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Online Fisher symposium: Clegg response to Chettiar

I’ve already discussed why original meaning is against the University of Texas.  As for the racial disparities that Ms. Chettiar discusses:  They certainly exist, but they will not be helped by racial preferences in university admissions; indeed, as Stuart Taylor and Richard Sander discussed in their post, they end up hurting rather than helping African Americans and Latinos.  What’s more, using racial preferences obscures the problems underlying racial disparities that do have to be fixed:   poor public schools (disproportionately attended by black and Latino students, who are not given enough choices in where to attend school); the poisonous misbelief that studying hard is “acting white” (discussed here); and, in particular, this:

The federal government [has] released its latest figures on births ….  More than 7 out of 10 African Americans (72.5 percent) are born out of wedlock, along with more than 6 out of 10 American Indians and Alaska Natives (65.6 percent), and more than 5 out of 10 Hispanics (53.3 percent) — versus fewer than 3 out of 10 whites (29.0 percent) and fewer than 2 out of 10 Asians and Pacific Islanders (17.0 percent). Disturbingly high for all groups (the composite figure is 40.8 percent), but do you notice any connection between these demographic-by-demographic numbers and how each group is doing educationally, economically, criminally, etc.?

Recommended Citation: Roger Clegg, Online Fisher symposium: Clegg response to Chettiar, SCOTUSblog (Sep. 13, 2012, 4:00 PM), https://www.scotusblog.com/2012/09/online-fisher-symposium-clegg-response-to-chettiar/