SCOTUS Affirmative Action Decision: How a White Student Scapegoated Blacks to Make Excuses for Her Own Lack of Merit

Ruben Navarette Jr., writing for CNN, summarizes it quite nicely:

 Here's what really happened in the Lone Star State. When Fisher applied in 2008, the university set aside three-fourths of its available slots to students who graduated in the top 10% of their high school classes. (Today, it's 8%.)

Fisher's academics weren't strong enough to get her into that category; she graduated in the top 12%. And rather than admit that she should have earned better grades, she got angry with the university which doled out other slots under a process that weighed several factors including race and socioeconomic status.....

Curiously, Fisher blamed the university's policy -- rather than her own academic shortcomings -- for not getting into the University of Texas. And then, she filed a lawsuit

Are we clear on what happened? Not yet?  A bit more then:

Average SAT score at UTA is a 1200.  Abigail Fisher scored an 1180.  The University of Texas at Austin uses two indexes, the Academic index and the Personal Achievement index, to determine admission for students. The Academic Index combines grades and standardized test scores while the Personal Achievement Index considers the submitted essays along with extracurricular activities and special circumstance (which can include race). These two scores are combined and plotted on a graph and everyone above a certain combined score is admitted while everyone below is rejected. Abigail Fisher fell below that line, along with more than 100 students who were also denied admission.

Gregory Garre, the University of Texas at Austin’s attorney:

“Even if Abigail Fisher had received a perfect Personal Achievement Index score she would not have been admitted … because her Academic Index was simply not high enough. Fisher would not have been admitted, no matter what her race.”

Got that? Her academic merit was not sufficient.  Even if you gave her a perfect score on the personal achievement index, she would not have been admitted.  But somehow, the black students who were admitted are the only ones she wanted to blame for her academic shortfall.  See how that works?

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