 ight
after I was discharged from the Army
at the end of the Second World War, I was interviewed as a prospective
enrollee by the then Director of Admissions at Columbia University. After
no more than a few minutes of conversation, he started to discourage me
from applying for admission. The reason? There was a Jewish quota on the
campus, he said, and it was already filled.
The fact that I had served my country for three years, including several
months under intense fire on Okinawa was totally irrelevant. To the best
of my recollection, I was more astonished than angry. Anyway, he succeeded
in discouraging me, and I enrolled at a different school.
Now, given all the civil rights legislation that has been put into place
over the last thirty years or so, the common perception today appears to
be that that kind of outrage just couldn't happen again.
Weeeeell, not true.
You see, if you want a student body made up of such and such a percentage
of blacks, such and such a percentage of Orientals, such and such a percentage
of Hispanics, and so on, you don't have to institute a system of racial
quotas. Or if you want a work force of so many this and so many that, again
you don't have to institute a system of racial quotas. No Sireee. That
would be unAmerican. And we can't have that, now, can we? So instead, all
you have to do today in both cases is institute a system that you call
“Fairness Percentages” or “Equalizing Ratios” or “Cultural Parity.” Or
even “Balanced Handicaps.” You see, these are not racial quotas, ‘cause
neither the word “racial” nor the word “quotas” appears in any one of them.
Now tell me, ain't education wonderful.
Think about it. |
