The Rhodes Scholarship Turns Against Its Legacy of Excellence – WSJ

The tragedy of this situation is that many of those who call for special conditions for black students and thereby implicitly treat them as incapable of competing on an equal basis, do not know black people as people. The proliferation of Black Lives Matter signs in wealthy white neighborhoods instead of where the killing is taking place shows that what is actually at stake is self-serving demonstrations of virtue by whites, in which blacks play only a peripheral role.

The creation of unequal conditions for winning the Rhodes Scholarship can only destroy the scholarship as a respected institution, even if the name is preserved. The best white applicants won t take part in a competition that is unfair, and the best minority students will reject a competition if they believe it is rigged in their favor.

Former Rhodes Scholars rely on the warden and the trustees to manage the trust in keeping with the conditions spelled out in Rhodes s will. The changes of the past few years took me and other scholars by surprise. It is imperative that they be withdrawn. The Rhodes Scholarships were important not only to those who received them but to those who aimed high because they aspired to them. Their corruption must be stopped for the institution s sake and for that of the U.S. and the rest of the world.

via www.wsj.com