RadixJournal - June 30, 2023


Affirmative Action and Its Discontents


Episode Stats

Length

19 minutes

Words per Minute

131.93352

Word Count

2,572

Sentence Count

186

Misogynist Sentences

5

Hate Speech Sentences

18


Summary

In the wake of the Roe v. Wade decision by the Supreme Court, we take a look at the history of affirmative action at U.S. colleges and universities, and how it relates to abortion rights and abortion access in general.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Let me set up the background a little bit for affirmative action.
00:00:04.780 I have read the syllabus of the decision, so I have read quite a bit of it, but it was remarkably long.
00:00:13.260 It's a huge issuance from the court on this matter, and I'll try to go into some details.
00:00:22.240 I have some, I guess, some somewhat surprising takes on this.
00:00:27.620 One thing that I find interesting is that I remember last May being in Dallas, Texas, actually,
00:00:36.460 and I was at the airport, and the leaked decision on Roe v. Wade had been issued.
00:00:47.480 As it turns out, what was leaked in the final decision were all but identical.
00:00:53.780 I don't even know if there's any change whatsoever.
00:00:57.620 And there was a kind of, it was a bit like a 9-11 moment in a way.
00:01:04.720 Like there was, I think people were getting these messages on their phones, and there was surprise.
00:01:12.380 I mean, again, maybe this is all me in my head or something, but it just seemed like there was a little bit of surprise, alarm,
00:01:20.880 maybe joy with some people, but just a kind of sense that something had happened.
00:01:27.100 And obviously what we saw afterwards were the protesting of the justices' homes and just all of this outrage.
00:01:35.580 I don't think we're going to see anything like that actually involved with affirmative action.
00:01:41.660 Much as roughly 65% of the country supports the basic outline of Roe v. Wade,
00:01:53.340 however they might call themselves, like, oh, I'm pro-life, or I'm pro-choice, or I'm pro-woman, or whatever.
00:01:59.940 All that's kind of virtue signaling.
00:02:02.740 Effectively, Roe v. Wade was very popular.
00:02:06.540 And so there was a lot of outrage.
00:02:09.440 And I think at the very least there's a sense that something impactful really happened.
00:02:14.700 Kind of the reverse is the case here.
00:02:17.040 So polling on this is pretty interesting.
00:02:20.000 It's roughly the amount of people who oppose affirmative action are pretty much the same amount of people who support abortion rights.
00:02:32.060 And it actually includes a lot of Democrats.
00:02:36.500 You know, it's interesting.
00:02:37.680 We actually live in a world in which affirmative action at universities is banned in certain states, California being one.
00:02:44.980 And that's a rather surprising thing.
00:02:46.280 There's a lot of right-wing insurgency going on in California in the 90s.
00:02:52.580 I can actually remember it quite well.
00:02:55.480 And one of those things was banning affirmative action.
00:02:59.640 And so there was actually a referendum to allow affirmative action, and it lost in a landslide.
00:03:07.280 So there's clearly no real public support.
00:03:10.500 And I think this is a place in which the Biden administration, which is claiming to disagree with this.
00:03:20.600 I think Biden said this is not a normal court, etc.
00:03:23.060 They actually are out of step with normie America on this one.
00:03:29.300 They weren't with abortion.
00:03:30.740 They probably aren't with a lot of things.
00:03:32.520 But they are out of step with this one.
00:03:34.200 So affirmative action has taken a long and twisted road.
00:03:43.900 Legally speaking, it's basically Bakke versus the regents of the University of California or something.
00:03:52.620 And then what was the last one called?
00:03:54.440 It was called Gruttinger, Gruttinger, something like that.
00:04:01.000 Basically, they were both done by plaintiffs that were white plaintiffs that were angry that they had not been allowed into these universities,
00:04:16.380 which, of course, carry quite a bit of weight, and they sued about being discriminated against racially that is protected with the Civil Rights Act and with the 14th Amendment, in fact.
