Ending Legacy Admissions Hurts Black Alumni Too. But It’s the Right Thing To Do
It was recently announced that the state of Virginia is moving towards eliminating legacy admissions at its public universities. According to Axios, other proposals are underway in Connecticut and New York.
There has been a growing call from the public in to end legacy. According to a study done by Education Reform Now, 75% of Americans do not support legacy preferences in college admissions. Legacy disproportionately benefits wealthy and white Americans more than other demographic; a disproportion that stems from our country’s history of structural and cultural racism, particularly against Black people.
While ending legacy would end a benefit that college-educated African Americans are just now taking advantage of, it is still the right thing to do.
Using myself as a case study, I’m the first person in my family to attend the University of Virginia, one of the best state universities in the country. As a teenager growing up on the south side of Chicago, it wasn’t even in my periphery. But my father took me on a visit to UVA during Spring Break. We couldn’t have been on Grounds more than a half-hour before I knew that it was where I wanted to be. And when I graduated from UVA in 2012, I knew that it was not just a personal accomplishment — my degree was a…
