Jon Brelig

Much has been said by racists, politicians, and racist politicians (like Bo French) about Indians and UT Austin admissions. I thought I should shed some light so their racism could be slightly more intelligent. I'm a brown kid. I grew up in Frisco, went to a massive Texas high school, and went to UT. I would wager that the kids in this picture and I have practically the same background. Like me, they probably went to a massive, pressure-cooker suburban Texas high school, and survived the gauntlet to earn their admissions. These aren’t foreigners. State law requires 90% of UT's freshman class to be Texas residents. 75% of those in-state seats go to automatic admission on class rank. These are Texans. Texas, for better or worse, is one of the few meritocratic college admissions schemes in the country for a school of its caliber. The rules are simple. Today, the top 5% of a public school's graduating class is automatically accepted. There is nothing to game. You can’t fake being a competitive rower or have some consultant write your essays for you. There isn’t anything to steal; it’s all there on the table to compete for. And the competition starts the moment the bell rings for your first period of freshman year. You are ranked in your class every single year, for us, #1 to #450. You knew exactly where you were, exactly how hard you had to compete. My year was even less competitive than it is today. The top 6% made the cut, so that’s an all-out war for ~27 kids to get auto-accepted into UT. So we worked our butts off. Here's what my life was like, starting in kindergarten. Every summer, before the school year started, I had to finish the upcoming year's math textbook. I sweated over getting As, even in elementary school. One funny memory is walking to my parents' room, crying, to report my first-ever 89 on a report card. I did Kumon, my least favorite thing in the world. I still hate that weird half-smile that is their logo. I went to math and science competitions, where I always lost, and came home crying again. (Quite the crybaby, wasn't I!) And everyone else around me worked just as hard. Actually, a lot of the kids worked much harder. I know people who took extra classes (zero period) just to boost their GPA. Who routinely slept 5 hours a night to nail every assignment they had after band practice. Who were distraught when they got a 98 instead of a 100. People who stopped doing things they loved, like sports or arts, because those classes dragged down their GPA. People put their entire life force into getting into this school. I wasn't even in the top 10% of my class. The competition was too good. I wasn't disciplined enough to hang with them. I got in as one of the 22.5% of admits who are at-large Texans. These are American kids who earned their way into this school in the most American way possible. Competition. They were told the rules, they competed, and they got the number. And on Saturday they were in that stadium in burnt orange, screaming their heads off, like every other Texan at DKR or around the country. I can’t feel anything but pride for them. That they get to live the dream that so many of us dreamt growing up! Kids like this have helped improve UT’s standing on the national stage. They made it out of the pressure cooker and placed well in Finance, Big Tech, and more recently, startups. They meaningfully contribute to the economies of our state and country. You should be proud of them too. Overall, this seems like a meritocratic (albeit flawed) way for Texans to be admitted to our state’s flagship school. It’s racially blind. But politicians like Bo French are asking for something different. They want the student body to rebalance racially. Surely they aren’t advocating for affirmative action, are they?