TllE \VALL STREET JOURNAL.

Saturday/Sunday, May 3 - 4, 2025 I A13

OPINION
The Tragedy of Affirmative Action
By Jason L. Riley ted for appearances, Bcll wrote, decades prior to racial preferences
was •monumental." However well· in college admissions, wages for
errick Bcll is best intentioned, it was condescending black workers rose at a faster pace
known for his contribu· and unhelpful to ask less of them. in the decades before racial hiring
tions to critical race "The view that black students, quotas became commonplace.
theory-which claims by reason o f their deprived back­ Again, affirmative action policies
that racism is embed­ ground and racist experiences, received far more credit than they
ded in American Jaw and institu­ should not be required to perform warrant, mainly because propo­
tions and that the historical mis­ as regular law students,• he a r ­ nents get the sequence wrong or
treatment of black people largely gued, "is a form of benevolent p a ­ start the story in the midclle.
explains current social and eco­ ternalism" that reeds racist ste· In 1939, the annual median in·
nomic: disparities. rcotypes among whites and takes come was $360 for black males
Before becoming the first black a psychic toll on blacks. -What and $1,112 for white males. (These
tenured professor at Harvard Law does such a see1ningly sympa­ figures are nominal, unadjusted for
School in the 1970s, Bell was a thetic policy do to the black s t u ­ inflation.) By 1960 those figures
lawyer for the NAACP Legal De­ dent's self-esteem?" had reached S3,075 and SS,137, r e ­
fense and .Education f\lnd, where Bell warned that racial prefer­ spectively, an Increase o f 5681' for
he worked on school desegregation ences risked tainting the accom­ blacks vs. 362% for whites. Among
cases under the tutelage of Thur­ plishments-in the eyes of whites females over the same time, there
good Marshall. Bell was once a and blacks alike-of blacks who was a 275" increase among whites
critic o f racial favoritism. But over succeeded. -Whatever arguments and a 418" increase among blacks.
time, he grew w1happy with the are used to justify such a policy, All this occurred before affirma­
pace of black progress and came to there is little denying that it robs Journalism School's Jelani Cobb, rose, and poverty declined. This tive action and the civil-rights leg­
believe that racis1n is so deeply i n ­ those black students who have but "the result will be fewer stu· history hasn't received the atten­ islation of the rnid-1960s.
grained in our society that color· done well of receiving real credit dents from traditionally underrep­ tion it deserves because black poli­ Between 1940 and 1970, the m e ­
blind remedies were destined to and the boost in confidence that resented minorities on college ticians and activists have a vested dian annual income for black men
fail. their accomplishn1ents merit; he campuses.• interest in a narrative that accen· rose from 41% t o 59% of the me­
Following the assassination of wrote. He also mentioned the ln her dissenting opinion, Jus­ tuates black suffering. The upshot dian annual white male income, an
Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and "growing tide of bitterness and re· tice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that is that a history of social and e c o ­ 18-point gain. Yet under the first
the unrest that ensued nation­ sentment" toward these practices the majority ruling "rolls back nomic advancement that should be quarter-century of affirmative a c ­
wide, including on college cam­ and insisted that in "judging the decades of precedent and mo­ a source of pride for blacks-and tion, 1970-95, black male earnings
puses, schools stepped up efforts work of black students, there is no mentous progress." In a separate of inspiration for other ethnic mi· as a percentage of white earnings
to recruit black students and f a c ­ reason to apply criteria more dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown nority groups-has received r e l a ­ grew by only 8 more points. to
ulty. T o expedite the push for ra• stringent than l11ose used to judge Jackson said the majority opin· tively little consideration. 67%. Among black women, the
clal diversity, elite colleges began whites, and no excuse for passing ion had "detached itself from In 1940, 25· to 29-year-old pre-affirmative-action gains were
lowering admissions and hiring blacks on lower standards." this country 's actual past and whites had 3.6 years more school­ even more draniatic. Median black
standards. Previous black recruit- Although Bell later changed his present experiences." Yet actual ing on average than their black female earnings climbed from 36%
mind, he offered a preview of a past experience clearly shows counterparts. By 1960 both groups of the white female median in
half-<:'elltury of arguments that that black advance1nent in higher had advanced, but blacks outpaced 1940 to 73" by 1970. Between 1970
Blacks ,vere 1naking rapid would be made against racial p r e f ­ education was far more momen· whites and the gap narrowed by a11d 1995, however, pay for black
1>rogress before the 1960s. erences. He dedicated his profes­ tous in the decades immediately more than half, to 1.7 years. Most women grew by only 16 more
sional career to advancing the in· prior to the implementation of white-collar jobs, then as now, re• points. Black earnings clearly were
Racial preferences didn't terests of fellow blacks, and he quotas and set-asides. quire a high school diploma. Be· rising at a much faster clip prior
help, and if anything they wasn't the only scl1olar to recog­ In fact, the advent o f racial tween 1940 and 1960, the percent· to affirmative action. They contin­
nize the shortcomings of these preferences coincided with the end age of blacks who met that ued to rise thereafter, but more
slowed the i.Jnprovement. policies. That might give pause to of a black-white convergence in qualification more than tripled, slowly. To say that affirmative ac­
those who are inclined to dismiss the quantity and quality o f educa­ again growing at a much faster tion led t o the jump in black i n ­
criticism of affirmative action as tion in the U.S. that had been un­ rate than among whites. But as comes i s to ignore these pre-exist·
ment efforts had involved search· racisL der way ror nearly a century. Well more colleges began compromising ing trends.
