Two Lexington H-L articles jumped out at me today. One was a news story based on an African American state legislator's concerns about increasing academic standards and the resulting decrease in the admission of black freshmen. The other was an editorial that criticized the University of Kentucky for not graduating a sufficient number of African American students.
I knew in college several African American students who benefitted from special admissions preferences. They got help getting in the door, but those who got degrees earned them.
Community colleges, private schools, and online courses make higher education available to just about anyone. I think that a case can be made, however, for racial preferences in the admissions process at public universities. In any event, I'm not much interested in that fight here.
What is astounding to me is that the Lexington Herald Leader would, in 2005, suggest that UK President Lee Todd deserves punishment for not handing out more degrees to African American students.
Another fine example of the "soft bigotry of low expectations" indeed.
