A Call to (Affirmative) Action

America likes its movies loud and its food c a n t s based on race-neutral LSAT scores and fast. I t likes headlines and buzz-words. G P A s . only three percent of black applicants Mostly, though. it likes itself. I t likes to like w o u l d be accepted (down from 26 percent). itself. America likes results, and, at least ' r h e percentage of successful white applicasuperficially, it gets them. t i o n s would remain at 26 percent. But Americans are in denial. We've been S o , how do we step out from under the unable to transcend racism and other shame- s h a d o w of Hopwood? A t UT law school, the rut legacies because we're unwilling to con- f o c u s has shifted from race to the more palatfront them. W e ignore unpleasant facts and a b l e idea of socioeconomic status. T h e bad glorify the "success" of shallow responses. n e w s is that like many things that are politiStill, under layers of politically correct Ian- c a l l s ' correct, this idea is strikingly incorrect. guage. America remains a country where P e o p l e aren't black because they're poor. race matters. A l l too often, they're poor because they're Across the nation, affirmative action pro- b l a c k . W e didn't hear secret recordings of grams for blacks, Hispanics, Asians and T e x a c o executives demeaning poor people: American Indians are under attack. Last w e heard them demean minorities. Now, if year, Hopwood became the longest four-letter d i s c r i m i n a t i o n based on race is what we're word in Texas when the case by that name b a t t l i n g , why should our focus shift to socioebanned the race-based admissions process at c o n o m i c status? the University of Texas law school. A n d the B e s i d e s , it's unclear whether this kind of California radical initiative of the year award a f f i r m a t i v e action would achieve the desired went to Proposition 209, which eliminated r e s u l t s . Because the poorest minority candimost forms of "preferential treatment" on the d a t e s have the lowest combined GPA and basis of race. L S A T scores, the group of minority students admitted this way would be "significantly" less qualified than under race-based affirmative action. The numbers show that the old system of I r a c e b a s e d preferences works. M i n o r i t y law students pass the bar exam a t credible rates,

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Journal of the American MedicaLAssociation a study published this month in the found that students receiving admissions preferences graduated at the same high rates and had similar career paths as their white medical school counterparts. The Hopwood court said that there is only O f course, affirmative action based on race one justification for racial classifications: i s not a complete solution to America's racist remedying past wrongs (i.e., i f you missed out l e g a c y. O u r goal should be to create inneron institutionalized segregation, you're out of c i t y and rural schools that our politicians luck). w o u l d be willing to send their children to. The court was rightwe must right the U n t i l then, race-based affirmative action wrongs of yesterday. B u t the wrongs of today w o n ' t be a necessary evil. I t will just be necare equally compelling. T h e truth is that e s s a r y . inner-city students and the children of ' I t is true that some white males have been migrant farmworkers don't get the same edu- h u r t by affirmative action. T h i s is acceptcation that most white students get in public a b l e , for now. O u r nation isn't colorblind, schools. a n d , in a sense, neither is our Constitution. And i f you think our country has rid itself of S u p r e m e Court Justice Thurgood Marshall racism and discrimination, you are mistaken. o n c e said, "There's not a white man in this In 1995, Pennsylvania documented 64 exist- c o u n t r y who can say, 'I never benefited by ing white supremacist groups in that state b e i n g white,' T h e r e ' s not a white man in the alone. I n the same year, data showed that 96 c o u n t r y who can say it." percent of all government contracts went to I concur. white males. For those who suffer from "reverse discrim- I s a a c Ruiz is a first-year law student. ination," my question is, how big a piece of T h e views expressed in this column are , R u l z a n d

the American pie do you want? The rest of t h o s e of the author and not necessarily those us are hungry. o f The Observer.
A study reported in The National Law Journal earlier this year found that if law schools around the country selected appli-