00:04:28.760 And the last one, which I believe was called Gruttinger, someone correct me if I'm wrong,
00:04:36.980 that there was a kind of timestamp placed on it by Sandra Day O'Connor, who wrote the decision.
00:04:43.940 And she said, we're allowing this as one factor among many.
00:04:49.920 So you can't have outright racial quotas.
00:04:53.380 But we understand what you're trying to do here.
00:04:57.260 We basically agree with this notion, which is the background notion that really determines everything,
00:05:04.160 which is that there is a compelling interest for diversity to exist at these institutions.
00:05:09.720 But we think that within 25 years, this will no longer be necessary.
00:05:15.900 We will have reached a kind of new stage of American history of colorblindness or just a demographic change or whatever she meant by it.
00:05:24.080 But there was clearly a timestamp.
00:05:27.300 This is occurring within 25 years.
00:05:31.240 It's around 20 or a few more.
00:05:35.460 But the court said that, you know, we claim that there was a time, you know, expiration date on this.
00:05:43.760 And you all, that is Harvard and the University of North Carolina, have clearly made no effort whatsoever to end this.
00:05:50.280 And there is no reason to believe that this will end.
00:05:53.000 This is an entrenched institutional thing.
00:05:55.460 So I would say that overall, I am pleased.
00:06:05.120 I think that it is overall a good thing and all that jazz.
00:06:13.120 But I think that I have a couple more things to say on this.
00:06:22.640 First off, there are some loopholes.
00:06:25.780 So as many have been pointing out on Twitter, there is some notion of like you've overcome racial discrimination or, you know, you've lived in a place that is the wounds are still open of our past of slavery and Jim Crow, etc.
00:06:47.940 And you can put that in a essay.
00:06:52.040 And so that is a kind of loophole in a way to do it.
00:06:55.060 The other thing that I would point out is that I was just looking at some of the demographic facts and figures that are issued by these institutions.
00:07:06.420 So I looked at two schools.
00:07:10.300 I mean, it might be interesting to look at this more broadly.
00:07:14.040 But the fact is, these schools are so aware of one another and trends that I imagine you're just going to get the same figures.
00:07:23.100 So this is Princeton.
00:07:25.920 And I'll just look at undergraduates.
00:07:27.880 So whites are in the upcoming or, excuse me, in the current 2022 to 2023 class, whites are a plurality, but actually a distinct minority.
00:07:39.740 They are 41% of the student population underrepresented, let's say.
00:07:47.940 I'll just share the screen here so you guys can see the numbers.
00:07:51.240 But that is a remarkable thing at Princeton.
00:07:53.340 Now, Asians, who make up 6% of the population, are dramatically overrepresented at 28.
00:08:03.360 Blacks are a little bit underrepresented at 9%, although not terribly underrepresented.
00:08:09.520 And Hispanics are pretty significantly underrepresented.
00:08:13.500 Then you have this multiracial category.
00:08:16.060 How does that go?
00:08:17.240 Unknown.
00:08:17.860 So there's 10% of the class that's unknown or multiracial.
00:08:20.880 I don't know.
00:08:21.360 Maybe those are actually whites claiming my great-grandmother was Native American or something like that.
00:08:30.560 But then you have a somewhat similar case in UCLA.
00:08:33.960 So this is a place where affirmative action is banned outright.
00:08:41.100 It is illegal to, at the very least, use quotas, but also use race as a factor.
00:08:47.000 And I remember when I was a high schooler, UCLA was known as the University of Caucasians lost among Asians.
00:08:58.660 I think it might still have that nickname, although perhaps that's outmoded.
00:09:04.080 But as you can see here, Asians are 33%.
00:09:09.140 It's very similar.
00:09:10.800 So Asians are dramatically overrepresented at Princeton.
00:09:15.940 They're less so within the state of California.
00:09:18.320 UCLA, of course, has people from all around the country who go there, but it is a state college.
00:09:23.220 So it should, you know, look out for citizens of that state first.
