Abigail Fisher, a Texas resident, argued to the Supreme Court that affirmative action discriminates against white people.

She asked, “Why would black people be given an ‘advantage’ in application process just for being black?” That is the end of her argument.

At the University of Texas, the black student population is only 4 percent, meaning 2,342 students threaten Fisher’s white privilege. What would happen if the black population on that campus were 8 percent or even 15 percent?

Here at the University of Wisconsin the black population is only 2 percent — how many students are already threatened by that?

Budget decisions could deepen historic underrepresentation of black students at UW

While UT and UW are predominantly white, they are also, in fact, historically white institutions.

The distinction is critical.

These institutions were made for white people. It does not belong to us and was not made for us. It is made clear on a daily basis because of the simple fact that we are struggling to see positive results from many of the diversity initiatives on campus. If it belonged to us and worked for us, we’d be more than a mere 2 percent of the student population.

Sometimes I ask myself, “Why would UW completely fund my education?” I’m here for myself, but I am also here for UW. There are a ton of brilliant black and brown kids in Milwaukee, but for some reason, UW was inspired to recruit me from Washington, D.C. Am I a token? Definitely. I am the projection of their illusion of a racial democracy and diversity. I’ve been given access to this institution as a means to their end.

Currently, diversity exists to benefit the image of UW, but it should exist to benefit the students on campus, both black and white. The Supreme Court case asks if diversity is a “compelling” government interest.

Let me tell you, it is of interest to UW only because without diversity, companies won’t want to hire the white students from this campus.

I want to see a university put action behind their diversity rhetoric. One way to truly commit to diversity is with testing optional admissions. There is a vast amount of research that states’ standardized testing restricts the pool of diverse applicants, and that it adds little value to predict how well students will perform once enrolled.

On top of that, standardized test scores are correlated with one’s socio-economic status, so it does not just affect black and brown students, but low-income white students as well. The median income of our campus is 25 percent higher than the state’s. So why are we using standardized testing in admissions? Does it connect back to the image of prestige that UW would like to signal to its wealthy clientele?

Many people have diverse experiences that could make UW significantly better, but the institutional policies that exist discourage those people from even applying. Equality is creating more pathways for diverse students.

Make me not feel like a token — that’s all I want.

Tyriek Mack ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in elementary education and is an organizer of the Black Out Movement on campus.