Recent study not example of racism

As a doctoral student, I’m dismayed that a vocal minority of Duke students, administrators and alumni seem unable to employ the intelligence that brought them to our University. Table 14 on page 25 of the paper by Dr. Peter Arcidiacono, Esteban Aucejo and Dr. Kenneth Spencer asks whether non-whites switch out of the natural sciences, engineering or economics more or less frequently than whites.

Indeed, since the marginal effect for “black” under the first specification is positive and significantly different from zero, it would appear that blacks are more likely than whites to switch out of these majors. But the marginal effect becomes statistically insignificant from zero as soon as SAT score is controlled for, and it stays insignificant as more information about the student from the Duke admissions office is included.

From a policy perspective, that is an extremely encouraging result. It suggests that what matters is not skin color but rather academic preparation, which is not limited to any race. I’m disappointed that such a positive finding was overlooked by too many students, administrators and alumni who were too eager to look for something to confirm their belief that racism is everywhere in 2012. There’s no doubt that it continues to exist, but the paper by Arcidiacono, Aucejo and Spencer is not an example of it.

Alex Young
Ph.D. candidate, Fuqua School of Business