Where does this leave Middle America? Not to put too fine a point on it, the white Christian middle class is being dispossessed. If elite colleges and grad schools enroll 72 percent of their students from the small Democratic minorities while white Christians and Catholics, who make up 72 percent of the population, are relegated to under 25 percent of the seats, there is no doubt who is going to run America in the 21st century... |
Buried in the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal was a remarkable essay, which exposes the true, and hidden, story of who is really "underrepresented" in our elite schools, and who are the victims of ethnic bigotry in America.
The author is Ron Unz, a Harvardian 20 years ago, now a controversial California political activist and entrepreneur, who led the successful state initiative to abolish bilingual education. Ron Unz also called for, unsuccessfully, an end to the bigotry of "English as a Second Language "substitute tests and admissions standards that aid immigrant students who score less than American Whites on language portion of entrance exams.
According to Unz, today at Harvard College, Hispanic and black enrollment has reached 7 percent and 8 percent, respectively, less than the 14 percent and 12 percent of the U.S. population that is Hispanic and black. (These groups often have griped more loudly than others but carry less political influence.) It is worth mentioning that a significant percentage of these students are from abroad.
But Unz does not stop there. He goes on to report that nearly 20 percent of the Harvard College student body is Asian-American (and Asian foreign nationals who often stay post graduation), and 33 percent is Jewish-Americans, though Asian-Americans make up less than 4 percent of the U.S. population and Jewish-Americans even less than 2 percent. Thus, 50 percent of Harvard's student body is drawn from about 5 percent of the U.S. population!
Statistics tell us that Harvard and the top dozen colleges could fill their schools with students of any race without any significant drop off in the historic numerical indicators of student quality. These schools have their choice of the top students throughout the world and they have the resources to educate them at the universities' expense. Choices are being made and they are based on race.
When one adds foreign students, students from (what remains of) the tiny WASP elite and children of graduates, what emerges is a Harvard student body where non-Jewish whites -- over 72 percent of the U.S. population -- get less than 25 percent of the slots. (And they say it is far worse in graduate and professional schools.) Talk about underrepresentation! Now we know who really gets the shaft at Harvard.
The same situation, says Unz, exists (even more pronounced) at other elite schools like Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Berkeley and Stanford, (where Chelsea Clinton went). As legacies, who account for 16 percent of admissions in the Ivy League, become more non-white Christians, the seats will decline even further. A liberal elite has salved its social conscience by robbing America's white middle class of its birthright, and handing it over.
It is clear Protestant Christians, Catholics, Mormons and Muslims are the victims of a bigotry so embedded, Harvard will not see it right in front of its eyes. As for the ethnic identity of Harvard's rejects, it must include many kids of German, Scots-Irish, Dutch, Irish, Welsh, Italian, French, Scandinavian, Greek, Slavic,-- and dozens of other small ethnic groups.
Even the Protestant sons and daughters of groups that built these schools- Presbyterians and Congregationalists at Harvard, Penn and Dartmouth; Baptists at Brown; Episcopalians at Columbia; Evangelicals and Methodists at Penn- are barely to be found on their respective campuses. Over 70 percent of Americans are Protestants while their numbers at these colleges barely break two digits.
Growing up Catholic in America, one knew the Ivy League was hostile terrain; few Ivy League recruiters were ever sent out to offer scholarships to deserving boys from Catholic high schools. But I had no idea how far the Ivy League had gone in denying its first-class tickets to kids whose ancestors happened to come from Europe.
Since affirmative action was instituted, conservatives have battled for the idea that character, ability and excellence should be the criteria for advancement, not gender, race or ethnicity. Boys and girls, men and women, should be admitted to schools or promoted in jobs based on what they have accomplished, not on which country or continent their kinfolk came from.
The argument has rang hollow as some upper crust conservative leaders, with more money, influence and legacy admittances to pass on have sold the Christian white middle and lower classes down the river just as the liberals have. Now it becomes obvious that sometimes competition is using your resources, influence or numbers to level the playing field in advance.
Where does this leave Middle America? Not to put too fine a point on it, the white Christian middle class is being dispossessed. If elite colleges and grad schools enroll 72 percent of their students from the small minorities while white Christians and Catholics, who make up 72 percent of the population, are relegated to 25 percent of the seats, there is no doubt who is going to run America in the 21st century.
With immigration -- 1.5 million legal and illegal immigrants entering yearly -- increasing the share of the citizenry that is Hispanic, Asian and black, this means a ratcheting up of black and Hispanic demands for proportional representation, successful or not. (And Jewish Americans and Asian nations will quietly push to for disproportionate access as they have been.) As Unz has pointed out, these demands are invariably met at the expense of white Christians. Is there a way out? Perhaps.
Perhaps ethnic Catholics and Christians can stop resisting proportional representation -- and join Blacks and Hispanics in demanding their fair share of the slots at Harvard, etc., based on their share of the U.S. population. How can Harvard say no to the Irish and yes to others? And the weight of demand of Christian European Americans, blacks and Hispanics- well over 90% of Americans- would be enough to turn the tide.
If Harvard balks, denounce it as bigoted and demand a cut-off of federal funds. If Jewish groups complain remind them that the doors were originally opened to them by their own demands for access on the basis of race. If proportional representation is the name of the game, Christians (and including) European-Americans should get into the game, and demand their fair share of every pie: 72 percent, and no less.
Editor's note- Next Time: Ivy League and other top university presidents; top law school and business school deans and the question of discrimination and inequality in university hiring.
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