Kicking. Squealing.
I’m going to work backwards on a piece promoted by Jezebel written by a woman who offers a supposed take-down of UT affirmative action plaintiff Abigail Fisher. The piece is just asking to be raked over the coals. Evette Dionne writes at Clutch Magazine:
This leads to one conclusion: Affirmative action is not the issue. Now, before you attempt to bash me as another black woman benefiting from federal mandates, let me clarify: I scored a 1680 on the SAT and I was accepted into every undergraduate institution that I applied to. I graduated from Bennett College Summa Cum Laude and valedictorian with a 4.0 grade point average and I’m on a full ride merit-based fellowship for graduate school.
Let the record show that Bennett College is dog shit. The average GPA is 2.62. The average SAT-Math score is 387; the average SAT-Reading score is 389. By the way, average tuition is over $30k. These are horrific numbers; the average traditional SAT score at this school (to compare to Fisher as opposed to Dionne’s score which includes the writing section of the SAT) is 776. More than half of that score was earned just by showing up. So Dionne here didn’t attend the HBCU version of Harvard. I’ll admit that I’m using this as background to undermine anything this woman argues on the grounds that she believes that she’s “something” for having an objectively low SAT score and graduating from a school that even Phoenix Online University laughs at Joe Biden style.
Here’s how Dionne began her missive:
Dear Abigail Fisher,
Here is an apt forewarning: I am using this platform as a vehicle to communicate disbelief and subliminal rage. So, this open letter will not be imbued with false pleasantries intended to appease or uplift. Don’t expect an epistle steeped with ersatz compliments; it is not being written from a positive space of peace, light or love.
I am penning this missive because the vitriol coursing through my veins is inescapable. Rather than continuing to engage in unproductive Twitter rants, I am redirecting that caustic energy and utilizing this space instead.
Good, so at least we know that Dionne won’t be relying on facts or logic to make a nuanced argument about a highly contentious and long-running debate upon which the world’s most intelligent legal scholars remain divided. Dionne reminds us:
If affirmative action is gutted and substituted with “neutral-based admissions,” institutions will have the option to deny students access to the educational American Dream based on their ethnic background. Abigail, if the Supreme Court issues a verdict in your favor, you will be responsible for pushing this nation backward, into an era when blacks were met with venom at the steps of Ole Miss.
Chill the fuck out drama queen. This woman does her case no favors by comparing Ole Miss ’62 which held to a policy of not allowing blacks of any merit into the school compared the anti-affirmative action proposal that anyone of any race be allowed into a school as long as they deserve it. Ole Miss 1962 was not race blind, and neither is the current posture of UT 2012 though the lack of blindness in the former era has taken on the opposite texture in the modern era.
Dionne then goes critical race theory on us:
I’ve seen this time and time again. It is owed to the prevalence of white privilege, which leads to unwarranted entitlement. You do know what white privilege is, right?
It is a singular component of critical race theory that implies that whites view their social, economic, and cultural experiences as normative and universal rather than exclusive. White privilege was first addressed in W.E.B. DuBois’ 1935 classic, Black Reconstruction. You should indulge in it sometime.
Though she probably doesn’t know it, Dionne is presenting an argument made by many others who believe that Fisher does not have standing in this case because she could not possibly have suffered harm given the fact that she wouldn’t have been admitted to the university given her academic and extracurricular resume.
Vikram Amar laid it out best. In the case Associated General Contractors v. Jacksonville, Amar notes:
[A petitioner] can allege a valid injury based merely on the prospect of not being treated fairly by a process in which race is illegally considered.
Amar points out that another case, Lesage, complicates matters. If Fisher only seeks to redress what she considers a past wrong of her not being admitted, this may preclude her standing. This is all a very nuanced legal question which is why it is not cut and dry. Dionne spouts off as if she even gives thought to the fact that perhaps Fisher does have standing under a previous legal interpretation.
It should be mentioned that one plaintiff who was originally attached to the case has withdrawn over the past year. Rachel Michalewicz fell just outside of the 10% Rule, and scored a 1290 on her SAT, higher than the average for UT students. She also participated in marching band. Fisher scored an 1180. So let’s go over some numbers.
