Source: Yiming Chen / Getty
A viral social media post purporting to show video footage of a college applicant being rejected by his apparent top Ivy League choice claimed the decision was made based on race.
The video – entitled “Bro got rejected bc he’s White” – was making the rounds on social media nearly six months after the U.S. Supreme Court reversed four decades of precedent and banned colleges and universities from ever considering race or ethnicity in admissions in any way and for any reason.
MORE: OP-ED: The Supreme Court Is A True Maestro Of Regression
The footage features a person wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with Cornell University’s name and apparently sitting in front of a computer screen before presumably opening an email to learn his admissions fate at the school in Ithaca, New York.
As the audience meets the story’s protagonist, blurbs of the applicant’s academic and social accomplishments are splashed across the video for viewers to understand why he is so deserving of being admitted to Cornell.
“4.6 GPA,” one message says; “1460 SAT,” another claims as the student is shown unable to sit still, apparently overcome with the anticipatory excitement of his clear expectations of being admitted.
At this point, an older man who appears to be the student’s father is shown standing in the background, arms crossed.
More accolades were printed across the video: “460+ hours community service,” “summer college courses;” “built investment portfolios;” $160,000 scholarships.”
He’s even “played the clarinet for 10 years,” a message claimed.
Whoever made this video wanted everybody to know just how supremely qualified this kid was for Cornell, which isn’t even the most competitive Ivy League school when it comes to admissions.
With this kind of resume, there’s no way this kid could be rejected, right? Right?
Wrong, as it turns out.
“But it was still not good enough,” says another message printed across the screen.
Viewers learn that truth as a somber-sounding piano steadily plays in the background.
“I got rejected,” the student says without any emotion.
“It’s OK,” his father replies quickly with a tone of encouragement as the video comes to an end.
The cinematic masterpiece has since then been deleted.
https://twitter.com/JoshLekach/status/1736478248035373314?s=20
While it’s unclear when this video was filmed, the Supreme Court in June made itself very clear when it struck down affirmative action and ruled that colleges and universities “may never use race as a stereotype or negative, and — at some point — they must end.”
The 6-3 opinion along ideological lines also dictated that “nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise. But, despite the dissent’s assertion to the contrary, universities may not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today.”
All of which means, of course, that Cornell could not have rejected the applicant in the video “bc he’s White.”
However, even if affirmative action was still in place, the student in the video and his alleged 1460 SAT score still fell short of Cornell’s academic standards for applicants who typically “have an SAT score between 1470–1550,” according to the College Board.
Beyond that, the College Board also noted that Cornell is “extremely selective” and accepts just 7% of on average more than 71,000 applications annually.
In other words, while the student’s grades were indeed elite, they simply just weren’t elite enough for his top choice of universities.
Cornell, meanwhile, said on the day of the Supreme Court decision that it was “disappointed” by the Supreme Court’s decision.
“Cornell will follow the law, but within its scope we will remain a welcoming community, with strong core values and an unwavering adherence to our historic founding principle: to be a university where “any person can find instruction in any study,” Cornell President Martha E. Pollack said in a statement back in June.
Months later, a task force empaneled by Cornell to look for alternative ways to diversity its student body released a report with recommendations.
Despite Pollack’s comments — or, perhaps, because of them — the person behind the viral social media post seemingly disagrees by feeling the need to claim without proof that “Bro got rejected bc he’s White.”
“Heartbreaking to see the disappointment on his face,” one person responded to the social post. “His dad there hoping to congratulate him. This equity nonsense needs to stop.”
That comment elicited a flood of replies carrying doses of sobering truth for people who expected the affirmative action ruling to increase all white students’ admissions rates at top colleges.
“No he got rejected because his credentials are below average for the caliber of school he’s applying to,” one user wrote. “Playing an instrument and getting 480 hours of community service signed off on doesn’t make you exceptional (especially with test scores like that).”
“He got rejected because he’s not unique,” another wrote. “He’s boring nothing about him says unique or interesting. He and 10k others who do this.”
This is America.
SEE ALSO:
Legacy Admissions: Why HBCU Family Ties Are Different From PWIs’
Ending Affirmative Action: Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Dissent vs. Clarence Thomas’ Concurring Opinion
