[closeparen]

The left’s key project in contemporary American life is to critique meritocracy. One of the most effective critiques of meritocratic ranking engines is disparate impact. Disparate impact analysis calls for an identity-group-aggregate perspective over a many-individuals perspective. Example:

Proponents of standardized tests emphasize that the grading of each booklet is fair. The multiple choice portion is unambiguous and graded by machine. The essay portion is graded blind and by several readers with high inter-rather reliability. We are fairly confident that no specific child is writing down the right answers and then getting a bad score because of her race.

Opponents argue that the test score distributions reproduce classic racial hierarchies. Lower scores lead directly to fewer students from marginalized backgrounds attending college, and from there to lower lifetime earnings. Therefore standardized tests are an obvious target for reducing the racial wealth gap.

[beaconstudios]

I think the idea that the tests are racist is stupid and full of liberalism, just like affirmative action: intent on treating the symptoms so they don't have to treat the disease. The root cause of the problem is that black people are still deeply affected by the historical racism that was applied to them (and the racism that still continues, but that's comparatively small compared to slavery, Jim crow redlining etc). Withdrawing hundreds of years of intentional discrimination doesn't balance the scales - you would have to push in the opposite direction to rectify the damage.