The Outstater
Diversity Has its Limits
LISTENING TO BLACK LEGISLATORS at the Statehouse this week protesting Gov. Mike Braun’s dismantling of DEI, it was clear they are driven by sincere conviction. They believe there are many more people like them who deserve to be, say, surgeons, judges, engineers and pilots, but are being unfairly denied.
Oh, you should wish that were so easy to fix. We need more such professional expertise, as diverse as possible. But it is a fact, although the reason is arguable, that American foundational blacks at this moment in history on average do not score as well on the tests required for professional licensure.
Perhaps more can be done to prepare them scholastically. The percentages, however, have remained frustratingly constant even over these last 50 years of social leveling. That is where we stand, unless you think diversity is a worthy goal in itself.
So do we ignore merit testing?
Interestingly, we tried that, not only in outright DEI appointments but in admission to professional education programs. It is easier for a black to get into law or medical school than it was a generation ago — and into flight-controller school, if we may link to recent headlines.
But columnist Steve Sailer says that in the second Obama administration we began rigging the Federal Aviation Administration tests. He found this in a lawsuit against the administration filed by the Mountain States Legal Foundation:
“…a candidate could be awarded 15 points, the highest possible for any question, if they indicated that their lowest grades in high school were in science…. In contrast, an applicant was awarded only 2 points if they had a pilot’s certificate and no points were awarded for having a Control Tower Operator rating or having Instrument Flight Rules experience. . . . In addition, one question on the Biographical Questionnaire awarded an applicant 10 points, the most available for that question, if the applicant answered s/he (sic) had not been employed in the prior three years. Another question awarded 4 or 8 points if the applicant had been unemployed five or more months in the prior three years.”
Who, really, benefits from such manipulation? Not, certainly, the young black test-taker who invested in a false promise. Again, whether we like it or not, proportionally fewer blacks finally enter their chosen high-tech field.
While the social scientists are sorting that out, note that a secondary problem has arisen. Because getting admitted to a college isn’t the same thing as becoming a doctor, those socially favored candidates dead-filled slots in the various professional schools. Hypothetically, those were slots taken from candidates who ultimately would have succeeded. If so, you have a shortage of doctors, flight controllers, surgeons, engineers or what have you.
Something similar although less grievous happened in the 1980s when women flooded veterinary schools. As it turned out, they were more likely on average to interrupt or even curtail their careers to give birth and raise a family. Did that reduce the number of practicing vets and raise the cost of care?
Again, how did any of this help anyone other than the race brokers? Not certainly those citizens, black or white, men or women, in need of affordable professional services, some of mortal concern. We all want to wake up from surgery, to drive safely over a bridge, to book a flight that doesn’t fall out of the sky.
Our legislators can protest as their political interests dictate. Our governor, though, has restored sanity to the processes of licensure, contracting and hiring. Sooner or later, please know, someone has to ensure there are enough surgeons who can surgeon, engineers who can engineer, flight controllers who can control flights. Merit matters. — tcl
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