LETTERS: Methods of arguing against affirmative action

To the Editor: The first time I read Wilson's column, I was left with a vague sense of confusion, scratching my head as I tried to ascertain the logic behind his connection between affirmative action and the silver spoons of the more wealthy students at Penn. After a second reading, I discovered the source of this confusion: a few paragraphs into his column, in an act of slippery pseudo-logic, Wilson transmutes the term "affirmative action" to mean "preferential treatment." This led me to question the aim of Wilson's piece. At first he seems to be defending affirmative action, yet he never expounds upon the positive aspects of the system. Instead he tries to rebuke the most common argument against affirmative action -- that it offers an unfair advantage -- by using the argument, "Everybody else is doing it, why can't we?" Perhaps this is true, but it bears no weight in an ideological argument; that argument alone does not justify affirmative action. I wish Wilson would have given a true argument for affirmative action. It is a difficult topic, one in which most people are undereducated. Even if he hadn't chosen to truly address the topic, I wish he would have made his argument clear -- that plenty of people here receive preferential treatment -- rather than deciding to use the concept of affirmative action in a thinly veiled attack on those more privileged than himself. Finally, I wish he wouldn't generalize about "white students" when I'm sure he fights against generalizations about blacks every day of his life. I come from a graduating class of 34 in a rural town. My high school didn't even offer calculus. My guidance counselor himself didn't know Penn from Penn State. No one coached me on how to take the SAT or write a college essay. It may be hard for Wilson to believe, but I had to "claw my way" to Penn, too, even though I'm white. I hope that, in the future, he will choose to avoid playing the generalization game, especially with groups as large and diverse as "white students." Nick Kruse College '01 u To the Editor: Malik Wilson makes some very interesting points in his article on affirmative action, but I believe some of his statements were adduced without regard to actual evidence. First of all, if SAT scores do not measure student performance in any way (as he boldly states), would he be willing to support a multiracial commission that compares GPAs at graduation and SAT scores? I highly doubt it. Also, it seems that Wilson believes in the two-wrongs-make-a-right theory of justice -- ie., that white people and South Dakotans receive affirmative action and therefore blacks and Hispanics also deserve special assistance. Unfortunately, the idea that we should strive for color blind admissions gets lost on the way to each and every group grabbings its "fair share" of preferences. So, if Wilson really believes that affirmative action is a fair program and that minorities admitted with lower SAT scores adjust easily to college, I would challenge him to join me in forcing the administration to release all statistics on SAT scores, race and affirmative action. I would like to perform a standard statistical analysis and test the hypothesis which he states without proof. If Wilson truly believes what he says, he should welcome the opportunity to once and for all prove what affirmative action advocates have stated but never proven. Therefore, enough with the statements that are not buttressed by fact. It is time to perform a study, possibly weighted by the difficult of major, that actually tests the qualitative arguments that have been stated without evidence for far to long. Michael Bressler Wharton and Engineering '99