ing for capable students who met Bell's concerns about the psy­ before the implementation of ra· Lheir admission standards in the
existing admission criteria and chological toll these policies would cial preferences, blacks were mak­ late 1960s to admit black students, entral to the social-justice
could hanclle the rigor of the insti­ take on black America turned out ing unprecedented strides despite these trends slowed. C ideology that promotes afftr·
tution. For the first time, schools to be especially prescient. More tremendous racial hostility. Those According to Harvard political mative action is a belief that
started creating special programs than five decades of affirmative who credit affirn1ative action with scientist Robert Putnam and c o ­ statistical disparities among
to recruit black students with a c a ­ action has created the impression black educational advancement are author Shaylyn Romney Garrett, groups result mainly from discrim­
demic deficiencies. that black advancement is impossi· getting the order wrong. Black ad­ education gaps that had been n a r ­ ination rather than from statistical
How these underqualified re­ ble without racial preferences. In vancement came first. rowing started to widen. Greater differences in skllls, behaviors and
cruits would fare once enrolled anticipation of the Supreme numbers of blacks had been gradu­ attitudes. Accordingly, black social
was less important to college a d ­
ministrators than how many black
faces were on campus. The haste
in which schools proceeded came
at a high cost to the black "benefi­
Court's 2023 n1ling against affir­
mative action in Students for Fair
Admissions v. Harvard,Sherrilyn
lfill, a former head of the NAACP
Legal Defense Fund, said that
T his doom-saying on the left
rests mainly on the assump­
tion that racial favoritism is
a prerequisite for black accom·
plishment in a country where rac­
ating from high school and enter­
ing college, but now fewer were
completing college relative to their
white peers. The "fastest and most
dramatic progress toward parity
and economic advancement is said
to be dependent on policies that
counter antiblack bias with anti­
white bias. Yet the phenomenal
rise of blacks in the first t w o ­
ciaries.� Studies conducted in the court-imposed race neutrality ism still exists. Because it has between blacks and whites finish­ thirds o r the 20th century, despite
late 1960s and early 1970s showed would have "catastrophic implica· been asserted for so many de· ing high school was achieved be· centuries of maltreatment, pro­
that, at some elite schools, half of tions• for blacks. Paul Butler, a cades that affirmative action and fore 1970," the authors wrote in vides a strong rebuke to such
undergraduates admitted through law professor at Georgetown, pre­ other government programs are "The Upswing: How America Carne claims. History shows that black
special programs for blacks were dicted that "public and private responsible for the existence of Together a Century Ago and How people have made greater strides
on academic probation. universities will resegregate.• today's black midclle class, few We Can Do lt Again," a 2020 book. under policies of colorblindness
In a 1970 law-review article, Following the decision, some of bother to question the claim. Yet "But after 1970, the relative rate at than affirmative action. At best,
Bell objected to this new trend of the most pessimistic assessments whether black people have a d ­ which blacks were completing col­ race preferences have helped to
using different criteria to assess came from black elites. Barack vanced more under quotas and lege dropped, then flatlined, and continue something that was al·
student performance depending on Obama, a Harvard Law School set-asides than under nonprefer­ never recovered its previous up­ ready happening. At worst, they've
race and ethnic background. In the graduate, said that race-conscious ential policies is ultimately an em­ ward trajeetory. In fact, today done more to throttle than to e x ­
past, he noted, the small percent· policies had "allowed generations pirical question, even if the issue black Americans are completing pedite black upward mobility.
ages of blacks ad1nitted to selec­ of students like Michelle and me is seldom analyzed empirically. college at a lower rate compared
tive Jaw schools "not only met the to prove we belonged." Former During the first t w o t-hirds of to whites than they were i n 1970.'' Mr. Rr1ey is a Journal columnist
usual academic criteria, but were MSNBC host Joy Reid insisted that the 20th century, well before affir­ A similar story can be told and a senior fellow at the Manhat·
often characterized by a strong in· affirmative action was the only mative action and an expanded about black incon1c. More educa­ tan Institute. This article is
ncr drive to equal and, if at all reason black people like her had welfare state supposedly came to tion meant better jobs and higher adapted from his book "The Affir•
possible, excel their white class- access to selective colleges. The the rescue or black people, they pay. And just as absolute and rela­ nratitle Action Myth: Wiry Blacks
1nates." The difference in the qual­ "scale of what has been lost is dif· experienced significant progress. tive educational gains among Don't Need Racial Preferences to
ity of black students being admit· ficult to assess," wrote Columbia Education gaps narrowed, incomes blacks had been speedier in the Succeed,• forthcoming May 6.