While all policymaking eyes have been turned towards the Supreme Court’s latest affirmative action case — Grutter v. Bollinger — it may be informative to see how college applicants themselves view affirmative action at work.
As the flurry of college applications turned into acceptance and rejection letters this spring, the Washington Post surveyed applicants about their assessments of affirmative action. The results? Not surprising. While students were willing to share intimate family stories, household income, and other sensitive information with anonymous admissions committees, many of them elected to withhold one obvious little fact: race.
You see, more and more students are viewing affirmative action to be a form of reverse racism. And since “race” is an optional box to check on applications, savvy coeds-to-be are leaving that box blank. University of Maryland sophomore Sara Schoen has it right: “I don’t think skin color should have a lot to do with who you are as a person or whether you get into a certain college.”