What price are we willing to pay for diversity?

If I were on the U.S. Supreme Court — never an ambition of mine — I would allow race, among many other factors, to be considered for college admission, or a job, or anything else.

I might also take into account religion, region of the country, age, gender, and ability to play the flute, but the main thing I would look at is ability to succeed — whether in the classroom, or the factory floor. 

Merit is No. 1 — or should be.

While I disagree with the court’s decision, I understand it based on the majority’s reading (or interpretation) of the XIV Amendment to the Constitution, which you can read for yourself.

The funny thing is, colleges and universities are less likely to make the equality or equal protection argument, than the argument that diversity is an end in itself, a goal worth pursuing.

Is that valid?

I believe having different points of view included is generally a good thing. Someone from a different culture might have an entirely different interpretation than you have. Maybe a better interpretation, maybe not. I’m a big believer in hearing different views, even unpleasant ones. That’s under the umbrella of free speech. Given my occupation, that’s a big deal for me.

So I protect even bad ideas, even ugly ideas, as long as they don’t cross the line into inciting violence. That is not permitted.

Things go wrong when diversity is shaped into meaning that an institution should reflect the percentages of people around it, whether the city or the nation.

Blacks account for 13% of the U.S. population.

Does that mean every university and business should have 13% Black employees?

How about the NBA or the NFL? How diverse are they?

I’ll save you the trouble of looking it up: NBA is 71% Black. NFL is 56% Black.

Is that diverse? Is that equitable?

No, but it is fair and based on merit. Aren’t we — or shouldn’t we — be a meritocracy? (I know the far Left doesn’t believe in that.)

Only about one-third of Americans think affirmative action is a good thing, according to Pew Research. About an equal number have no opinion.

I am going to skip the various legal opinions by the various legal experts and focus on one story, in one newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer. It covered some student reaction at Penn to the court’s decision.

Naturally, all the comments were negative, as if there weren’t opposing views that agree with the court. The Inquirer is often one-sided.

Since you probably can’t open the link, I will cut and paste some student and reporters’ phrasing and apply a critical light to them.

First, the enrollment percentages. Keep these in mind: “In fall 2022, 7.9% of Penn’s 9,889 undergraduates identified as African American or Black, while 10.5% were Latino, and 5.2% two or more races. Meanwhile, 27.5% were Asian and 30.8% white.” (Italics added.) That’s only 81.9%, leaving a rather large 18.1% gap.

Yomi Abdi is Black and the opinion editor of the Daily Pennsylvanian, and, according to the Inquirer, “is hyperaware of how the end of affirmative action could make Penn’s already predominantly white campus whiter.”

Go back to the previous paragraph. Would 30.8% be considered “predominantly white” in any other context?

For non-English majors, “predominantly” means “mainly.” So 30.8% is mainly?

The paper then quotes Emily Hyunh, a senior studying health policy, this way: ”Having diverse populations creates safe spaces. As an Asian person attending a predominantly white institution, I know the value of having places where I can speak freely to people who know what it’s like to be Asian here.”

She needs “safe spaces” at Penn, smh, and she too believes she is at a “predominantly white institution.” 

She’s not a math major and seems to disagree with the Asian group that filed the complaint against affirmative action, claiming the policy discriminated against them, and had the numbers to prove it.

I don’t want to be too harsh on Hyunh, because she is living in an environment that encourages this kind of — dare I say it — non critical thinking.

She is joined by Megha Neelapu, another rising Penn senior.

“Affirmative action actually benefits the most marginalized within the Asian community, like Southeast Asians or Pacific Islanders, and that goes underdiscussed.”

Is she saying the very large minority of Asian students at Penn got there because of affirmative action? The Asians filing the law suit believe Asians got in despite affirmative action.

I have no doubt universities are knocking themselves out trying to figure a way around the Supreme Court’s ruling.