***
In Table 13 of the plaintiff’s reply to the case, it is shown that over 21% of black first-year students, 4.2% of Hispanic first-year students, 0.3% of white students, and 0% of Asian students believed that their race was the reason they were accepted to UT.
Looking at table 6, the score distribution from 2002-2003 (UT has not produced score data by race), white students who were not in the top 10% of their class had a 1236 average on the SAT. Black students had an average of 1079. Fisher would have fallen in the 70th percentile of non-10% students in the black cohort; Michalewicz would have been in the 90th percentile. (Asians scored an average of 1242; Hispanics scored 1155).
So if Dionne is correct that Fisher did not merit a spot at UT, she’d have to also accept that most of the black and Hispanic students who are admitted to the school (who fall outside of the 10% program) do not deserve it either.
I’m not familiar with the new SAT scale, but I’m skeptical that Evette Dione scored a 1680, which sounds high. She isn’t a very good writer and her article shows major holes in her logic. For instance, this sentence:
“If affirmative action is gutted and substituted with “neutral-based admissions,” institutions will have the option to deny students access to the educational American Dream based on their ethnic background.”
“scored a 1680, which sounds high.”
out of 2400…writing section was introduced in 2005
“The average SAT-Math score is 387; the average SAT-Reading score is 389. ”
100 difference on SAT is supposedly one SD, 500 being about average.
” if Dionne is correct that Fisher did not merit a spot at UT, she’d have to also accept that most of the black and Hispanic students who are admitted to the school (who fall outside of the 10% program) do not deserve it either.”
Heh, no…she believes the black students do deserve it. The theory is that the black students only did badly on their tests and grades because they had to deal with a huuuge burden of racism grinding them down 24/7. Otherwise they would have scored higher than the white students (obviously).
Chuck, THIS STORY is up your alley: a white female homeowner in Detroit is forced to live with a squatter. At superficial scan, she is a white SWPL single mother. Her kid may or may not be mixed, hard to tell. The squatter is almost certainly black. The white female homeowner says “I fight for affordable housing.”
LOL, that last bit is right up Whorefinder’s piquantly-expressed Schadefeude for liberals.
(at closer read the homeowner may or may be a liberal. The “affordable housing” quote may have been uttered by the squatter – on the run, no time to read closely at this tme)
1680 out of 2400?
?????
Pathetic
“Looking at table 6, the score distribution from 2002-2003″
I thought the case was that old. One comment at jezebel:
“UT Austin did not consider the writing section in its undergraduate admissions decision for the 2008 incoming freshman class.”
Unsilenced Science has some good graphs of SAT scores:
http://theunsilencedscience.blogspot.in/2012/04/sat-bell-curve.html
and the other Chuck:
http://occidentalascent.wordpress.com/
A 1680 must include the written portion as well. So that means her average score per section is about 560 per section. Or a 1120, when compared to Fisher. Not exactly a rocket science. By comparison, my sons scored in the 1380′s for 2 sections.
Which is aligned with the IQ testing we gave them when both my wife and I were in graduate school.
When will these whiners learn that just because College A doesn’t let you in that you’re not being denied an opportunity for an education? You may not be able to study at UT or USC, but the door is no doubt open to you a lot of other (less selective) institutions. The local Mercedes dealership may turn down my offer for one of their convertibles, but doesn’t mean I can’t find a different car to drive.
The first paragraph of that letter was just dreadful; awkward and unnecessarily flowery prose. She needs to put away the thesaurus. Someone who got a 1680/2400 on the SAT is unlikely to be throwing around words like “imbued”, “epistle”, “ersatz”, “missive”, “vitriol”, or “caustic”, let alone using them all in one paragraph. Plus, she misused the word “subliminal”, which is probably only about the eighth most challenging word in the part Chuck quoted. If her rage is subliminal, i.e. subconscious, how is she communicating it in a letter?
There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of the words she used, it’s just that when you encounter all of them in a single paragraph it makes it look like the author is trying too hard to impress you. Of course, she’s probably not bright enough to realize that.
Saint Louis:
She probably meant to use “subliminated”, which is still wrong, because she’s writing a pissed off letter rather than appealing to evidence or logic.
