Still busy balancing those races

An unpopular truth

[Reprinted from Issues & Views September 8, 2003]

In a Washington Times story (7/13/03), we learn of Tracey Gaddy, a black student who attends Virginia State University, a "historically black" institution. Gaddy is described as pleased with her choice of a predominantly black school and feeling content, comfortable and accepted in this place where "people uniquely understand" her.

Although VSU is 93% black, it's an open secret that, along with the other 104 such academic institutions, this school will be safe from any serious government pressure to strive for "diversity." In fact, no organized groups are likely to storm VSU's campus or stage sit-ins in the Administration building, or work at shaming the school's administrators for not aggressively working to be more "inclusive."

In recent years, a few of these black colleges have been known to engage in some perfunctory forms of "outreach" to recruit students of other races, but these efforts appear to be little more than window dressing. In fact, diversity, in forms other than racial, is sometimes emphasized, as in the case referred to in the Times article of Atlanta's Spelman College, which is 97% black, and is cited for the "religious" and "geographic" diversity of its student body. The president of Virginia's majority black Hampton University frankly admits to his concern about preserving the "historically black soul" of his school.

Looked at on a practical, careerist level, why would these black administrators -- president, vice presidents, deans -- wish to lose control over their self-consciously racial institutions, where they preside as providers of an ethnically unique service?

Over on the other side of the double standard, however, we learn from the Houston Chronicle (8/16/03) about Texas A&M's problems with being deemed "too white" -- a condition that supposedly makes the campus "unwelcoming to minorities."

The university has just hired a new administrator to remedy the situation. James Anderson is expected "to help foster diversity," and his tasks, we are told, will be to recruit more "minority" students, in order to dilute the 77% white majority (well, they don't put it quite that way). With only 2% blacks and 8% hispanics, you can be sure that Texas A&M will stay under the government gun and under NAACP scrutiny, until it mends its racially unbalanced ways. Anderson, who holds the title of Vice President for Institutional Assessment and Diversity, will concentrate not only on altering the racial composition of the student body, but plans to hire more minority (and women) faculty and increase the numbers of foreign students (now called "internationals").

Of course, the fact that a poll shows that 97% of the university's white students hold a positive view of the school is of no importance. The only poll that counts is the one that shows 65% of minorities holding a negative view. Hence, the need for change.

Speaking of double standards, here is an excerpt from a letter by an insightful white high school graduate, published on the VDARE site:

When I pressed the administration as to why blacks were able to form racially exclusive clubs, I was told that it was necessary for blacks to "feel part of the campus community." I found this quite odd, being that at my high school blacks comprised upwards of 40 to 45 percent of the student body. When I explained this to my principal, he angrily told me that I would never succeed in life with this kind of racist attitude.

And, so, each new generation gets conditioned in what not to think and what not to say.

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