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.
00:03:30.740They probably aren't with a lot of things.
00:03:32.520But they are out of step with this one.
00:03:34.200So affirmative action has taken a long and twisted road.
00:03:43.900Legally speaking, it's basically Bakke versus the regents of the University of California or something.
00:03:52.620And then what was the last one called?
00:03:54.440It was called Gruttinger, Gruttinger, something like that.
00:04:01.000Basically, they were both done by plaintiffs that were white plaintiffs that were angry that they had not been allowed into these universities,
00:04:16.380which, 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.
00:04:28.760And the last one, which I believe was called Gruttinger, someone correct me if I'm wrong,
00:04:36.980that there was a kind of timestamp placed on it by Sandra Day O'Connor, who wrote the decision.
00:04:43.940And she said, we're allowing this as one factor among many.
00:04:49.920So you can't have outright racial quotas.
00:04:53.380But we understand what you're trying to do here.
00:04:57.260We basically agree with this notion, which is the background notion that really determines everything,
00:05:04.160which is that there is a compelling interest for diversity to exist at these institutions.
00:05:09.720But we think that within 25 years, this will no longer be necessary.
00:05:15.900We will have reached a kind of new stage of American history of colorblindness or just a demographic change or whatever she meant by it.
00:06:25.780So 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.
00:06:52.040And so that is a kind of loophole in a way to do it.
00:06:55.060The 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.
00:09:52.900But what I would say about this is that there is no doubt that the UCLA is using some sort of affirmative action.
00:10:03.740And I actually read an article on how the California schools are going to address this.
00:10:09.920And 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.
00:10:56.680That sounds like test-taking or GPA to me.
00:11:00.180Now, GPA is a good measure, of course, but one that I think is actually something that we should be extremely skeptical of.
00:11:13.020Getting 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.
00:11:38.320That 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.
00:11:50.000Whereas, who knows what the GPA is of someone at a bad school?
00:11:56.260I 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.
00:12:06.460They did not know how to use a library.
00:12:09.040They didn't understand the concept of research.
00:12:12.020They were joking about how they would just watch the television.
00:12:17.300I think they watched Raiders of the Lost Ark in history class.0.99
00:12:21.500It's just something that just insultingly dumb.0.96
00:12:24.940And they certainly weren't analyzing it or appreciating it.0.98
00:12:28.380They 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.
00:12:36.840I mean, it's just fundamentally different.0.91
00:12:40.060And so to make this like GPA thing meritocratic is ridiculous.
00:12:44.500In Texas, there was something with George W. Bush when he was actually governor of if you I forgot what it was.
00:12:51.440It's like if you're in the top 5% of your class, you automatically can get a spot at UT Austin.
00:12:56.720And 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.
00:13:11.700So it's a kind of other form of affirmative action.
00:13:14.700The 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.
00:13:25.180Now, is the SAT a good proxy for IQ, let's say?
00:13:32.480Is the SAT also, to a much lesser degree, a good proxy for general knowledge?
00:13:43.600It is a good proxy for just test taking ability or just raw IQ intelligence.
00:13:48.460Well, 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.1.00
00:14:05.540I mean, I agree with the plaintiffs in this way.
00:14:10.400Like, 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.1.00
00:14:32.000And if we did pure GPA and SAT score, that's what it would be.
00:14:36.280And 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.
00:15:08.820And 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.
00:15:21.820So I just don't buy this fascination with meritocratic system.
00:15:29.100I don't think that's what's going to happen.
00:15:31.320I think these schools will just have a more complicated and thus more nuanced and insidious version of affirmative action.
00:15:40.280And 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.1.00
00:15:52.280Also, these campuses maintain a 50-50 split between men and women, by the way.
00:17:29.660Do 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.1.00
00:17:52.660And Asians, who really excel at this kind of Mandarin environment.
00:17:58.500I mean, East Asians are evolved to test taking.1.00
00:18:04.180I mean, literally, this is the ultimate expression of just Mandarinism.0.91
00:18:52.080And I think the court is in a way responding to this.
00:18:55.000But 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.0.56
00:19:14.220Because if we had pure meritocracy, so many of these well-rounded and deep white boys and girls would not be getting into these colleges.0.94