Newspapers / The Carolina Times (Durham, … / Aug. 20, 1977, edition 1 / Page 4
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4-TKS CAROLINA TIMES SAT., AUGUST 20. 1977 , "1 7 .'.. II! Wi Jsffers :fflnii:HiHiiiniiiuiiiiurc:i::::ffl (A Education: A Clack ;.S yip'.. Studies Committee Reversal of Discrimination The Bakke Case A lot of talk has been done and a lot written recently about a white man suing the University of California for twice denying him admission to it's medical school because he is white. Much of that talk and many of the written reports have come across to the listener and reader in a tone that al most suggests glee on the part of those opposed to any extra effort in all walks of" American life to remove the scars left by three hundred years of unequal treatment. "Reverse discrimination", the term grabbed $o readily by many whites, is a lot of bunk. Writing in the July issue of FOCUS,! the monthly newsletter of the Joint . Center for Political Studies, Ralph R. Smith separates the truths from the myths about the Bakke case. Bakke won .; the case in the California o. : '.' 1 iJ :. a .'! 1 j j 4 a, nia appealed to the U. S. Supreme Court and the case is scheduled : for a hearing in October. These myths versus realities have been carefully researched by legal ex perts. Though very long, we share this information with you, our readers, for better understanding of this historic case. MYTH - Allan Bakke was an exceptio nally well-qualified student who would have nnrttan intn tha Davit Mariical nhnnl nan It not been for the task force (special) admission program being challenged In this case. REALITY - (1) Eleven medical schools, eleven separate committees, dozens of faculty members and medical, students across the country obviously agreed With the assessment of the University of California Davis Medical School - Allan Bakke was good student but wet not so outstanding an applicant as to be considered clearly superior to the thousands of other students competing for limited number of seats in the entering class. Allan Bakke had applied to eleven medical schools. . He was rejected by all of them. He was re jected by his alma mater, the University of Minnesota presumably this was the school which had reason, to know Allan Bakke best and had the most sound basis on which to assess his record and potential. (2) Allan Bakke would not have been admitted to the Davis Medical School even had there been no task force program. In 1973, Bakke had a combined numerical rat ing of 468, out of a possible 500. There were fifteen students not selected who had scores of 469. Moreover, there were twenty students with the score of 468 who were put on the alternate list. There were a total of 35 people who would have been considered ahead of Allan Bakke even if the sixteen task force lots were not set aside. In 1974, Allan Bakke's benchmark was '549 out of a possible 600. There were twelve applicants with higher benchmark scores who RJI . Ai twenty eoolicants on the alternate list. Attain. even had there been no task force program there would have been 32 applicants ahead of Allan Bakke for the sixteen available places. V The trial court in California made specific finding on this matter: "Plaintiff would not have been accepted for admission . . . even if there had been no special program." (3) If Allan Bakke was discriminated against, it was on account 4f his age, not his race.--i'S v ,i " " - jixvwi-i ), ' ' ''' In letter date September 13, 1971, Allan Bakke, then 31, wrote the admissions committee at the Davis Medical School to in quire about the impact of tifs'Vge on the appli cation process. On September 20, 1971, the associate dean for student fffatrs, responded, "when an applicant is over thirty, his age is a serious factor which must be seriously con iraerea. una or me major reasons tor mis p . a IJu mhIU.kI tA ...... a. a 1 1 1 mat In WOr appinaiu mimpi w itiwwwir highly qualified if he Is to be seriously con sidered for one of the limited number of places in the entering class." It Is dear that to long at age was a factor and this standard was applied, Allan Bakke would ot : be accepted. He was just not "unusually highly qualified." MYTH - The program being challenged it one from which white students were arbi trarily excluded so that a rigid quota of racial minorities could be admitted, thus discri minating against whites on the basis Of race. REALITY - (1) White students were never excluded from consideration under the task force program. The program was designed and identified as a program for the economi cally and educationally disadvantaged. While race-related, that category is not race-specific. White students applied and were, in fact, con sidered and interviewed under the auspices of the task force program in each year of its exis tence. Emphasis on the fact that no Anglo stu dent had ever been admitted under the pro gram tends to ignore other important facts. The bulk (over 80 per cent) of applications to the Davis Medical School come from residents of the state of California. Over 90 per cent of the students accepted In the class are Califor nia ratirlontt ' Ml If nia .residents Mud) the . same Is true tor tasK as to the relative economic and educational disadvantage is California. , The fact is that racial and ethnic groups comprise a dispro portionate amount of the economically dis advantaged residents of California. Further, there is no doubt that the people of California who are most educationally dis advantaged are those minorities who attend the innder city schools. So K should not be surprising that the overwhelming majority, if not all, of the ad mittees to any program for the economically and educationally disadvantaged would be minority. (2) The sixteen seats set aside for the task force program did not constituted ceiling or a floor on the number