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To the Editor:
Tom Cardella’s column (“Race and affirmative action,” May 1) offered some interesting ideas and proposals in the face of the recent ruling by the Supreme Court on college admissions. If only problems like racial bias and fairness were so easily solved.
Cardella suggests substituting economics for race as a deciding factor. His point is well taken. A postsecondary education is becoming increasingly unaffordable. And certainly minorities suffer disproportionately from the effects of poverty.
However, in total numbers, there are more poor whites than poor blacks in America. According to data from the 2012 Inequality.Org site, white poor outnumber the black poor considerably, 19 to 7.8 million. White people make up 42 percent of America’s poor, black people about 28 percent. So, poor whites easily outnumber poor blacks and other minorities when applying for college under Cardella’s plan.
Meanwhile, he has not solved the problem of how to pay for all those expensive college educations for the poor.
I agree that affirmative action poses many dilemmas. Some kind of formula should be in place to make sure there is equality of opportunity for all minorities.There is however no advantage for minorities by basing college admissions on a means test.
South Philadelphia
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