MLK on UNC?

 The racists at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill lost at the Supreme Court this week with the Court's ruling on affirmative action. It wasn't a complete loss as John Roberts gave them some pointers on how to work around that ruling. What kind of moron writes a legal opinion and then tells the losers how to ignore it?

UNC claims that they seek to diversify their student body. To do this, they are giving black students preference over Asian students. How does one diversify by reducing the numbers of one minority group in favor of another minority group?

How many Asians are on the UNC basketball team? What is the percentage of Asians on the UNC football team? I am just guessing here, but the answer is one or less. 

Why don't we use affirmative action in sports? Because the object is to win the game. In sports, it is all about ability. Do we have racial quotas on college sports teams? If not, why do we have them in college academics? The goal of an educational institution should be to produce the best and the brightest, not the blackest and the brownest. 

The simplest principle of human behavior is "Whatever you reward, you reinforce." Black kids get praised for their athletic skills; Asian kids are praised for good grades. There aren't many black nuclear physicists because in that culture, praise goes to athletes. The government puts basketball courts in housing projects, they don't build libraries there. They get what they pay for.

I used to see "Reading is Fundamental" ads on television. I rarely see those anymore as the television networks realize that reading and watching television are opposing factors in the quest for knowledge. For you Z'ers reading this, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook are really not learning environments.

When I was growing up in Tampa, the Bookmobile came to our neighborhood on Thursdays. It parked in the 7/11 parking lot. You had to buy your "Icee" after you visited the Bookmobile, they wouldn't let you bring your "Icee" into the Bookmobile. One of the great things about the Bookmobile was that you could request a special book for the next week if they didn't have the book you wanted.  Tampa still operates Bookmobiles, but now they are known as Library2Go.

If the government can't afford a bookmobile, how about making libraries a mandatory stop on bus routes? How about churches in minority neighborhoods hosting a small library in their buildings? How about getting businesses to sponsor Bookmobiles? Memo to America, if you want to improve the knowledge level of our citizens, you will have to get people to read. Watching YouTube is not an adequate substitute for reading. The pandemic proved that remote learning online for young people is a failure.

Schools should give academics the same importance that they give sports. Any schools holding pep rallies before the SATs? Is the "Scholar of the Week" on the local news every Friday? Do we publish stats on scholars or as we called them in the old days, grades?  Of course not, but we do all of these things for athletes. The only time you hear about grades is around the graduation season. Then it is too late. Whatever you reward, you reinforce.

The real problem at UNC and their co-defendants at Harvard is that they are asking the wrong question. They are asking "How can we get more blacks at UNC (or Harvard)?" The correct question to ask is "Why don't more blacks have good enough grades and test scores to get into UNC without a race-based waiver? " If they will ask that question, it will lead them to the answer. The problem must be addressed at the beginning of the educational process, not at college admission.

You can't fix the problem of lower test scores and lower grades by admitting someone to college based on their skin color. All the university system is doing with this system is setting someone up for failure in a high-level academic program or destroying the value of a college degree by lowering the standards set to obtain that degree for the "chosen ones".

As a public institution, UNC has a legal obligation to treat all people equally. Instead, they are denying admission to Asians and whites with higher grades and test scores and allowing blacks with lower grades and test scores to be admitted. Maybe Martin Luther King should have said, " I look forward to the day when college students are judged by their grades and not by the color of their skin".