00:09:29.660 But so I believe Asians are 16% to 20% of California, and they are higher, 33%.
00:09:38.820 Hispanics are, within the state of California, underrepresented, and whites are a quarter.
00:09:45.060 That is also underrepresented.
00:09:46.620 I think whites might be 35% to 40% of the state of California.
00:09:51.440 So there you go.
00:09:52.900 But what I would say about this is that there is no doubt that the UCLA is using some sort of affirmative action.
00:10:03.740 And I actually read an article on how the California schools are going to address this.
00:10:09.920 And you see Berkeley, which is another great state college in California, they're spending $12 million a year to promote African-American enrollment in some fashion.
00:10:25.200 The fact is, yes, we don't...
00:10:28.480 I mean, whenever conservatives address this, they're always like, we're against quotas or something.
00:10:33.480 Well, they haven't been using quotas for at least 30 years, probably going on 50 years.
00:10:39.760 That's not really the issue.
00:10:41.160 The issue is giving people a nudge in the application process.
00:10:45.660 And the other issue is, the other thing you'll hear from conservatives is, we want just pure meritocracy or something like that.
00:10:52.180 Well, what is that exactly?
00:10:55.160 Pure meritocracy.
00:10:56.680 That sounds like test-taking or GPA to me.
00:11:00.180 Now, GPA is a good measure, of course, but one that I think is actually something that we should be extremely skeptical of.
00:11:13.020 Getting a GPA, getting a 3.5 GPA at a really good prep school is extremely different than getting a 4.0 at some, you know, public school in a bad part of town, regardless of the race.
00:11:32.760 And it just is.
00:11:35.760 It is fundamentally different.
00:11:38.320 That person, he might be one or he or she might be one of those B students who kind of doesn't try quite hard enough, but is actually quite good and is well-educated.
00:11:50.000 Whereas, who knows what the GPA is of someone at a bad school?
00:11:56.260 I just remember being so infuriated when I was at University of Virginia, and I would talk to some of these people who went to public school in Virginia.
00:12:06.460 They did not know how to use a library.
00:12:09.040 They didn't understand the concept of research.
00:12:12.020 They were joking about how they would just watch the television.
00:12:17.300 I think they watched Raiders of the Lost Ark in history class.
00:12:21.500 It's just something that just insultingly dumb.
00:12:24.940 And they certainly weren't analyzing it or appreciating it.
00:12:28.380 They were just kind of watching it, you know, while their history teacher, you know, I don't know, answered emails or played solitaire on his computer.
00:12:36.840 I mean, it's just fundamentally different.
00:12:40.060 And so to make this like GPA thing meritocratic is ridiculous.
00:12:44.500 In Texas, there was something with George W. Bush when he was actually governor of if you I forgot what it was.
00:12:51.440 It's like if you're in the top 5% of your class, you automatically can get a spot at UT Austin.
00:12:56.720 And again, being top 5 in your class at Highland Park or St. Mark's or wherever where I went, that is just exceedingly different than being at the top of your class somewhere else.
00:13:11.700 So it's a kind of other form of affirmative action.
00:13:14.700 The other thing that I would say in terms of this meritocratic thing that conservatives, you know, say they love, all that is is test taking.
00:13:25.180 Now, is the SAT a good proxy for IQ, let's say?
00:13:32.480 Is the SAT also, to a much lesser degree, a good proxy for general knowledge?
00:13:41.860 Uh, kind of.
00:13:43.600 It is a good proxy for just test taking ability or just raw IQ intelligence.
00:13:48.460 Well, I hate to break the news to you, fellas, but if we do a pure meritocratic, that is pure SAT-based admission standard, it is going to be a whole lot of Asians.
00:14:05.540 I mean, I agree with the plaintiffs in this way.
00:14:10.400 Like, I think at UCLA, this is just my gut feeling, is that Asians are actually, they're being underrepresented, they're overrepresented, but I think they're being harmed by a certain, you know, results, outcome-based notion of, we don't want a school that is 75% Asian.
