I don't know if Sarah meant that ethnicity affects intelligence in the way that you seem to think of intelligence. It affects one's perspective on the world. The way that a few of the earlier commenters talked about leaving race off the application completely makes it seem like they would be comfortable going to a school that was all white, if that were how race-blind applications happened to work out. But Uni's goal is supposed to be better EDUCATION, not simply gathering the best students in one place. I think going to school with a bunch of people from the same background you have will give you a terrible education. It's easy for non-minority students to feel like there is no problem with diversity at Uni, it is a little harder to recognize how homogeneous our education is and how much is being left out when the school's population is so out of proportion with the racial dynamics of our town.
To say that paying attention to race in the application process is racist is so, so misinformed. What seems to be missing from this conversation is an acknowledgment of the racism that is already ingrained in our society. Let's not pretend we live in an equal society and that reaching out to minorities is making it unequal. Not only do I think it is in all students' interests to have a diverse student body at our school, but I think that as an institution Uni has a responsibility to work to counteract the racist conditions we are all living with daily. I am talking about institutionalized racism- let's look at the proportion of minority people in leading positions in our society- very few, right? What about the inproportionate amount of African Americans in poverty? That's not coincidence, that is a system. I think we all are familiar with the segregated neighborhoods of our very own Champaign Urbana and with the racial profiling that is rampant in police operations in our own town. Are you aware of the recent Brian Chesley case (check out "Three Cops versus an Entire Community in April, 2008 public i http://publici.ucimc.org/)? This is the norm across the country. Housing and the justice system are just two aspects of the ways in which our country is oppressive to people of color. Recognizing that is key because Uni and other such institutions' taking an active role in increasing minority access to them is a necessary, although still tiny in the big picture, step to take to try to correct the inequalities we are dealing with.
I don't know if Sarah meant
I don't know if Sarah meant that ethnicity affects intelligence in the way that you seem to think of intelligence. It affects one's perspective on the world. The way that a few of the earlier commenters talked about leaving race off the application completely makes it seem like they would be comfortable going to a school that was all white, if that were how race-blind applications happened to work out. But Uni's goal is supposed to be better EDUCATION, not simply gathering the best students in one place. I think going to school with a bunch of people from the same background you have will give you a terrible education. It's easy for non-minority students to feel like there is no problem with diversity at Uni, it is a little harder to recognize how homogeneous our education is and how much is being left out when the school's population is so out of proportion with the racial dynamics of our town.
To say that paying attention to race in the application process is racist is so, so misinformed. What seems to be missing from this conversation is an acknowledgment of the racism that is already ingrained in our society. Let's not pretend we live in an equal society and that reaching out to minorities is making it unequal. Not only do I think it is in all students' interests to have a diverse student body at our school, but I think that as an institution Uni has a responsibility to work to counteract the racist conditions we are all living with daily. I am talking about institutionalized racism- let's look at the proportion of minority people in leading positions in our society- very few, right? What about the inproportionate amount of African Americans in poverty? That's not coincidence, that is a system. I think we all are familiar with the segregated neighborhoods of our very own Champaign Urbana and with the racial profiling that is rampant in police operations in our own town. Are you aware of the recent Brian Chesley case (check out "Three Cops versus an Entire Community in April, 2008 public i http://publici.ucimc.org/)? This is the norm across the country. Housing and the justice system are just two aspects of the ways in which our country is oppressive to people of color. Recognizing that is key because Uni and other such institutions' taking an active role in increasing minority access to them is a necessary, although still tiny in the big picture, step to take to try to correct the inequalities we are dealing with.