of minorities admitted into the Davis Medical School and, therefore, cannot be considered as being a "quota". The; task .force allotment did not con stitute a ceiling on the number of minority students in the class. In 1973 and 1974 a total of 56 minority vtudents were admitted to the Davis Medical School: 25 of them were regular admittees.' The task, force slots did not constitute a floor either.. In at least one year, a "slot" was returned to the "regular", committee because the; task force could not fill it with a qualified admKtee. . . - ' , Moreover, it should be noted that six teen was not the magic number designed to' assure proportional representation. The minority population in California is far in -excess of sixteen per cent. : (3) Contrary to popular belief, the stu dents admitted into the Davis Medical School through the task force program were not all ' members of the so-called racial minorities. The record shows that Native Americans,, Asian Americans, American . blacks and Chicanos were accepted into the prograrfi. An : often overlooked . point is while American blacks and Asian-Americans' can be classified' as racial minorities, such a classification is in appropriate for either Chicanos or Native Americans. Chicanos are a cultural and ethnio ' minority ' group not a racial group. Native Americans are a political minority, indigenous '; to this country, not a racial minority. This fact is important since it severely up-1 dercuts the notion that those Anglo students not admitted under the task force program to the Davis Medical School were discriminated against because of race. MYTH - The so-called "regular", admitt- . ed students had far better credentials and had consistently outperformed in every respect the task force admittees. (This impression is conveyed because reporters have chosen to focus on the disparity, in mean scores. Such a focus is misleading since many people do not realize that the mean score is not an average). - REALITY - The record shows that many of the task force admittees had. better under graduate grade point averages than many of the so-called "regular" admittees. The two years in : which 'Allan I Bakke applied" are illustrative. For the class admitted in 1973, regular admittees . had overall grade point averages as low as 2.81 per cent. Task force admittees had averages as high as 3.78 per cent. ." " ' ' ' ' For the class admitted in 1974, regular On January 10,' 1977, the; Duriiam City Board of Education approved the setting up of a Black Studies Committee for; the Durham City , Schools. One of ,the:pbjeclives-lhe city board gave for its approval of the setting up of a Black Studies Committee was that grades kingergartcn through twelve should; be made aware of the black contribut ions to society of black citizens. Additional reasons 'the city board gave for setting up a Black Studies, Committee are that stress should be placed , on the history of the blacks of Durham and that we should strive to humanize our culture; v 1 This decision by the Durham City Board of Education is highly significant Our school board, by making provisions to provide a total educa tion for all of the school pupils Durham, has taken the leadership in the State of North Carolina. , ? Thus, in mkaing this proposal,, our school board realizes that, when generations of pupils in any society pass through an educational sys tem without knowledge of a significant portion of that society's population, those generations of pupils are not totally educated. And, when blacks themselves are allowed to be "educated" without being given information about their history and their culture, their respect for their human worth is not enhanced. ' We, the citizens of Durham, should recog nize the significance of the city school board's decision to set up a Black Studies Committee because such a committee will be able to dis pel some of the myths about a black studies curriculum. One of these myths about a Black Studies Curriculum that is common is that many people feel that Black Studies teach black stu dents to be racists. This is a tragic misconcep tion. Whatever approach to teaching Black Benjamin 1. Hoofis iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiihiiiiiiiiiih New At the' 68th Annua Convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in St. Louis, June 27 -August 1, Mrs. Margaret Bush Wilson, chairperson of the board of directors, declared: "We are dismayed and disheartened that President Carter has not forthrightly declared his support for the Hawkins Humphrey Full Employment Bill. His refusal to commit the total resources and influence, of his office to a policy Of full productivity has stymied the efforts of those in Congress laboring to put 10 million people to work. ' Why can't a nation that has spent one trillion dollars on weapons of destruction in the last IS years spend 50 billion to put its people to work?" Ms. Wilson went ori to "remind President Carter that millions of people poured out of rat-infested delapidated tenament houses (in the ' black ghettos) from one end of this country to the other " - to give him his margin of victory. " , , k .,." This expression was based on his promise to work to eliminate inhumane conditions under .. which people now live. If a balanced budget pre cludes the development of decent safety and sani- ' tary housing for all our people - then we advise President Carter . . . that standard housing is the ' greater priority." She also pointed out that some 23 years after Brown v$ the Board of Topeka, Kansas Education Supreme Court decree "it is criminal that this nation is still floundering in attempts to develop a comprehensive and effective plan for successful desegregation of its schools." She lambasted "as a total outrage" the most recent actions by the U. S. Congress in passing repressive measures in re spect to busing and appropriations bills. Congressman mi jiiiiiiiii Jilt lit iiit iiiitifiiiitimi jiiii itiiiiiiiiii ii j The -. .Black communities nationwide have been .vic timized by drugs for more than several decades. It use to be that heavy narcotics, primarily herion, was popular among a few blacks. Since the early forties marijuana, later barbiturates, flooded our neighborhoods, ' ! . ' In recent years concaine and angel dust have invaded our neighborhoods. When.