Basic affirmative action doesn't ensure diversity

[Draggingtree]

statesman.com:

 

Basic affirmative action doesn't ensure diversity

Edward Blum, Special Contributor

 

This fall, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Abigail Noel Fisher v. the University of Texas, a case that will revisit the use of race-based affirmative action in college admissions. At issue is whether the University of Texas should have reintroduced racial and ethnic preferences to its admissions formula in 2005 even though the well-established top 10 percent plan was succeeding in enrolling significant numbers of minorities without considering their skin color or ethnic heritage. The case is sure to generate lots of debate, which, if thoughtful and reasoned, should be welcomed in our state and nation.

At the heart of this debate lies a fundamental question: Under what circumstances, if any, should a governmental unit be allowed to give a preference to someone based upon her skin color?

The question in Fisher is directed to university admissions policies, but it applies to employment and public contracting policies, as well.

During the past three decades, as different lower courts have tried to sort out the right answers to this question, they have sometimes produced a body of jurisprudence at war with itself. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court and our Constitution are very clear — and strict — about the use of race by government entities: "good" and "bad" racial classifications and preferences are in the eye of the beholder, so any use of race at all must be for the most extraordinary and critically important reasons. And before resorting to these racial preference policies, government must first try to achieve its objective using a race-neutral means.

Blum, a 1973 graduate of the University of Texas, is a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and the director of the Project on Fair Representation.