Sam Brunson on "Racial Diversity, the Supreme Court, and BYU"

[smac97]

Yesterday Sam Brunson published an article on By Common Consent: Racial Diversity, the Supreme Court, and BYU

Some thoughts:

1. I think racism and racial prejudice is a terrible thing.  

2. I question ("question" mind you, not "reject") the value and legitimacy of using explicit race-based discrimination in college admissions as a tool to reduce racial discrimination in society overall (which, I think, is what Sam has in mind).

3. I question Brunson's efforts to equate Pres. Nelson's (and the Church's) broad pronouncements condemning racism - which I wholly support - with some sort of mandate or charge (a "religious" one, according to Brunson) to resurrect Affirmative Action.

4. I think that our current societal milieu is not entirely conducive to reasoned, respectful discussion and debate on this issue.  

5. I would be interested in thoughtful and respectful (albeit likely vigorous) discussion with people regarding the merits of Brunson's proposal.

Thanks,

-Smac 

 

[MrShorty]

The part of the article that really stood out to me was his description of how "race blindness" played out in the racial profile of these elite Chicago schools. Brunson says:

Quote

how did this new experiment in equity go? Not well from a diversity perspective. In the intervening years, three of the top schools in the city (and seriously, for those of you not from Chicago, these are three of the best high schools in the country) have seen the percentage of white students increase, while the percentage of Black students has decreased. ...Chicago’s experience with elite education is that racial diversity at elite schools is not the equilibrium state. Someday maybe with luck and effort it will be. But today it takes active and sustained (and, importantly, explicit) effort.

 In many conservative and LDS circles, talk of systemic racism ruffles feathers, but Brunson seems to me to be suggesting that there is still something present in Chicago (and, by extrapolation, the rest of the US) that still pushes us towards segregating ourselves by race. If we truly value racial integration, should we, therefore, do something to push against this apparent natural tendency towards segregation.

Edited August 31, 2023 by MrShorty

[rpn]

I have a hard time thinking that any lawsuit by BYU in defense of how they do things is going to be extrapolated by a court to allow it anywhere.  

1.  Brunson thinks BYU should test the issue because of a religious imperative.  But that inherently excludes any education that is not religious based.

2.  It took a pretty long time for there to be enough data to show that affirmative action didn't materially (and overall---you can find institutions with better results than others, but I've not heard of more than a handful).  It is grossly premature to think of filing anything for at least five years after education has fully embraced this year's rulings. 

[Benjamin McGuire]

18 hours ago, smac97 said:

I would be interested in thoughtful and respectful (albeit likely vigorous) discussion with people regarding the merits of Brunson's proposal.

Personally, I think that diversity in college campuses is a worthy goal in and of itself. I think though that the challenge we have with affirmative action in college admissions is that it is a bandaid that attempts to treat symptoms rather than a real attempt to correct the underlying problems.

From my personal experience as a school board member in my community, the number one factor for choosing schools? Proximity. School choice programs don't work well for creating diversity because the families that are most likely to take advantage of those programs are the one who have the necessary extra resources to get their kids to and from schools that are not close by. And, minority families are much more likely to be single parent families with more limited resources. I bring these issues up because the reasons why the issues exist that Brunson isn't going to get in to are a huge issue. The diversity challenges for schools aren't the issue itself, they are merely symptoms of that issue.

To be clear, these selective enrollment schools are high schools aimed at accepting high achieving students. They are a step forward (of sorts) from elite colleges - because they occur earlier in a student's education. They are helpful because they present a better choice for education that doesn't (for the most part) cost the families more to get. But, the gaps are created before high school. So when we create admission standards for schools based on achievement (merit) - where achievement is already impacted by a host of issues that unequally impact ethic groupings of students, we are already participating in a problematic cycle - these changes at the high school level will have negligible impact in the direction we want to go. The best dollars (in terms of outcome) are spent on preschools. Let's go to our economically challenged areas and provide free preschools, and educational daycare for economically challenged minority families. Chicago is experiencing a child care crisis. Average cost of child care in Chicago? $19,000 per year. This could be beneficial in lots of ways to our underprivileged groups - and the need for this sort of service would help encourage high participation - especially in our economically challenged groups and racial minorities. At any rate, we can look over the past 40 years and see a deliberate shift in terms of safety nets and the support of our economically challenged families. I have a lot of revulsion for the states who are now allowing children to participate more fully in the work force. Iowa, for example, just recently passed a law allowing children aged 14 to work 6 hours a night on school nights, and for 16 year olds to participate in the work force as adults. These children will not be the ones who are able to attend a college prep school.

So what do I think of Brunson's proposal? I think that it's nonsense. I don't think his proposal is about racial diversity in higher education - I'm all for that. But the real suggestion in Brunson's proposal is that we should use racial admissions criteria at BYU on a religious argument that we need to reduce racism. And while I am all for reducing racism - this seems more about appearance than substance. Let's hide the fact that without that sort of admissions process, the diversity of students at BYU would remain low. It would be better for the Church and its members to advocate for issues that would help reduce the underlying causes of poor educational performance - the issues that Brunson says are "myriad, and well beyond the scope of this blog post."