With the trifecta of power held by the Democrats here in Washington (Governor, Senate and House), the pro-Affirmative Action types are warming up their arguments to deny the voters their state funded schools be free from the Affirmative Action schemes we voted away back in 1998,
1968 was a year of hope for African Americans wanting to study at the University of Washington.
Student leader Larry Gossett, now a King County councilman, helped lead a spring sit-in that persuaded administrators to throw open the UW’s doors to black students. Gossett and others fanned out across the state and recruited 127 black freshmen by the fall, tripling total black enrollment.
But nearly 40 years later, with a student body that has grown by one-quarter to almost 40,000, the reality of black enrollment at the UW has failed to live up to that early promise. This academic year, there are just 118 black freshmen in a class of nearly 5,000, the lowest number since 1999 and fewer even than when Gossett was recruiting.
The article goes on, insinuating either racism or ‘unfairness’ in the student selection process all the way throughout.
But it never accounts for how many black students apply or the percentage of those applicants who are accepted and even goes so far as to urge more ‘recruiting’ of black students.
Which leads me to ask: How racist is it to recruit based on color?
It doesn’t even mention how many qualified black high school graduates there are.
Since the vast majority of blacks in WA go to public schools, that might mean admitting that public schools suck. Especially in Seattle.
I had several black friends at UW when I attended. Also, every black student in my high school graduating class went on to college. I learned something from observing their friends who were not going to college.
This isn’t an issue of racism, classism, or whateverism. I would venture to say that 50% of the Asian students at UW are in the same economic tier that most potential black students would be in, and white students are hovering around that level as well. At UW, a black student basically has to show up and he’ll get in; keeping up is another issue.
All of the black students that I knew came from educated families, or at least families that VALUED EDUCATION. They were not from broken homes. Their parents did not tolerate BS of any kind. They valued hard work and sacrificed for their families. The kids knew this.
These same individuals’ non-student friends who were black fell into two tiers, as far as I could determine– one group was busy working and living life and didn’t want to interrupt that with college. I can respect that. That’s no “failing”. I wouldn’t be surprised if several of these guys have received more education at this point in their lives. The other group were individuals that did not take life seriously, did not take school seriously, and did not take work seriously. They wanted money but they didn’t want to sacrifice for it. Etc etc etc. I’ve known more spoiled middle class white kids that fit this category than black kids, but who knows.