Opinion
 

Staff Editorial

Matthew Dulin         Geronimo Rodriguez 
Shaun Salnave          Cara Sarelli          Lisa Street

Admissions should be colorblind

Long before colleges began practicing race-sensitive admissions, race issues plagued Americais back yards, water fountains and grocery stores. And regardless of what raises (or sinks) minorities to the top (or bottom) of the academic pool, our society is still be haunted by racial issues.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear today the case of three white prospective students who, after being denied admission into the University of Michigan, feel like theyire the ones sitting at the back of the bus.

Who can blame them?

No qualified students should be weighed down by race-sensitive admissions, and itis only a matter of time before all whites who unjustly fail to cross the threshold of higher education start to get upset.

But can our society call Michiganis admissions criteria unconstitutional?

History proves America canit help discriminating against rolling Ris, pigmentation and anything else that might give away someoneis race. To erase racial identity from admissions would leave behind a lot of skepticism ? not to mention a lot of minority students.

The current policies only knock down certain whites and, to an extent, let history repeat itself.

Ideally, admissions should be based on merit. And ideally, colleges should be filled with students from all races. But again, society has a bad track record when it comes to racial justice -- to trust it again would be like blindfolding the eyes of minority students.

Perhaps the right thing to do is to re-evaluate these "unjust" admissions policies. Donit wave the white flag just because President Bush is pushing to revamp the policy, and donit knock down a college for its attempt to bring diversity to its campus.

The white students going up today before the Supreme Court should be embraced as much as black students. History may not agree with their ideals, but it would be wrong not at least to attempt to find a system that looks at all races in the same light.

However, we cannot get carried away and believe our society can exist by ignoring the very races that make it up. Just as the policy dispute will continue after today, the race factor wonit end when a student walks out of the admissions office.

For both college systems and society, working toward the notorious gray area may take time and tolerance, but itis better than making the same mistakes again.

 Send comments to dccampus@mail.uh.edu