By Walter E. Williams
Amy Wax, a University of Pennsylvania law professor, has come
under attack and scathing criticism because she dared criticize the school's
racial preferences program.
In an interview with Brown University economist
Glenn Loury, discussing affirmative action, Wax mentioned how racial
preferences hinder the ability of blacks to succeed academically by admitting
them into schools at which they are in over their heads academically.
At
UPenn's seventh-ranked law school, Wax said, she doesn't think that she has
ever seen a black law student graduate in the top quarter of his class, and
"rarely" is a black student in the top half.
That got her into deep trouble.
UPenn students and
faculty members charged her with racism. UPenn Law School Dean Ted Ruger
stripped Wax of her duty of teaching her mandatory first-year class on civil
procedures.
I'm guessing that UPenn's law faculty members know Wax's statement
is true but think it was something best left unsaid in today's racially charged
climate.
Ruger might have refuted Wax's claim. He surely has access to student
records. He might have listed the number of black law students who were
valedictorians and graduated in the top 10 percent of their class. He
rightfully chose not to -- so as to not provide evidence for Wax's claim.
One study suggests that Wax is absolutely right about
academic mismatch.
In the early 1990s, the Law School Admission Council
collected 27,000 law student records, representing nearly 90 percent of
accredited law schools.
The study found that after the first year, 51
percent of black law students ranked in the bottom tenth of their class,
compared with 5 percent of white students. Two-thirds of black students were in
the bottom fifth of their class. Only 10 percent of blacks were in the top half
of their class. Twenty-two percent of black students in the LSAC database
hadn't passed the bar exam after five attempts, compared with 3 percent of
white test takers.
The University of Pennsylvania controversy highlights
something very important to black people and the nation. The K-12 education
that most blacks receive is grossly fraudulent.
Most predominately black
schools are costly yet grossly inferior to predominately white schools and are
in cities where blacks hold considerable political power, such as Baltimore,
Detroit, Chicago and Philadelphia.
In these and other cities, it's not
uncommon for there to be high schools where less than 17 percent of the
students test proficient in reading, and often not a single student in such
schools tests proficient in math. Nonetheless, many receive high school
diplomas.
It's inconceivable that college
administrators are unaware that they are admitting students who are
ill-prepared and have difficulty performing at the college level.
There's no way that four or five years of college can repair the academic
damage done to black students throughout their 13 years of primary and
secondary education. Partial proof is black student performance at the
postgraduate level, such as in law school.
Their disadvantage is exaggerated
when they are admitted to prestigious Ivy League law schools.
It's as if you
asked a trainer to teach you how to box and the first fight he got you was with
Anthony Joshua or Floyd Mayweather. You might have the potential to ultimately
be a good boxer, but you're going to get your brains beaten out before you
learn how to bob and weave.
The fact that black students have low class rankings at
such high-powered law schools as UPenn doesn't mean that they are stupid or
uneducable.
It means that they've been admitted to schools where they are in
over their heads.
To admit these students makes white liberals feel better
about themselves. It also helps support the jobs of black and white university
personnel in charge of diversity and inclusion.
The question for black people
is whether we can afford to have the best of our youngsters demeaned, degraded
and possibly destroyed to make white liberals feel better about themselves.
You
might ask, "Williams, without affirmative action, what would the
University of Pennsylvania Law School do about diversity and inclusion?"
I'd
say that's UPenn's problem.
