Outsourcing Affirmative Action: Colleges Look Overseas for Racial Diversity

Affirmative action isn't going to last much longer if it's increasingly used to benefit students from privileged backgrounds and/or students from other countries who, presumably, haven't directly (or indirectly, through ancestors) suffered discrimination in the U.S.

Now, 46 years after the term "affirmative action" was first coined, efforts to help the economically disadvantaged are shifting as American universities cater to an "elite class" of socially successful blacks, according to Swain.

Swain's perceptions are echoed in a study published by the American Journal of Education that shows universities are, in effect, outsourcing affirmative action.

The study says the nation's elite colleges are bolstering their diversity quotas with black students from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, many of whom are wealthier, better educated and easier to get along with than their American counterparts.

According to the study, 13 percent of the nation's college-age black population comes from outside the country, and at the top universities, that number approaches 25 percent.

The study -- carried out jointly by Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania -- based its findings on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen. It said international students are often favored, because they are highly motivated and get better grades because they can afford test preparation.

It also looked at a 2004 study by Nancy Foner and George M. Fredrickson who wrote, "To white observers, black immigrants seem more polite, less hostile [and] more solicitous."

Many universities brag about diversity, said Swain, but their admissions policies increasingly reflect race and social class, rather than economic need.

"Many white leaders seem to care only about having people who are similar but of different racial background," said Swain. "They want some diversity, but not a whole lot."...

"Affirmative action is no longer a compensation for past discriminations," said Shirley Wilcher, the association's executive director. "Today it is divorced from overcoming disadvantage."

Wilcher, while well intentioned, doesn't appear to understand the true nature of the problem:

"I am not xenophobic, but you can't take the easy way out," said Wilcher. "You may have to look harder to find qualified African-American students, but affirmative action was never meant to be easy, otherwise you wouldn't need it.

"Foreign-born blacks may be 'easy to get along with,' but it does not take the onus off the college to seek out African-Americans who suit their admission profiles," Wilcher said

The problem, by and large, is NOT that colleges aren't looking for qualified black and Latino students who are native born and come from low-income families -- in fact, they're searching desperately for them.  The problem is that there are so painfully few!  The average black and Latino high school senior is doing math and reading at the same level as the average white eigth grader!  And it's even worse when you consider that roughly one-quarter of black and Latino students don't even make it to 12th grade (so they're not counted in this data) AND how poorly white students are doing.  For another angle on this, here is an excerpt from Rod Paige's book:

The Nation's Report Card (NAEP) shows that only one in six African Americans and one in five Hispanics are proficient in reading by the time they are seniors.  NAEP math scores are even worse: Only 3 percent of blacks and 4 percent of Hispanics are testing at the "proficient" level.

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Outsourcing Affirmative Action: Colleges Look Overseas for Racial Diversity

International Black Students Seen as 'Easier to Get Along With'

By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES

http://a.abcnews.com/US/story?id=2931345&page=1

March 8, 2007 — - Carol Swain grew up poor, one of 12 children, and dropped out of the ninth grade to get married. Three children later, at 20, her life was thrown into crisis -- a daughter had died of crib death, she filed for divorce and took a job at a garment factory.