A Minority Student Thanks Authors Richard Sander and Stuart Taylor, Jr. Who Say She Doesn’t Belong and Would Fail in College

News That Didn’t Happen – But Could

The Review section of the Wall Street Journal was recently turned into the Crass Opinion Section of the Wall Street Journal as that section published a long article by Richard Sander, a Law Professor and Stuart Taylor, Jr., a journalist about why not only should any consideration of race be ended by college admissions, but also how allowing minorities into high quality higher educational programs was detrimental to the minorities. 

The implication was that minorities were harmed by the very programs that strive to help them, because they are too stupid to compete at the higher level, and that minorities should be grateful when the Supreme Court ends the practice of college and universities trying to correct decades and centuries of discrimination.

This Forum just published a critique of that article, but here is a letter the authors might receive in the future from one of those grateful minorities who lives would have been ruined had she been admitted to a top tier academic program.

Dear Mr. Sander and Mr. Taylor, Jr.

I just wanted to write and say thank you for keeping me from making a horrible mistake with my life.  See, as a high school senior I aspired to be a math major in college, and either go on to teach math or work in a math related research facility.  My guidance counselor told me I was not the best student in our school but I had the ability and the dedication and that if I went to a good college I would likely succeed in my goals.

But then I read your article in the WSJ about how I would not be able to compete, that if I were admitted I would be what you called a “mismatch” and that because I was a minority I would simply fail because I was not smart enough to compete at the same level as the majority of the students.  I never knew this, but now that I do I will not make the mistake of applying at a school like the University of Texas or UCLA.

Instead I am going to pursue a career where I will probably succeed, shuttle bus driver at the airport.  I will go to Southeast West Community College now that I realize that as a minority student I am just not smart enough to get a science or math degree at a good four year school.  I just hope I am intelligent enough to get through the program as SWCC because I know I will have trouble getting employed as a shuttle bus driver if I cannot pass the dumbed down courses here, courses which have been specifically dumbed down for people like me.

Your research and writings have helped me avoid making a great mistake in my life, trying to gain an education equal to those in the majority.  I just hope your information reaches other minority students like me before they make the terrible mistake of trying to learn and get a degree from a highly rated college. 

And we all hope the Supreme Court will use your research to strike down any attempt at colleges to diversify their student body by admitting people like me. If they do they will not only be protecting the majority from horrible discrimination, they will be preventing people like me in the minority from ruining our lives. 

Your friend forever,

Adele Smith