Affirmative Action and Sowell's "Inside American Education" • Part 4
Apr 24, 2022
01:34:00
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Quick takeaways
Affirmative action policies harm their intended beneficiaries by creating a mismatch between students and institutions, leading to lower graduation rates, insecurity, and imposter syndrome among minority students.
Affirmative action policies create double standards in grading and behavior, leading to resentment among white students and feelings of intellectual inferiority among black students.
Affirmative action can delegitimize the accomplishments of black scholars and result in lower graduation rates due to the mismatch created between students and institutions.
Deep dives
The Goals and Effects of Affirmative Action Policies
Affirmative action policies aim to increase racial minority representation in colleges, benefit the minority groups, promote diversity on campuses, and create a fairer society. However, Thomas Sowell argues that these policies actually harm their intended beneficiaries by creating a mismatch between students and institutions, leading to lower graduation rates, insecurity, and imposter syndrome among minority students. Additionally, Sowell claims that affirmative action fosters resentment among white students, increases shifting of majors among minority students, and diverts focus from educational goals to political activism.
The Mismatching Effect and Its Consequences
Affirmative action policies lead to a mismatch of students with colleges, where minority students are placed in institutions where their academic performance is lower than that of their peers. This can result in a sense of insecurity, anxiety, and failure among the minority students. Sowell highlights that misplacement exacerbates the psychological consequences, as students struggle to keep up and experience self-doubt. Moreover, the shifting effect causes a cascade through tiers of colleges, while the bottom tiers end up admitting minority students who may not be prepared for college education.
Double Standards and Resentment
Affirmative action policies create double standards in grading and behavior, leading to resentment among white students. Sowell explains that minority students may receive favorable treatment in grading, additional support, and reduced course loads. This disparity in treatment fosters resentment and feelings of intellectual superiority among white students and intellectual inferiority among black students. Furthermore, double standards extend to minority faculty, who may face self-esteem challenges in comparison to colleagues from top-tier institutions.
Criticisms and Concerns about Affirmative Action
Critics argue that affirmative action may be a top-down solution that does not effectively address the root causes of educational disparities. They contend that focusing on equitable education from the early stages could eliminate the need for affirmative action. Some also express concerns about the potential for mismatching students and institutions, the de-legitimization of real accomplishments, and the perpetuation of stereotypes and divisions among different groups.
Affirmative Action Delegitimizing Black Scholars' Accomplishments
Thomas Sowell highlights that affirmative action can delegitimize the accomplishments of black scholars, as seen in the recent appointment of Katanji Brown Jackson to the US Supreme Court. Sowell suggests that affirmative action policies undermine the real achievements of black scholars and can be viewed as a form of discrimination.
Mismatching and Lower Graduation Rates
Sowell explains the concept of mismatching, where affirmative action can lead to lower graduation rates. He provides examples, such as at the University of California at Berkeley, where black students, who have the qualifications to succeed, are placed in an environment where they are set up to fail. This results in rendering these students as mere diversity statistics and not supporting their actual success.
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In this episode, we turn our attention to Chapter 6 of Thomas Sowell’s 1993 book “Inside American Education.” Sowell named the chapter “New Racism and Old Dogmatism” and his focus there was to analyze the real world effects of affirmative action policies which began in America in the 1960’s.
Sowell makes a very surprising and counter-intuitive argument in this chapter; namely, that affirmative action policies, also called preferential admissions policies, don’t actually benefit the people they are intended to help. Sowell makes the claim that these policies not only harm their intended beneficiaries but that they also set in motion a series of incentives and constraints which harm the university system as well as society in general.
This episode includes: • A summary of Chapter 6; • Interviews with students on campus of an elite Los Angeles University; • Clips from other Sowell books, Sowell interviews and other podcasters.
Notes: • Here's a LINK to the full Chapter 6 of the book so you can read it for yourself; • Here's a LINK to the MIT announcement referred to in the podcast; • Here's a LINK to the Rush song played in the episode, and HERE are the full lyrics. • Our updated listener statistics to the podcast can be found HERE.
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