Author D'Souza speaks

Dinesh D'Souza criticized the use of affirmative action as being counterproductive to easing racial tensions last night at an open forum sponsored by the Fellowship Commission. "Are [the universities] fighting fire with gasoline?" D'Souza asked. D'souza, the author of Illiberal Eductaion: the Politics of Race and Sex on Campus was the keynote speaker at the three-hour-long open forum held at Thomas Jefferson University. As a springboard to his speech, D'Souza told of how the University of California at Berkeley accepts well qualified Latino high school students over equally well-qualified Asian or Caucasian students. D'Souza said that most universitites today choose to accept the best students among distinct racial or ethnic groups instead of simply choosing the best students in an aggregate group. Consequently, he said, the cost of such a system is that well qualified students get rejected by colleges. "Do we combat institutional racism by enshrining new forms?" D'Souza asked. He also said "higher drop-out rates among blacks and Latinos in prestigious universities such as Stanford and Berkeley" occur because those students "cannot compete with the other students." D'Souza added that he finds racial separatism is prevalent on college campuses. He cited the publishing of an all-black year book entitled "Positively Black" and holding a separate minority orientation for incoming students as examples of segregation at the Univeristy. In an example of double standards at the University, D'Souza gave the hypothetical situation of the formation of an all white fraternity at the University. In response, the administration would immediately punish the members of the fraternity, he said. However, the administration accepts the distinctive minority associations that are active across the campus. D'Souza also mentioned how affirmative action enhances insecurity among young people. "Young people are insecure," D'Souza said. "They ask questions like 'Can I compete?' 'Am I smart enough?' Affirmative action puts these questions in italics." To smooth over the tensions that exist, universities employ "Political Correctness." He said the most aggressive universities at enforcing P.C. tend to harbor the greatest volume of racial tensions. Some members panelists disagreed with D'Souza, saying that without affirmative action there would be fewer minority students enrolled and a smaller percentage of minority faculty. Other panelists said affirmative action acts as a socio-economic equalizer. Jean Wu, undergraduate associate dean of Bryn Mawr College who also teaches a class on Asian-Americans at the University, defined the problem with affirmative action as a difference between justice for individuals and justice for groups instead of D'Souza's view of simply being unfair. "We don't have a level playing field," said Myrna Adams, associate provost at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Audience members had a mixed reaction to D'Souza's speech. "I disagree heartily," said Cheryl Lee'Kin, a 1991 Bryn Mawr graduate. "I think he is a simplistic thinker, as is the case when someone is exclusively exposed to a Euro-centric view of the world." However, some tried to viewed the forum neutrally. "If people come and say 'I don't agree with affirmative action or P.C.', then there is a labeling of that view as illegitimate," said College senior Michael Oh. "It all comes down to dealing with the issue of silencing."

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