1999, UMass/Amherst made changes in its admissions program after Roger Clegg and the Center for Equal Opportunity began an investigation of its use of racial preferences. The changes prompted protests from those who favor racial preferences but Chancellor David K. Scott assured everyone that the policy had not, in fact, changed. He said, “In recent years, in addition to academic qualifications, race and other factors have been considered in making admissions decisions. That policy will not be changed.” The new report by UMass staff, advises, “the widespread practice of admitting qualified minority students at higher rates than white students” means that schools that use racial preferences “can be more confident that they are not alone in such efforts.” But they can not be confident they are not breaking the law. The study was funded by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, a part of the Nellie Mae Corporation in Braintree which is a giant in the business of making loans to students. Globe Does Disservice to Minority StudentsThe story by the Globe said that getting into college is hard enough, but if you “factor in the edge that minority students seem to have in admissions ... anger understandably flares” among white students. But the Globe believes that “outrage over affirmative action is misplaced. The real tragedy is that minority students nationwide are not getting proper preparation for college. The newspaper writes: “One way to make progress is to cool resentment with facts. A new report from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst does this for New England. “The report looks at private and public colleges in all six New England states. The good news is that the most hated tools – quotas and lower admission standards for minority students – are not used. Joe Slick is not getting a diversity pass into college with a C- average and an abysmal SAT score. “Instead, schools used what’s called ‘enhanced rate admissions.’ Because there is only a ‘shallow applicant pool’ of minority students who are prepared for college, schools admit minorities at higher rates than white students with similar credentials. “This sounds unfair. But take the step from admitting students to enrolling them, and it turns out that white students have the advantage. White students are more likely to graduate from high school and go to a four-year college than minorities. “There’s the shame. And affirmative action comes too late in students’ careers to be much of a cure. A better solution is reaching out to younger school children.” No one could disagree with that, but we have to teach the minority students that it is not “cool” when you pretend you don’t need to study hard. The white students who get into good colleges get there only because they study very hard. But the most important thing is to have a high vocabulary – in English. Not in ebonics or in some other language. One of the Great Tragedies of Life is a Person with High Aptitudes and Low VocabularyDecember 2001 One of the greatest gifts you can give a child is a very high vocabulary so he or she can express him or herself clearly. So what are we telling minority youth? We’re telling them, “It’s okay to talk any way you want. You let them guess what you mean.” It’s been known for years that a large and rich vocabulary is vital to the success of any person. This has been clearly documented by the Human Engineering Laboratory on Beacon Street, Boston, since its establishment in 1920. It has tested hundreds of thousands of people. It says:
[T]he height to which a man has risen in any profession or occupation yet studied can be predicted more accurately from the size of his vocabulary than from any other single mental trait measurable to date. In the many companies that were studied by the Laboratory, the one key to success was vocabulary.
Low Vocabulary Causes ProblemsIt gave an example as to why a person with a low vocabulary might become rebellious and violent if he or she is also high in inductive reasoning. “[I]nductive reasoning finds application in sanctioned diplomacy, formalized jurisprudence, and editorial writing, so without vocabulary the same aptitude gropes rebelliously for new forms of government, ideal justice for all, drastic social reforms; but lacking words can express these visionary aspirations only in violent acts, demonstrations, revolutions, and the destruction of the inadequate present. ... With a vocabulary below the fifth percentile, few born gifts are effective in any modern civilized community.” The people at the Human Engineering Laboratory even hypothesize that when we think, we use our vocabulary to help us. Therefore, even the thinking process requires a high vocabulary. Good News with Tragic EndingA random study was done a few years ago of 18 black, non-middle-class children in Washington, D.C. It showed that these children had the same aptitudes as the overwhelmingly white, middle class people that the Laboratory usually tested. But the vocabularies of the black children were very low. The good news was that vocabulary is not an aptitude which is genetic and cannot be changed; it can be changed because it is merely a measurement of learning. The bad news is that no one is doing anything about it. They gave three examples:
The Laboratory expressed its frustrations this way. “Put yourself in the position of a man or woman who is capable but who lacks expression for that capability [because of a low vocabulary]. Imagine the profound frustration and raging bitterness such an intolerable situation can provoke. If a person senses that his talent, his very reason for existence, is being squandered, denied acceptable fulfillment, is it any wonder that he turns to illegal or violent modes of expression for his thwarted aspirations?” Professor Thomas Sowell of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, a black man, may have an answer as to why the interest in ebonics. He says that around the world the common thread of group activists who wish to retain their political power is separatism. Accordingly, group activists often seek separate languages, separate institutions, and even separate territories. Even where most of the group already speaks the language of the surrounding society, as among the Maoris of New Zealand, group activists seek to artificially reconstitute a separate language community.”
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Worldly success, money earnings, management titles, all check with
scores in vocabulary. Major executives, presidents, and vice presidents,
average at the top, above doctors, lawyers, and college professors.