Affirmative Admissions

This morning I caught an article in the New York Times that I just had to read, even though my girls were off from school and they reeeeeally needed my attention and I was having one of those very unattractive mothering moments where I just wanted to scream, "Why the fuck can't I have a minute to read this one article in peace?!" but I didn't say that. I just read as fast as I could. And then decided I had to write a quick post about it.

Apparently there's a move on to undo Affirmative Action. Not new news, really. But there's a young lady from Austin, TX  appearing before the Supreme Court this week, because she wasn't accepted into the UT school of her choice, and she feels it's unfair that her race - which happens to be white - was a factor in her not being accepted. This young lady believes that race should not be a factor in college admissions. That's what she has come to say to the justices of the Supreme Court. Her argument is intended to give weight to the argument to end Affirmative Action.

I've been to Texas several times. Through and around Texas, down endless miles of flat, dry, barren highway. And I've seen some crazy poverty there, as well as some incredibly racist attitudes. I don't mean to defame the entire state of Texas, but much like many parts of our vast country, there's a whole lot going on besides what you see in the big cities. And this young lady from Austin seems to think that we're ready to embrace a new, post-racial set of public policies, so that no one else like her has to suffer the indignity of not getting into the school of their choice. 

Maybe the fact that we have an African-American president levels the playing field. I mean, if blacks are running things, the time to be giving out hand-ups is over, right? And all those Latino families whose kids are citizens but the parents can't legally work, they don't deserve any assistance. And the Asians are taking over the world, so they shouldn't get any preferential treatment...

Yeah, we're really ready to overturn Affirmative Action. 

That will probably fix our economy.