Why affirmative action must end in Canada as it did in the US

Commentary

On June 29, the Supreme Court of the United States in a 6-3 decision knocked down affirmative action in university and college admissions, ruling that it was unconstitutional to use racial preferences in their admissions decisions.

“The student should be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual – not based on race,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts. “Many universities have done the opposite for too long. And in doing so, they have, erroneously, concluded that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not the challenges overcome, the skills acquired, or the lessons learned, but the color of their skin. Our political history does not tolerate that choice.”

One of the universities in question was Harvard. In 2018, The Economist published a graphic in his story about Harvard’s discrimination, which made clear its discriminatory approach. The graph split applicants, excluding legacy admissions and recruiting athletes, into 10 academic deciles (with the first decile representing students in the bottom 10 percent and the 10th decile representing students in the top 10 percent).

It showed that students in the top decile had an admission rate of nearly 60 percent if they were black, but less than 40 percent if Hispanic, less than 20 percent if White, and less than 15 percent if Asian. In fact, an Asian in the 10th decile was less likely to be accepted at Harvard than a black student in the fourth decile. Clearly, Harvard’s approach was biased against some people and favored others based on skin color.

While the Supreme Court in the United States ruled that it was unacceptable to discriminate against individuals on the basis of their skin color in admission to university, the use of racial preferences continues unabated in Canada. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms allows such discrimination if the stated intent is “the betterment of the conditions of disadvantaged individuals or groups”.

A recent column by Jamie Sarkonak gave examples of racial preferences or quotas in certain programs at Dalhousie University, the University of Calgary, Queen’s and even Toronto’s K-12 public schools. But discriminating against people based on their skin color is illiberal and wrong, and when public money is involved (as in the case of public universities or government-run schools), it should not be allowed.

A remarkable aspect of public policy debates, including affirmative action, is the focus on stated intentions rather than actual results. Proponents of affirmative action say it helps underprivileged groups of people; opponents say it unfairly disadvantages individuals based on their skin color. Such affirmative action points are welcome, but it’s also important to look at the results. Thomas Sowell, the famous 93-year-old American economist and author who spent much of his career studying and writing about race and discrimination, complained that the “actual question of what actually happens as a result of affirmative action policies receives remarkably little attention.”

Sowell’s scientific work paints a devastating picture of the true results of affirmative action. In over 18,000 words essay in Commentary in 1989, Sowell identified four patterns of affirmative action programs worldwide:

1. Even when introduced as temporary, they tend to persist and, in fact, expand over time;
2. Within groups receiving preferential treatment, benefits go disproportionately to the most fortunate members;
3. Group polarization increases as the groups that are discriminated against or deprived of preferential treatment react negatively; And
4. There is widespread fraud as people falsely claim to belong to designated groups receiving preferential treatment.

The second point is especially important in the current Canadian context where we have government programs that provide exclusive funding, preference in government procurement, or other favorable treatment of people from groups (racial or otherwise) reportedly aggrieved. The reality is that people who can get large sums of government money by showing government officials or university administrators that they have been disadvantaged probably won’t.

Sowell concluded more than three decades ago that “the starting point for reconsideration and reform must be the recognition that ‘affirmative action’ has been a failure in the United States and a disaster in other countries that have long pursued such policies.” His Commentary essay, along with his book “Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study”, published by Yale University Press in 2004, is full of evidence to support that conclusion.

The recent ruling of the US Supreme Court is a good start to undo the disaster. But in Canada, where the Charter of Rights and Freedoms tolerates affirmative action, it will take political willpower to end this unfair and disastrous discrimination.

© Troy Media

The views expressed in this article are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.