- you cbmbine " the adverse effect of the drug invasion, with un ' employment, substandard housing, poor health, malnutrition, inferior education, black qanni balism, etc., we black people,' are facing serious problem. v Being black in a society that is primarily de signed to nurture the welfare of white americans, f"'" ' wg; 1 admittees had compiled undergraduate grade point averages as low as 2.79, while task force admittees were as high as 3.45. In both years, : the undergraduate performance of the task force admittees on the high side was markedly better than the majority of students admitted - into class through the "regular admission" process, , - The Allan. Bakke case is really . a sieve that won't hold water. Affirma-1 tive action must be the order - not lies about "quotas" . and "reverse discri-, . mination". ' , Affirmative action must be the" order until . , PPrtunesarecclua'l - bases of preparation are, equal; ' the same number of whites have been lynched; , Studies that : is decided upon, by V curriculum' committee; its implementation will .'humanize, not polarize, the Durham City School pupils.' .' Another myth about a Black;; Studies curriculum is that Black Studies is for blacks only. It was the writer's experience as a teacher of African and Afro-American literature 4 and : Black psychology at California State College. Long Beach, Ca., thar all - pupils found "a well organized and informative Black Studies curri culum exciting. They found the material new and challerjging. Many of Ihese students , increased their reading interest and ability by doing exten sive reading and resrarch in both fiction and non fiction. They invited to their campus distin guished blacks who could relate to the students their roles in helping to shape American history and culture, and the students attended lectures and workshops on other college campuses. At ; California State College, the white students, be-' cause they enrolled in the black studies courses in large numbers, helped to make the program a success. Moreover, on tlat campus the black stu dies program helped to create a human bond among students of all ethnic varieties. One myth that a Black Studies curriculum will quickly dispel is that blacks have served this country only as slaves. Our school pupils are un aware of the many contributions that blacks have made that have added significantly to the lives of people in this country and to the lives of the people throughout the world, For example, how many people know that George Washington Car ver created 292 products from the peanut? These products saved the economy of the South when the boll weevil invaded the cotton Crop. How many school pupils know that Daniel Hale Williams, a black physician, was the first to per form open-heart surgery, or that Dr. Charles Day Begun All this was a week before the Urban League's Vernon Jordan shook up the administration with mild but well reasoned charges that blacks and poor people in this country who furnished the margin of Carter's victory were becoming dis enchanted with the .administration because: "We have, no full $mpJoympnt ppjicyWe .Jiaye.na.wel- w, tive; action policy. We have no.national solutions. to the grinding problems of poverty and discri- ' mination. . " In my speech earlier in St. Louis, I sent a "special message (to) our friends in Washington": "Although blacks, including most members of the NAACP, overwhelmingly voted for President Jimmy Carter, and helped out a great Demo cratic majority in Congress, we want them to know that our support is not permanent ... we cannot and will not be taken for granted. Our continued support has to be earned by acts and deeds ori our behalf and not on style, words and. ; promises. "In the next weeks, we of the NAACP will be closely examining the policies, plans and pro grams of this new administration as they relate to the interests and needs oftjlack Americans. We want to know where we are on the domestic agenda. . . we want to know what the priorities are for keeping the promises made during the Presi dential campaign. . :t , We believe firmly in political accountability . . and our support and votes will be guided by the extent of the Administration and Congress's accountability to us who helped put, them in office. As the Lord giveth and taketh i . . so'dd I la whins' Column mi t j i IIU14I j i riii imii 1 1 1 if ri j j f j i r j ir j in mi 1 1 m r jii 1 1 1 1 j in tiiitiiri if 1 1 1 ri rt itiif ti Black Menace . requires that all blacks try to clearly understand the myriad factors that are slowly destroying our - neighborhoods. There is a' serious menace in our community: that has little "regard for our welfare. Further, its not all due to what the White man has ' done b' uS.' Although, his system has contributed " to our down fall, we are largely to blame. - The white man doesn't make us snort cocaine, nor des he make us rob and murder each other. " However, many of us would like to put all of the , blame on the man. Many of us are quick to blame police brutality etc, for black sponsored evil acts againsfother blacks. This is a cop-out when we fail to also clearly analyze how we, black people; con tribute to Our own problems" - the same number of whites have been sold as slaves;; the same number of whites have been forbidden the irse of their names; - the same number, of whites have been forbidden the ties