OPINION: How Affirmative Action Hurts Blacks - 'Mismatch' Is A Real Thing

("exam" by Karl Baron via Flickr)

As UT-Tyler takes on consideration for socioeconomic status, the interest in race and in racial groups increases as it also comes under pressure to support a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) culture. Thankfully, DEI (or JEDI) is no longer a part of the university’s strategic plan. However, popular acceptance of DEI leads to considerations for identity groups, including racial ones and also to looking at others through their skin color, rather through their character and individual characteristics. 

Along with this concern, comes an interest in “doing something” for presumably oppressed groups. Affirmative action is just such a thing. It’s the policy that gives Blacks preferential treatment, usually in college admissions, when selecting who can receive admission to a prestigious school. Harvard does it. Yale does it. It is a popular way for universities—as well as employers or other entities—to claim that they are “doing something” for oppressed Blacks. 

By affirmative action, these institutions are restoring the years lost to the Black community through decades of racial discrimination, affirmative action proponents say.

However, affirmative action comes at a cost to Black people. As opponents of the policy claim, affirmative programs end up creating significant challenges for under-prepared Blacks who enter high or above average performing schools. These students are “mismatched”, as the theory goes, and they undergo significant, detrimental challenges.

Hear The Manhattan Institute’s Robert VanBruggen describe a mismatched student’s likely plight:

“Classes in rigorous fields at top schools often move quickly, with professors simply assuming that students have the background knowledge and abilities needed to keep up. Mismatched students may fall behind, and thus end up learning less than they might have at a less demanding school. Overwhelmed, they might also switch to an easier major or drop out entirely. Virtually everyone agrees that such effects would be expected at some level of unpreparedness. (Italics his.) Another mismatch skeptic, Matthew M. Chingos, notes: “One would not expect a barely literate high school dropout to be successful at a selective college; admitting that student to such an institution could cause them to end up deep in debt with no degree.”

While there may be considerable benefits to Affirmative Action for some students, it is difficult to perceive (at least, for this author) how an environment stacked against any student in such a tremendous way helps him. I know the adversity places a demand on his potential perhaps, but sometimes, as I have seen even in my own life, there is only so much growth that can occur within a specific time period.

Moreover, even when I learn through adversity, it still comes at a cost. In the higher education scenario, the costs of these tremendous opportunities are very high. It is unfair for the process to stack itself against Black students – or any student—when it is more likely than not to result in their dropout, debt or prolonged discouragement. Affirmative Action make success unnecessarily difficult for many Blacks who are subject to Affirmative Action. Such treatment is inhumane and unnecessary for prosperity. 

On the other hand, there are some considerations for the mismatch theory that say that its affect does not always end in the Black student’s demise. 

More from VanBruggen:

“It is also important to note that mismatched students are self-selected—they choose to go to schools where most students have higher qualifications than their own, believing that they are up for the challenge—or, at least, that the risk of failure is worth it for the chance at a superior credential. Students deciding where to apply to school can very easily look up any school’s typical SAT and ACT scores. A student does not show up at Yale and only then realize that most other students achieved higher test scores than he did.”

It is unlikely that one theory has a one-size-fits-all impact on all students of affirmative action in higher education. There may be exceptions to the mismatch effects and it is important remember that there may be situations in which the individual does overcome the challenges.

Nevertheless, more likely than not, it is difficult not to see how affirmative action results in mismatch and how for many of those students who change majors, gain substantial debt or even drop out, these experiences have a costly outcome.

I conclude that overall Affirmative Action is an unjust intrusion into the individual’s life that yields unfair disadvantages and unnecessary difficulties towards prosperity for Black students. It hurts the very Black students it claims to serve. UT-Tyler should in no way consider affirmative programs as a service to minority students. The intrusion that is affirmative action hurts Blacks. The university should never give in to Progressive claims that it helps them.

Twitter: @Jhescock12

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Feature Image: "exam" by Karl Baron via Flickr