Affirmative Action Not Helping Low-Income Blacks

A study released this year by researchers at UPenn and Princeton shows race-based admissions at universities are more beneficial to upper-income and foreign blacks than to low-income blacks whom the policy supposedly targets.

Key Statistics:

1. At highly selective colleges and universities, 27 % of black students had at least one parent born outside the U.S.
2. Of these students, 43% had Caribbean heritage and 29% were of African descent.
3. At the eight Ivy league schools, over 40% had at least one parent who was foreign-born.
4. Of American-born black students at the 28 schools, 25% came from families with incomes of $100,000 or more (the national average is just 7%).
5. Of American-born blacks, 27 % graduated from private high schools

Several newspapers have explored the issue. A Toledo Blade article, Affirmative Action: Which Blacks Benefit Most? provides an interesting look at this discrepancy.