to their heritage and culture; , ' ' - the same number of whites; are the last hired and first fired ; the same number of wmteS suffer f the indignities, of second-class citiien ship for .,at least one hundred years. Those" who would grab "reverse dis-' crimination" as an excuse for abandon ing affirmative action are purely and simply racists and are dangerous to the cause and advancement ofjfivil rights, .,, i'jUi.': ; Drew another physician, was the' first to cert- serve blood plasnia? Ors do but. school pupik know that .the. renowned naturalist, W. H. Audobori, was alsora black man? .There are lite'rally millions of blacks whp have made out standing contributions to their society; but these blacks have either been omitted from the history books or. they are not yet being included in our school curriculum. ;', ' , v i . , . . r And. there is the psychological aspect of a Black, Studies curricuIUi-v 'ihat will, benefit Dur ham's school pupils: black pupils will have more . respect for themselves and they will gam' more respect from their fellow" students; and Other stu dents wilj be able to rid themselves of the stereo typies that they have learned from an. uninformed society. It is difficult to help students with low self-esteem to shape goals and directions for their lives. And it is detrimental to society to have within its ranks people who by virtue of their ignorance believe others to be inferior and un derserving. A Black Studies curriculum will go far toward dispelling low self-esteem, ignorance and bigotry. ' '' ; ;; And finally, since all of our teachers' from kindergarten through twelfth grades will be in volved in the implementation of a Black Studies curriculum, our teachers . will have the oppor tunity, to become adept in , teaching'' ba,ck history, and black culture. This will have a tre mendous impact on their lives arid ori the lives of their pupils. And in the final analysis, it is our society that will harvest the rewards. May we, then, salute our Durham City Board of Education. This is another giant step toward quality education for Durham's school pupils. We hope that other school systems. Will follow the trail that our school board has blazed, i Executive' Director NAACP -hi.. LJ ..,i,'li.':. l - black voters. y ;: r ... ' All these are mild and reasdriable criticisms. But they are nevertheless, warning from friends to friends: No one in the Administration , or in Con ; gress should perceive them as "self-serving or de magogic" or as "a product of some competition among black leaders for primacy.'' ' u" '.'mjtt9 warnings takenom soundings in :3;jtheblkcR;hd poor cowitmunltiesl acrokntiiiand. They represent the real and growing rumblings of folks who are at the cutting edge of poverty, job lessness and want; those who desperately rieed decent housing, health and educational programs. Those Who would shrug off these charges as things of little consequence will do so at the peril . of harmony, peace and continued prosperity and productivity of this great country of ours1, r For the blacks and the poor have no perma hent friends n6r permanent enemies, lonly per manent problems. Most black leaders know this and are speaking out in a most candid manner on issues that drastically affect the lives of our people. ' " - . . l5 My final admonition to Mr. Carter when I spoke befbre the National Urban League was bib lical, in nature. After declaring my - support for Jordan, I said that the President should remember that when he meets his Maker he will not be judged on the fact that he was an atomic engineer, nor will St. Peter be concerned about the fact that he was successful peanut farmer or a governor of Qeorgj eleven a President. He will be asked: "Brother Jimmy: J was hungry, did you feed me? 1 was naked, did you clothe me? I was in jail, did . you .come and. see about me?" the roar from that h.UgSaiidjei)ce was deafening. . 1 1 1 it t j i mi ii itt ri ri ri r 1 1 m r By Rep. Augustus F. Hawkins When neighbprs are full with hate, lack of re spect for others, and themselves and refuse to hold thertiselyw 'responsible'for theft own acts, We are all in a tragic-stated ;4r'-'s! i It's ruJfiatWe collectively lack much, but if we respect; ejch-TOtherj vstudy, individually and ' wllectiveJyioppose'. '-the 'lood' c4 "riigs in our neighborhoods.-pub.cl "condemn black criminals and collectively,' work , to protect :bur? neighbor hoods 'and :Qur Jcrve ones, bur lives arid . our communities will le. sfrengthened. Not until this occurs will we be able to destroy the black menace ,; that welcQmesrdnigair curlers and 9 inch plat forms, thugs J-apif.ateaholism, etc. None of us can strengthen our neighborhoods ; alone, noc in;eaCfard to sit back and take com- . fort in theewitydFour barred Up houses. The black menace is capable of crawling through cracks in your fortressPurther, it lurches in dark places ready to'pounce upon you. Your children ate also prey for its' destructive influences, a reality that ; often happens at school or the nAghborhooipark. : V !' 'The black menace can be destroyed if we are' Willing to support a collective effort to improve our neighborhoods. 0u churches schools busi nesses, , police,", community organizations etc.V should all be part of this . effort; We mustall de mand their contribution. ; ' t t ., Obviously, our problems are the,, result of a long history, of ..neglect caused by racist policies. However, we, black people, must in spite of this, assume some 'responsibility for correcting the -problem. Some of the -approaches for doing this are as follows: J w ' 1 . We should all help to police our neighbor'" hood,. For example, we should make black parent!'
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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Aug. 20, 1977, edition 1
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