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Courtesy of newyorker.com
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is receiving backlash for his oral arguments in Fisher v University of Texas case. This case is being heard for the second time and it was initiated in 2008 when Abigail Fisher, a white student who was rejected from the University of Texas-Austin, sued the school for violating the fourteenth amendment under the Equal Protection Clause, which states that no state should deny to any person within its jurisdiction equal protection under the law. After the case was denied from being heard, SCOTUS decided to hear the case.
Justice Scalia, who is an opponent of affirmative action said, "There are those who contend that it does not benefit African-Americans to get them into the University of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less-advanced school, a less-- slower- track school where they do well". Scalia also said, " [African-American] students come from lesser schools where they do not feel that they are being pushed ahead in classes that are too fast for them.....And I don't think it stands to reason that it's a good thing for the University of Texas to admit as many blacks as possible".
I believe the media has misinterpreted what Scalia was suggesting. Scalia was not saying that black students are less likely to succeed than white students at top-tier universities. What he was saying was that some black students come from high schools where the value of education is very low and it makes them more capable of succeeding. This reduction in the value of education received by black students are based on where the schools are located. It is not a complex notion that schools in rough neighborhoods will pose a less challenging curriculum than a school located in the suburbs; it is because of the lack of resources. I attend a school in Aurora, Illinois, an affluent suburb, where the curriculum is very challenging, and it would make the process of succeeding more difficult. I just heard that the valedictorian of one of these less-challenging schools is currently attending a community college. Students from another less-challenging in Chicago will be exempt from finals if their ACT score is a 20 or higher. If that were to happen at my school, probably the majority of the students would not be taking finals. The main point is that the standard of education varies among schools. Because of that fact, and not because he believes that blacks are academically inferior to whites, is why Justice Antonin Scalia believes those students from less-challenging schools will perform better at less advanced universities because their high schools have not equipped them with the tools necessary to excel and be comfortable in a curriculum of an elite university, which is why he is against affirmative action.
Another claim by Scalia was negatively received by the public. Scalia also said, "Most of the black scientists in this country do not come from the most advanced schools". Scalia's claim could not be more accurate. According to the chart below Historically Black Colleges are the top producers of Black Scientists, not Harvard, Yale, or any other top-tier university.
Black Alums From Baccalaureate Institutions in Four Fields
Courtesy of the National Science Foundation
Everything is not about race. The media's headline of "Scalia suggests that black students do not belong at elite universities" is pure sensationalism and does not represent the truth.