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^^ diversity of skin colors does not make for actual diversity, says Nataly Leycid, senior at Phillips Exeter Academy

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In this long analysis, Melissa Trask Davy responds to an article written in the Washington Post by Nataly Leycid, a senior at Phillips Exeter Acaemy.

You might want to read Leycid’s article before opining about Trask-Davy’s analysis. Here is the link : https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/12/supreme-court-income-based-affirmative-action-phillips-exeter/

Trask Davy :

I don’t know if having the formula she describes is really the answer to getting to the needed admissions process, but it’s a start,  This is a very insightful article,

We are always talking about wanting people who “look like us” in order to succeed , and as a result we fixate on external, visible “identity” characteristics. These are deeply misleading, as she discovered at Exeter.  

First of all, having a certain skin color does not determine as much about you as we have been presuming — there are white people with black parents, black people with white parents, Latino people with Asian-American parents, etc etc. This country is a mix.  Having skin that might be considered black does not mean you are directly descended from American slaves.  Neither does having white skin automatically give you all the biases generally attributed to white people these days.  “White privilege” is real, but so is economic privilege and so is the privilege that goes with other kinds of status.  We presume that skin color dominates everything, and that is leading us down the wrong path, both in terms of prejudice and in terms of privilege.

The other error in thinking that goes with all this identity judgement is that we presume all people think the same way because of how they look on the outside. That is just simply not true. All women, all LGBTQ people do not think the same way.  All Asian-Americans do not think, vote, speak or spend money for the same reasons.  The “Asian” origin is one of the most ridiculous presumptions because it lumps in people, say, from the Philippines, from Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Korea, etc as if they were a single bloc.  But so is thinking all black Americans think the same way, and/or will vote the same way.  Sometimes there are trends in a certain community, but if you break it down it is as likely to be community of origin as skin color.  The same problem is there when you lump in all so-called “Latino” voters, including Spain,Mexico, Central  and South America — I mean, really! or Middle Easterners.  It creates a false opposition of all of these identity groups to so-called white people — when really, most of us are a mix,

It is brilliant to read this student’s experience of coming to Exeter and seeing students who really look just like her class in Rhode Island, only to find out they are totally different because of the way they think, and the way they’ve been brought up.  She finds diversity of skin color at her school but homogeneity of thought. The students are better prepared, but they all think the same way.   Of course, Exeter should try to give more advantages to students who have lacked economic privilege, and become good students anyway.  But the point she makes shows us other things, too.  To do education right, Exeter (and other elite institutions, especially colleges) would really benefit by introducing diversity of experience and points of view.  This should not mean a lowering of standards, though they may have to provide extra support for people who come from backgrounds with fewer resources.  They should keep up their high standards, but make their choices based on knowing about their experience and what is inside their heads, not just by looking at the color of their skin.

Melissa Trask-Davy / special to Here and Sphere