Imagine applying to college and not getting in. The college allows for all of the top ten percent of high school graduates to get in. You were not accepted. You did not meet the automatic acceptance criteria. You can afford to attend any school you want to so you have to attend the second school of your choice from which you have already graduated. Is this a matter that rises to the level of the Supreme Court? Have you been so inconvenienced that the highest court in the land needs to hear of your harrowing ordeal of having to attend your second choice and judge those who have wronged you?
Apparently that is the case for Abigail Fisher(Fisher vs University of Texas 2009). When she was denied entrance to the University of Texas in 2008 she sued on the basis of racial discrimination. She lost. But undeterred she took her case higher and lost again. But showing a scrappy underdogs fight somehow got her case all the way to the Supreme Court where it is presumed she should win based on the current conservative nature of this court(no decision as of this writing).
This case brings up what I think of as the Rise of the White Mans Lament. Whites perceive their power as being radically lower than what everyone else's perception and reality actually suggest. They believe that in the race for diversity it has somehow weakened their stranglehold on the power structures in America and their social and economic advantages are being challenged or in danger.
Reality would suggest that this is not true. White people in America are not an oppressed minority. I repeat, white people in America are not an oppressed minority. Call me crazy but I cannot find any area of society where white people are hugely discriminated against. I bet if you asked conservatives what is the most pressing civil rights issue in America today they would say that it is reverse racism or affirmative action. Apparently being in control of every level of government, all educational institutions, 99% of corporate boards, all of the entertainment industry, and every daily newspaper is not enough. Crushing even the opportunities for minorities to somehow catch up seems to be de cause du celebre of the conservative movement.
Just some facts. The average white family has an average wealth of $100,000 compare that to the average family household wealth of around $5000. Black males are six times more likely to be incarcerated than white males. Black males represent 12% of drug users but 40% of drug arrest. White high school graduates are more likely to enroll in college 47% to 41%. I fail to see the institutional white biases in these numbers. Actually what I see is the opposite of what the "oppressed white majority", seems to believe.
How is somehow trying to figure out a way to make a school more racially diverse a matter of discrimination for someone with every advantage that our system can provide. When a middle class white person of means is told you cannot attend your first school of choice they are able to attend another school because of the inherent privileges of being white. At the same time in order to achieve some kind of false fairness and equivalence we dismantle diversity programs that disproportionally affect those who do not have the advantages of race and wealth. Without the admittedly minor advantages that diversity programs have provided minority attendance rates would be dramatically lower. This is not anecdotal it has been proven in states like California, Michigan, and New York where minority admissions are lower after the dismantling of their affirmative action programs. So in order for a white person to be able to have everything they want minorities should just shut up and let "fairness" reign, regardless of the implications for a society as a whole.
As the richest most diverse economic and politically stable country in the world it would seem to me that we would want to achieve the same kind of diversity within the social makeup of our country. Maintaining a large singular ethnic stranglehold on wealth and power seems to me to be antithetical to everything the founding fathers fought for. I guess I can see how Abigail Fisher can feel sort of aggrieved. She wanted to attend the University of Texas and was not admitted. I would be upset also. But her responses are of those of a spoiled rich person who wants everything damn the consequences. If she has her way their will be no more affirmative action in America and minorities and the poor would be deprived of the one thing that is guaranteed to raise economic outcomes and growth potential a college education. Is this the response of everyone in America or are we a little better than spoiled Texas rich girls?