Monday, January 4, 2016

Adjusting the Race Lottery

Remember that you are an Englishman, and have consequently won first prize in the lottery of life.
― Cecil Rhodes, 1853-1902

It's easy to see the benefits of being born in America and not a third world country. There are also benefits to being born white in America. If you've never had that thought, then that's as good a description of white privilege as any.
― On my reading Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, 2016

I strongly support diversity of all kinds, including racial diversity in higher education. The method used by the University of Michigan to achieve this goal is fundamentally flawed and amounts to a quota system that unfairly rewards or penalizes prospective students solely on their race.
— President George W. Bush, speaking against affirmative action in college admissions, January 16, 2003

Using just the kind of point system that Mr. Bush now derides as quotas, Andover gave George three extra points on a 20-point scale for being the son of an alumnus. That's a higher percentage than a Michigan applicant gets for being black.
— Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, discussing George W. Bush's admission to Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, January 24, 2003

His SAT's of 566 verbal and 640 math were far below the median scores for students in his Yale class: 668 verbal and 718 math. But in the end, having a Yale pedigree, a grandfather on the Yale board and a Texas background bounced him into the entering class. . . How can we evaluate the justice of preferences that favor blacks without considering preferences that benefit whites (legacy), athletes (football players), the wealthy (children of donors), and farm kids from Oregon (me when I applied to colleges).
— Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, discussing George W. Bush's admission to Yale, January 24, 2003

Jim Hightower’s great line about Bush, “Born on third and thinks he hit a triple,” is still painfully true. Bush has simply
never acknowledged that not only was he born with a silver spoon in his mouth — he’s been eating off it ever since.
MOLLY IVINS, "The Uncompassionate Conservative," Mother Jones, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2003