Should URM Status Boost Be Replaced? Forum

[pwrbkg4]

This is kind of random, but I had an interesting conversation the other day with one of my old friends from high school, who happened to be black. What he said really struck me and I just thought I should post the gist of it on TLS to see what others think..

First of all, my friend is really well off and came from a line of prominent attorneys. He's one of the smartest guys I've ever known, and one of the reasons why I found Stephanie Grace's argument questionable (if you know what I'm talking about.) Basically, he was ranting off on how URM status should be changed to economic status instead. He argued that most blacks that apply to T14 are definitely not the 'poor, disadvantaged' types, rather, the 'Carlton from Fresh Prince' types (yeah, he actually used those terms.) He argued that income class is a more pressing issue when it comes to representation in elite schools and that the whole URM scheme was meant to help 'disadvantaged' blacks/mexicans/etc., but instead is used by minorities who are well off who don't need it. He mentioned a couple of examples (and please excuse the stereotypes, political correctness were never needed in our conversations), a boost should be given to a 164/3.5 Mexican fruit picker, while a 166/3.7 Black from Baldwin Hills should not. I guess I could see where he's coming from. I mean, should a well off Spaniard or Argentinian be given the Hispanic URM boost? Shouldn't the boost be given instead to a fresh off the boat Cambodian refugee?

Depending on the economic make-up of those ethnicity stats published by law schools, I'm starting to feel that they don't exactly represent diversity either. Rather, it's starting to look like a superficial attempt to flaunt political correctness. Because, in my opinion, if you're upper middle class and up, there's really not much of a difference between ethnic groups (I grew up in an upper middle class community that almost has an equal representation of each ethnic group, and trust me, it is definitely NOT diverse. In fact, I would go so far to say that where I grew up, skin color is rarely on anyone's mind, and that differences in wealth is more of a point of distinction.)

[NU_Jet55]

IBTL

[pkpop]

I've seen a lot of people here on TLS do agree that economic factors should be taken into consideration so it's not like this is a new revelation. Search the appx 50 threads that address this to see what other TLSers say about it.

Also - http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 14&t=25770

[vanwinkle]