00:14:32.000 And if we did pure GPA and SAT score, that's what it would be.
00:14:36.280 And you could even argue that in this case, not in most cases, but in this case, whites would even be less represented if it's pure test taking.
00:14:48.200 Asians, really good at that.
00:14:50.600 And I would just say as a liberal arts type guy, that test taking is not everything, my friend.
00:14:59.820 I did pretty well at the SAT, and I did even better at the GRE.
00:15:04.520 But that does not define me.
00:15:08.820 And someone else who has my identical GRE score or whatever, I think we actually have very different personalities and very different interests and abilities and depth, let's say.
00:15:21.820 So I just don't buy this fascination with meritocratic system.
00:15:29.100 I don't think that's what's going to happen.
00:15:31.320 I think these schools will just have a more complicated and thus more nuanced and insidious version of affirmative action.
00:15:40.280 And they're going to create classes like this for, among other reasons, you don't want to see a UCLA campus where it's 75% Asian girls.
00:15:52.280 Also, these campuses maintain a 50-50 split between men and women, by the way.
00:15:58.700 That's also unnatural.
00:16:00.060 And it's unnatural in favor of men.
00:16:04.660 I think this is another topic, and it's something worth discussing.
00:16:10.840 But girls are doing a lot better than boys on GRE type stuff and SATs type stuff.
00:16:19.580 So when some of these Blacks tell you that – I remember so many Blacks always told me this.
00:16:26.660 They're like the greatest beneficiary of affirmative action are white women or whatever.
00:16:32.160 This is just nonsensical.
00:16:35.020 I mean, obviously, women benefited from the end of sex segregation.
00:16:38.960 I mean, of course.
00:16:40.220 But this is absolutely ridiculous.
00:16:42.740 Clearly, the greatest beneficiary of affirmative action are African-Americans.
00:16:48.220 That's who it's for.
00:16:49.580 You guys lucked out.
00:16:50.720 You're the political football of the century.
00:16:53.820 You're the suffering Jesus figure and poor little victim that everyone worries about.
00:17:00.960 And so they want to do recompense for the fact that granddaddy owned slaves by sending you to Harvard.
00:17:07.160 I mean, congratulations.
00:17:08.520 Affirmative action is solely for you.
00:17:10.540 Diversity and Blacks are two different things.
00:17:13.720 I think all of this affirmative action debate is ultimately how are we going to get Blacks into college.
00:17:20.640 That's all they're ultimately talking about.
00:17:22.840 They're spilling millions of pounds of ink on this subject.
00:17:27.800 Diversity is another situation.
00:17:29.660 Do we want a situation in which Indian immigrants, who I imagine don't think of the whole subcontinent of India, but like Indian immigrants, who I imagine are very high IQ and very good test takers and have a mother or father that's whipping them to study.
00:17:52.660 And Asians, who really excel at this kind of Mandarin environment.
00:17:58.500 I mean, East Asians are evolved to test taking.
00:18:04.180 I mean, literally, this is the ultimate expression of just Mandarinism.
00:18:08.640 And so what do you want?
00:18:11.820 Do you want more?
00:18:12.520 Like, we want real diversity or we want meritocracy or something.
00:18:16.560 That sounds to me like you're going to have a UCLA student body that is 65% female and 65% East Asian.
00:18:27.660 That's what it sounds like to me.
00:18:30.580 So, again, I think the court is kind of like catching up with things in many ways.
00:18:38.860 And I think the American public has not liked this for a while and are over it and they see it as not benefiting their own children.
00:18:49.460 It is inherently unfair, et cetera.
00:18:52.080 And I think the court is in a way responding to this.
00:18:55.000 But once again, like the conservative fantasies, I mean, in a way, thank God that these admissions officers are going to create some Byzantine way of maintaining racial balance, which they are.
00:19:12.720 Like, thank God for that, actually.
00:19:14.220 Because if we had pure meritocracy, so many of these well-rounded and deep white boys and girls would not be getting into these colleges.