Tariq Nelson

The Barack Obama types now represent double their share of college students amongst blacks 

Black students with U.S. ancestry appear to be less represented in college than race-based statistics indicate, as immigrants make up a disproportionate share of admissions, a Princeton University analysis found.

First- or second-generation immigrants made up 27 percent of black freshmen entering 28 top-ranked colleges in 1999, according to the study released Tuesday. Such immigrants accounted for only 13 percent of all U.S. blacks aged 18 or 19 that year, the researchers found.

‘Double their share’

”In other words, the representation of immigrant-origin blacks at selective institutions of higher education was roughly double their share in the population,” said the report by Princeton sociology professor Douglas Massey and his colleagues at the New Jersey school and at the University of Pennsylvania.

The findings may revive claims that affirmative action designed to help the descendants of slaves are more likely to benefit high-achieving immigrants from countries such as Ghana, Nigeria and Jamaica, the authors wrote.

Goes beyond race preferences

”It’s a very complicated, messy issue,” said Terry Hartle of the American Council on Education.”If it were easy, we would have figured it out a long time ago.”

The study highlights a problem with college admissions that extends beyond disputes over racial preferences, said Harvard University law professor Lani Guinier.

”This is not a debate about affirmative action; this is a debate about the very core mission of higher education,” Guinier said. ”I want them to tell me what their graduates are doing to serve the larger society, not what their applicants got on a timed test.”