Over on Political Animal<\/a>, the former Calpundit suggests compromising with the right by replacing race-based affirmative action with income-based affirmative action.<\/p>\n Kevin means well, but I see two immediate problems with this proposal. First, racism against middle-class blacks, latinas and American Indians happens, and shouldn’t be ignored as if it were acceptable.<\/p>\n Second, racism against lower-class blacks, latinas and American Indians happens, and shouldn’t be ignored. Income-based affirmative action would benefit low-income whites who are, objectively, much wealthier than the minorities they’d be beating out for those income-based AA slots. <\/p>\n Why? Because looking at income – even if we concentrate only on low-income folks – vastly understates how much poorer minorities are than whites. Low-income white families are simply much wealthier, on average, than low-income minority families. I wrote a couple of detailed posts about this in 2003 (here <\/a>and here<\/a>); this table from one of those posts illustrates what I mean:<\/p>\n
| Income class<\/th>\n | percent of whites<\/th>\n | percent of blacks<\/th>\n | white average net worth<\/th>\n | black average net worth<\/th>\n | ratio <\/th>\n<\/tr>\n |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $15,000<\/td>\n | 17.6%<\/td>\n | 40.9%<\/td>\n | $63,836<\/td>\n | $16,152<\/td>\n | 0.25<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| $15,000- $24,999<\/td>\n | 15.2%<\/td>\n | 16.9%<\/td>\n | $108,696<\/td>\n | $31,913<\/td>\n | 0.29<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| $25,000- $49,999<\/td>\n | 29.5%<\/td>\n | 24.8%<\/td>\n | $136,455<\/td>\n | $62,635<\/td>\n | 0.46<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| $50,000- $74,999<\/td>\n | 19.3%<\/td>\n | 11.1%<\/td>\n | $24,5647<\/td>\n | $96,645<\/td>\n | 0.39<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| $75,000 and over<\/td>\n | 18.4%<\/td>\n | 6.2%<\/td>\n | $1,119,335<\/td>\n | $320,223<\/td>\n | 0.29<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n <\/font> Because low-income white families have far more wealth and (on average) live in nicer neighborhoods with better schools, compared to low-income (or even middle class, sometimes) minorities, they’re probably better positioned to take advantage of low-income AA programs. That, combined with their greater numbers, will mean that most low-income minorities – despite being objectively poorer – would wind up being shut out of income-based AA.<\/p>\n (It’s not a simple thing to just make it wealth<\/i>-based AA, instead. Income can be verified just by looking at last year’s income tax forms – but there’s no such easy way for college admission programs to verify wealth.)<\/p>\n Not that I’m against income-based affirmative action. But while income-based affirmative action would be a good thing on its own, it’s no substitute for race-based affirmative action, and it shouldn’t be proposed as one.<\/p>\n .<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Over on Political Animal, the former Calpundit suggests compromising with the right by replacing race-based affirmative action with income-based affirmative action. Kevin means well, but I see two immediate problems with this proposal. First, racism against middle-class blacks, latinas and … Continue reading |