How Short-term Thinking on Race Has Caused Long-term Problems in Higher Education
Don’t get me wrong on this: I believe those who originated these policies were well meaning. They wanted to integrate more African Americans into the mainstream as quickly as possible. They thought they were trying to get beyond race. But there were early warning signs that race-preferential admissions policies were causing students to become preoccupied with race rather than get beyond it. Those warnings were largely ignored.
One such warning came from the demands—starting in the late 1960s—for racial separatism on campus. African American students who were part of affirmative action programs at schools like Cornell, MIT and Yale demanded separate dormitories. As time went on the demands included separate student lounges, and separate graduation ceremonies, and sometimes specially designed academic departments or programs.
Bad sign. Things were going in the opposite direction from what was intended—and would eventually devolve into demands for safe spaces.
In a way we can all understand why one university after another gave into such calls. Saying yes is so much easier than saying no. It keeps the peace. Saying yes to pressure for further race-preferential admissions and faculty hiring was also easy. But it has created long-term problems that are harder to solve now than they would have been decades ago. Not surprisingly, the demands for separate dorms and lounges, and safe spaces spread to Latino students, American Indian students and now Asian students too.
Here’s the most important point I want to make tonight: Some people think that given all the affirmative action that has occurred over the last 50-plus years, our current preoccupation with race is somehow surprising. “Haven’t we been doing enough?” they might ask. But our current situation didn’t happen despite the race-preferential admissions policies. They happened in significant part because of race-preferential admissions.
