Re: Puzzles re: Grutter and Korematsu - hispanics and segregated schools

[David Bernstein]

I don't think anyone would argue that the poor quality of an applicant's pre-college education is a constitutionally impermissible factors to consider in admissions.  But that is a different argument than arguing that Latinos/Hispanics *as a class* should be able to get special consideration, regardless of what school they went to, or for that matter the socioeconomic status of their parents, the country they or their ancestors migrated from (are Argentine-Americans or Chilean-Americans subject to virulent discrimination in the US?), their ties to Latino/Hispanic culture, the racial group they identify with and/or appear to others to belong to, or any other relevant factors that plausibly suggest either that an applicant should receive special treatment for overcoming obstacles or for being able to make a special "diversity" contribution to the school. 


In a message dated 6/27/2003 2:30:51 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

Here is the quote from Ginsberg's concurring opinion (Grutter, 2003 WL 21433492 at p *25)

"As to public education, data for the years 2000-2001 show that 71.6% of African-American children and 76.3% of Hispanic children attended a school in which minorities made up a majority of the student body. See E. Frankenberg, C. Lee, &G. Orfield, A Multiracial Society with Segregated Schools: Are We Losing the Dream? p. 4 (Jan.2003), http://www.civilrights project. harvard.edu / research / reseg03/AreWeLosing theDream.pdf (as visited June 16, 2003, and available in Clerk of Court's case file). And schools in predominantly minority communities lag far behind others measured by the educational resources available to them. See id., at 11; Brief for National Urban League et al. as Amici Curiae 11-12 (citing General Accounting Office, Per-Pupil Spending Differences Between Selected Inner City and Suburban Schools Varied by Metropolitan Area, 17 (2002)).

Whether schools are segregated de jure or defacto, racially segregated schools provide lesser educational opportunities for minority students. For example, I visited a predominantly black public high school in a working class black community on the South Side of Chicago. IT was like walking into a prison or a barracks. The walls were dingy, the plumbing leaked, the last paint job was probably in the 50s. There was little light, etc. ANd this doesn't even get into educational resources like library books, teacher-pupil ratios, science labs, etc.  In my own neighborhood, a fast developing, racially integrated,  upscale,  near downtown area, a public magnet high school was recently changed from a business curriculum, which attracted almost exclusively minority students, who were mostly bussed in, to a college prep curriculum, which is now significantly more racially integrated. Since the conversion, they have added a new wing, they've redone the walls with the bright red tile, and they are trying to kick out an adjoining homeless shelter to add in a swimming pool, and athletic facility.

Go figure.
yb