During last week’s oral arguments in Fisher v. Texas, Justice Scalia stated, “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 slower-track school where they do well.” The reaction to Scalia’s comments was swift and stinging.
Justice Scalia’s comments certainly deserved to be criticized. However, the response to Scalia’s comments fails to observe one of the core tenets of anti-racism: Never focus your rage on a person when it should be focused on a system.
There are two core issues that underlie the real problem with Scalia’s statement. The first is our notion of merit. In general, merit is measured through test scores. Indeed, test scores are at the heart of Abigail Fisher’s suit. However, test scores have a well-known and extensively studied racial bias. Despite the racial bias, and despite the fact that standardized testing is not a good predictor of academic success, standardized tests remain a popular tool in most admissions offices. Rather than attacking Justice Scalia’s highly problematic statements, it would be better to attack the even more problematic system of standardized testing.
Second, even shifting the focusing to merit ignores an even more fundamental problem – the legacy of race in American education. Although Brown v. Board ended school segregation, due to massive resistance, the promise of Brown did not come to be until ten to fifteen years later in many jurisdictions. But, with decisions like San Antonio v. Rodriguez and Milliken v. Bradley in the early 1970s, the Supreme Court essentially ended integration. In fact, according to one study, at present, 74% of African American students and 80% of Latino students attend schools where they are the racial majority. Additionally, the study notes that 38% of African Americans and 43% of Latinos attend “intensely segregated” schools where white students are less than 10% of the student body. Worse still, 15% of black students and 14% of Latino students, attend schools where whites make up less than 1% of the enrollment. These “apartheid schools” have been on the rise since the 1990s. As a result, our schools are as segregated now as they were in 1968. Moreover, in addition to having higher rates of racial segregation, these schools are often also segregated along class lines. This “double segregation” means that most students of color in public schools are attending schools that are populated with poor black and brown children.
This segregation is a major problem as students at low-income, majority-minority schools do not fare as well. The New York Times states that, “Minority schools tend to be larger, have higher student-teacher ratios and have higher poverty rates.” And in such schools, Richard Rothstein writes that the focus shifts from learning to discipline, from enrichment to remediation, and from building on prior learning to repeating lessons. As a result, poor African American and Latino children are not given much of an opportunity to learn. Segregated schools, it seems, lead to segregated outcomes.
The current racial realty of American schools is much like The Hunger Games. The Hunger Games trilogy follows heroine Katniss Everdeen (pictured above) through a bleak future where residents of the nation of Panem annually select two children at random from each of twelve districts to participate in a fight to the death. The winner earns extra food for his or her home district for a year, as well as money and a comfortable home. In order to win, the children use brutal tactics against each other. In addition to the vicious competitors, the game arena is also filled with deadly traps. Because of the dangers and the rules of the game, it is clear to all – participants and spectators alike – that there can only be one survivor.
The poor Black and Latino children of our public schools are much like those in the Hunger Games. These children (and often, their teachers) must fight for each and every scrap of education that they get, often overcoming substantial obstacles in the course of the fight. To be certain, there are people who “make it” out of the ‘hood or the barrio. But the fact that their peers did not doesn’t mean that they were less worthy. It just means, like the Hunger Games, that the system was rigged against multiple victories from the beginning.
Our racially rigged k-12 education system is why race-based admissions policies remain necessary. Until all children receive the same quality education, any test that is given to them will be a false measure of their true abilities. Moreover, when children of color do manage to survive and thrive in the face of poverty, violence, and other obstacles, the least we can do is give them an easier path to college in recognition of their struggles. But to be clear, the goal of racial justice advocates should be to dismantle segregated education and all of its vestiges once and for all. Until this happens, the Black and Brown underclass will continue to fight in America’s educational Hunger Games – one where the odds are seldom, if ever, in their favor.