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Racial Stratification Essay, Research Paper

Racial Stratification

There are several levels of racial stratification in post secondary education. One level is the heirarchy in these institutions of differing prestige that has been augmented by the collapse of affirmative action. America s top universities and colleges have utilized race-sensitive admission policies to increase the number of black, Hispanic, Chicano, Native American and other minority races for over three decades.

From the inception of affirmative action, conservative politicians and writers attacked this policy, and most recently the same rhetoric was used to dismantle affirmative action programs. The University of California announced that race would not be taken into consideration fin admissions policies, in 1995, where a 14-10 vote was cast by the regents of the university. In 1996, California voters approved Proposition 209, which prohibited any state institution can discriminate against, or grand prefrential treatment to, any individual group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethncity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting.” The wording of the entire text was deceptive and was quite different from the referendum in Texas that was voted against because in Texas the wording stated “affirmative action” rather than “preferential treatment.” California has been known in the past to be a

progressively “good” state to live in for minorities and Texas had been the “bad” state for minorities to live in, though with the past California Governor Wilson, that quickly was reversed.

By the following year at the Boalt Hall law school at Berkley, the top law school in California, enrolled only 1 black student, instead of the 24 black students enrolled for almost three decades. In Texas, the Texas Law school had previously enrolled 31 black students, only 4 black students were enrolled in 1997. Critics of affirmative action have argued that the affirmative action program hurt race relations within these higher learning institutions, rather than improved race relations. These critics also state that they have had to lower their admission standards to accept students who are not capable of benefitting from the education they receive, but further examination of this assertion must be reviewed.

The fruits of affirmative action have ripened for thirty years and without a doubt affirmative action has produced more successful black businessmen, proffessionals and community leaders. Although as studies have shown, when considering incomes as a primary factor, that black males who graduated from top universities with test scores equal to their white male counterparts in these same universities that white males found better paying jobs than did the black male graduates. A concrete statistic to refute those critics who avow that race should no longer be considered in admission policies and for those critics who have

exhaustively countered that racism is no longer alive in America.

The study, called the River study, showed that these same black males that graduated from the top universities fared a lot better and found better paying jobs than the black students from lesser known and prestigious universities. Black women who graduated from the top universities earned an average of 73 percent more than the average black women with a BA from other colleges. “While graduation from a selective college hardly guarantees a successful career, it may open doors, help black matriculants overcome any negative stereotypes that may still be held by some employers and create opportunities not otherwise available,” states Bowen and Bok.

It is proof positive that not only did the black male and female students benefit from graduating from a selective university, but this proved that these minority students were “fit” to attend the selective universities. If these minority students had not been “fit” to attend these institutions, they would have not been able to obtain or keep their well-paid jobs in business, law and medicine. Their education and ability allow them to offer valuable service to their employers and this is evident in the number of professionals in law, politics, medicine, science and the arts. Income is not the only indicator that affirmative action was successful in its goals.

From these selective institutes, black men are more involved with civic and community services than white men. This is in opposition from what

some critics have voiced their fear that an educated middle-class blacks would dispense with the concerns of the black communities. The River study shows that blacks have not shrugged off civic and community leadership when they have acquired success.

In 1989, when students were questioned how they would rank their college experience in improving their ability to “get along with” people of other races, 63 percent of whites and 70 percent of black marked “very important”. There was a 12 percent increase in the white students from the white students asked this question in 1976.

Critics of affirmative action have stated the negative impact of minority students in selective colleges that this merely augments racial tensions and causes racial isolation among the students. While black students comprised less than 10 percent of the student body in most of these selective colleges, when students were asked if they had “known well” two or more students that were different from themselves in the following areas, geographical, economical, and race, 56 percent answered in the affirmative.

Will the percentages of blacks in selective institutions be maintained without affirmative action and with race-neutral stardards utilized? The River study determines on a probability assertion, that a strict no-race admission policy

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