Why college admissions scandal calls positive action

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This has sparked discussions about why factors such as donations, athletics and inheritance status are taken into account in the admission process, which has traditionally benefited affluent families . Yet, positive action, intended to help underrepresented minorities, is the subject of painstaking scrutiny and legal challenges.

"Some people have said that wealth is a positive action for whites," said Anthony Jack, assistant professor of education at Harvard University.

It is not the affirmative actions that threaten equity in the process of admitting a college, according to his supporters, but rather the benefits of the rich and the powerful.

Fifty personalities, from Hollywood stars to industry CEOs, college coaches and standardized test administrators, are accused of participating in a ploy to deceive the tests. Admission and to entice students to become top athletes, regardless of their abilities, Tuesday revealed prosecutors a federal indictment.

"These families have exposed a system and I hope (this) will inject into the American imagination how much money and the diverted means by which the rich, especially the rich and white families, come in." college and at the university, "Jack said.

The former president of Harvard University, Larry Summers, told Christiane Amanpour, of CNN, that higher education was to be the subject of much introspection.

Americans are "not totally wrong" to think "that elites rig the system in their interest and that of their families," he said.

Discourse around affirmative action

The scandal has hit a nerve, going beyond discussions about elitism and raising race issues.

"Imagine that it is the problem of admissions to the university that is related to positive action," tweeted the ACLU.

Favorite television moms involved in an alleged scandal of admission to the university

Jack says that there is a link between scandal and positive action.

"It's so written in the American imagination that these spots (in prestigious institutions) are reserved for whites and every time a black student or Latinx student comes in, it takes them a place That's not what's happening, "said Jack, of the author of" The Privileged Poor, "on the experience of low-income students in elite universities.

"What is telling," he said of the scandal, "are the steps and the giant leaps that wealthy families are making to ensure a place that is not legitimately right, the one they think they own. "

Many underrepresented minorities say that they must constantly prove themselves and prove their qualifications for a place.

READ: Comprehensive indictment act involving actors, CEOs and others as part of a nationwide university admission program.

A person of color must "prove themselves at all times," said Tiffany Cross, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Beat DC, at a roundtable on "CNN Tonight" with Don Lemon.

"You can be a graduate of the Ivy League and introduce yourself to the table.Someone will question your existence there.Nobody has ever asked," How does this elemental person and ordinary next to me, who is not a person of color space here? "

However, there is little talk of under-qualified white students who benefit from preferences in the admission process, such as sports, family influence and inheritance, according to some.

Legacies are candidates who are considered preferentially because they are children of alumni. They also tend to be whites and rich, writes Daniel Golden, author of the 2006 book "The Price of Admission: How the ruling class of America buys its way to elite colleges" ".

Patrician sports athletes, such as sailing or water polo, are recruited for university athletics. These types of sports are not accessible to students in downtown schools.

"This shows the hypocrisy of the high status of the legacies and the athletes in the admissions process," Jack said. "There is no moral, social or political justification for these two groups to obtain preferential treatment upon admission".

These preferences mainly benefit white and wealthy candidates, but are not part of the ongoing debate about positive action and what should be considered in the admissions process, he said. .

The judge hears the final arguments in the Harvard case that could decide the future of affirmative action

Meanwhile, positive actions remain the target of several lawsuits, including a pending case against Harvard, filed on behalf of several American students of Asian descent by a group called Students for Fair Admissions. The group was created by Edward Blum, a long-time opponent of positive action who, in the past, used white plaintiffs to challenge racial policies.

The group claims that Harvard disavows high-performing Asian Americans and gives a helping hand to African-Americans, Hispanics and other traditional recipients of positive action.

"It's really a conservative group that uses the faces of Asian students to say that they allow Asian students to enter admissions to black and brown people," Cross said at a panel discussion. .

"It is interesting that the privileged people make sure that other people of color think we stole something from them, they do not attack privileged people."

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