TO THE EDITOR:
Arguments like Ilya Shapiro’s in favor of merit-based admissions ignore the realities experienced by, well, people who are not represented by those who determine the standards for “merit” in higher education.
The overwhelmingly rich, white, married, and male groups in power prove and perpetuate the presence of discrimination throughout our society.
Whether or not the Cato Institute, to which Shapiro belongs, is concerned by continued racist and sexist discrimination in higher education, those of us who do not benefit from their defense of the status quo can agree on his argument’s irrelevance.
Unfortunately, institutional racism was not dismantled with the passage of the Civil Rights Act, or with any of the other legislative band-aids laid across gaping wounds of injustice in the past half-century.
As these provisions come under attack, members of our university community especially have a responsibility to examine the merit of arguments in favor of supposed race-neutral policies or the abolition of protections for marginalized groups.
Self-serving organizations like the Cato Institute have little interest in UNC fulfilling its mission to enhance the quality of life for all people in North Carolina.
Sarah-Kathryn Bryan
Women’s and gender
studies ’15