Yeah, it reads like she was using a thesaurus.
you bastards just wait until whites become a minority
then you will see what it is like to deal with institutionalized racism and discrimination
Anti-Racist we want to repeat our question to you. Where do uppity people of yellow color fit in promoting Justice. And how do Women of Color punish the white female.
Smilez_920
October 11, 2012 at 9:15 am
This is what happens when a) kids don’t know history b) when kids aren’t taught that they will not always get their way. In life you don’t always get what you want. Sometimes you get something better and sometimes you get nothing at all.
A) If this girl is so darn smart and qualified , she would know that the women’s movement and the social rights movement mirrored each other on certain platforms. White women have been one a the major beneficiaries of afrimitive action. People fail to mention that on applications ( college and jobs) that they just don’t mention race but also sex for that reason.
B) how can she just assume that afrimitive action ( which she unknowingly is a beneficiary of ) is the reason she wasn’t chosen. How does she know another white women with red hair had the same or better GPA didn’t get chosen over her. Heck maybe a white man was chosen over her. Schools choose students by a number of qualifications. The person who was choose over her could have been smarter. more well rounded, was a legacy of the school. Heck maybe their GPA wasn’t as high as yours but they wrote a great college application essay. Or maybe they did pick a black person over you, and if they did “SO THE FU)K WHAT” . Maybe that black person was smarter than you, more well rounded , was admitted into the school because of the major the choose .
These kids today think because they work hard that , that automatically means you should get everything you want. Sorry that’s not how life works. I hope she reads this comment . Idk how it will get to her but I hope it gets to her. As a 22 yr old college grad trust I went through the ins and outs of the college application process . Sometimes you get into your dream school and sometimes you don’t .
This is what happens when a ppl become the poster child /scapegoat for afrimitive action . If your not a White male , there’s a chance that you might have been helped by Affrmative action. Also we need to rid this myth that people have that afrimitive action is getting unqualified black ppl jobs . Heck if anything afrimitive action doesn’t get us anything , it helps us get our foot in the door just like a lot of minority groups ( that include women of all race , religion and creed).
Anti-Racist listen to your Soldiers. hawaians like white boy spike refuse to Respect Dark Color. Your knowledge is wanted. Too much uppity light color bucks Justice.
Yes, I immediately thought that Ms. Dionne was using a thesaurus and trying to hard to sound intelligent. It weakens whatever it is she’s trying to say. I once had a black boss (government job, ya know) who was always reaching for some important-sounding word whenever he spoke. It was painful to listen to him.
Yep – you have to love the language used. It’s absolutely typical: the half-smart negro raiding the thesaurus, only to come across like a dimwit’s idea of what an educated person sounds like. It’s a torrent of tin-eared semi-malapropisms that more than once manages to evoke Kingfish at his most hilarious.
Minorities think that in the bad old days of racism whites somehow got jobs and scholarships simply for “being white.” We just showed up and got chosen, cuz we were lily white. As in, gee you are really, really white, practically albino, forget the interview, you’re qualified, you’re hired! This never, ever happened. Nobody hired the first white person who walked in the door. We competed against each other. When minorities achieved civil rights they earned the right to compete against everybody else, nothing more.
Anti-racist: I really appreciate your sharing with us your term “afrimitive” action– a brilliant portmanteau of “African” and “primitive.” Some things, like chicken and waffles, just naturally go together.
@anti-racist -
“This is what happens…when kids aren’t taught that they will not always get thir way.”
Could you start teaching black kids that they won’t always get their way? ‘Cause when they don’t get their way they scream about dis respect and shoot somebody.
then you will see what it is like to deal with institutionalized racism and discrimination
We already do.
That’s not what “Civil Rights” are though. They already had that right before “Civil Rights”. Civil Rights eliminates the rights of others in choosing their own cohort, which was their entire purpose. That entails non-competition, or at least competition on merits determined by the government.
White students that don’t get into college despite being better at academics compared to less qualified blacks ‘failed’ at the ‘competition’ for this resource because they didn’t have enough meritorious blackness to ‘succeed’ which is 100% what “Civil Rights” is about and 100% what they were intended to do.
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