Fairness is difficult to achieve in a world where everyone holds unique opinions, often swayed by personal experience and bias. Humans tend to prefer what they were taught from youth, what they’re comfortable with as they settle into society, and what fits the narrative they most identify with as they navigate life and gain more knowledge—notice that I said “knowledge,” not wisdom.
To a degree, this take on perception makes sense. Our biology has wired us to gravitate toward what seems safest and familiar. This is nature’s attempt at survival. But in a fallen world, is safety, rooted in a limited perception, always right and true? Can our finite knowledge always be trusted? Regardless of valid experiences, can anger, fear, bitterness, or the ever-present political persuasion leave our outlook tainted?
In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a race-based affirmative action program for colleges that would prioritize cultural minorities in the admission process. A few years later, colleges have witnessed a significant decline in minority applicants, leaving many to question the definition of academic fairness. Does a “holistic” review of a college applicant leave them susceptible to being discounted if they are a minority? What about a legacy applicant?
The debates boil down to one central question: In seeking fairness, are we sacrificing the richness of diversity, or are we honoring God’s design for merit, dialogue, and equal dignity?
As a woman who is 8/16ths Native American, Cherokee Tribe, Deer Clan, I have a unique perspective concerning this academic hot topic. I’m able to recognize that I couldn’t control the parents to whom I was born. I’m unable to challenge or manipulate my genetic history, rich with Native American ancestors, maternally and paternally.
Meanwhile, given my half-Native blood status, I could attend reservation-only colleges. This made me question three crucial points before deciding what was morally best given this limited opportunity: identity, involuntary requirements, and an honest end goal.
Who Defines the Worth of Our Identity?
The world has countless definitions concerning who we are. There are undeniable giveaways concerning who we are, like our gender, age range, and ethnicity. But there are many other ways people perceive us. We are often categorized by our career, community standing, and social media presence.
Then, unfortunately, we are easily judged by not-so-concrete facts. We are labeled by someone else’s experience concerning someone like us. We can be a reminder, a trigger, of another person’s hurt, and then we are labeled “bad,” “to be avoided,” or “downright evil.”
Nonetheless, no matter how the world perceives us, we must recognize three things:
1. We can’t allow another flawed person’s limited perception of reality to dictate who we are and how much we are worth.
2. The only One who gets to define us is our Creator, God.
3. Until we recognize 1 and 2, our true identity will be susceptible to an ever-changing, broken world.
The core of our being is wrapped up in Christ, and the core of education is wrapped up in academic excellence and student leadership. If we allow criteria outside those things to dictate a student’s acceptance into a college or university, we have allowed man’s outside opinion, whether good or bad, to impact the decision, creating bias.
In the end, I decided against a reservation school because I felt I was being judged, even if in a positive way, based on my race, not my academic excellence. This made me feel like I wouldn’t be pushed as hard in my education journey, as the school’s primary requirement was nothing concerning what I had earned by perseverance and hard work.
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10
Why Fairness Can’t Rest on What We Can’t Control
One of the toughest things for me to accept about Christianity is how I can’t earn my salvation. My head knows this fact, but my heart gets flustered, as I want to earn God’s favor. But isn’t that me simply trying to feel good about myself rather than humbly receiving what I don’t deserve? Of course, choosing salvation is voluntary, but the method by which we receive salvation is involuntary, meaning God’s performance settles the matter, not ours.
“For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights as a preacher of the gospel.” 1 Corinthians 9:16-18
In the human world, where we interact with each other via schooling, jobs, extracurricular activities, etc., the only way for things to be fair is by no one acting as God, dictating involuntary requirements on each other. If someone can’t help a certain aspect of their natural being, we can’t use that to qualify or disqualify them from an opportunity. Similar to America’s 1990 disabilities act, you can’t deny someone a job because they have a disorder or disease, but you can give them the job, regardless, if they have met all outside criteria.
In the end, requirements shouldn’t be based on involuntary, uncontrollable factors, but on a person’s character and their willingness to prioritize hard work, perseverance, and excellence. If we allow criteria to be based on anything else, we will, undoubtedly, single out a certain group of people.
“If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” 1 Corinthians 12:26-27
The True Goal of Education
To determine how a college selects its students, it must decide its honest end goal. What does the university want to achieve? What legacy does it hope to leave? How does it want to be identified?
It’s my hope that most, if not all, colleges have the end goal of producing well-rounded, academically sound adults who are prepared to use their knowledge and wisdom gleaned from their college years to better the world. If a college isn’t producing healthy leaders in the workforce, what is it producing? Anything more is, well, impossible. Anything less is a disservice to the university itself, the workforce, and all current and future students.
Our God-given equality, certainly where race is concerned, means we aren’t limited by our color. We don’t have to be controlled by human factors decided before we were born. Our end goal can be settled by the good news of the Gospel, that who we are when we are born doesn’t have to dictate who we will become. Though sinners, no matter our color, we all have the opportunity to receive grace and walk in God’s goodness, allowing that to be the method by which we gain wisdom and offer others the chance to enrich their lives.
God’s love is never fair because it gives each of us a great gift we don’t deserve, but only He is able to so delicately distribute such a beautiful sense of unfairness. Unfairness in human hands is detrimental, and I pray that we allow the criteria for heaven to forever be nothing but Christ and the criteria for academic acceptance to be nothing but an even playing field where humans of all backgrounds are rewarded for pursuing God-honoring qualities of excellence, leadership, and perseverance.
Remember, in the end, the Bible recognizes that winners are those safe in Christ’s performance, but these winners are so filled with such safety that they are free to radically pursue hard things and allow their differences to promote character, and character, empathy, and empathy, change.
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/Victoria Heath
