Slam Dunk: A Supreme Court Case in Poetic Form [Regents of the University of California v. Bakke]

Author's Note: I wrote this for a project in AP Government last year. The essence of this U.S. Supreme Court case is that the University of California at Davis Medical School had an affirmative action program in place that resulted in our white protagonist, Allan Bakke, being twice denied admission to UC Davis, despite having radically better qualifications than the students who were admitted in his place. The reason why? Sixteen of the one hundred spots in every incoming class were reserved for minorities. The students in this applicant pool competed only against each other. I researched this case for an earlier project in that class and, being a Caucasian girl who has having similar difficulties herself, was outraged at what happened to Bakke. I opted to write the Slam portion of the poem to express my feelings on the subject. My teacher advised me that 'it's always good to present both sides;' hence the Dunk section.
What does the Court ultimately decide should be Bakke's fate? Listen to find out. c;
Regrettably the poem is too long for YouTube to allow me to include it in the description. If you really can't stand my voice, the text is transcribed on screen, so you can mute the audio. I warn that you may miss out on some of the effect that by doing that, though.

© 2011 Kaitlyn Breana Downey

Category:

Education

Tags:

• slam
• dunk
• united
• states
• supreme
• court
• educational
• america
• university
• college
• allan
• bakke
• regents
• california
• affirmative
• action
• poem
• spoken
• AP
• Government

[greyisokay]

such cryptic casseroles. sheer brilliance.

[fortheloveofLDS]

@greyisokay Thanks. :D

[jaylee6038]

Slam Duck:A Supreme Court in Poetic[Regents of the University of Califomia v. Bakke]

Thank You so Very much!...

Jay Lee Family et al. God Bless You!...

[jaylee6038]

Slam Duck:A Supreme Court in Poetic[Regents of the University of Califomia v. Bakke]

Thank You so Very much!...

Jay Lee Family et al. God Bless You!...

[jpgoldade]

Great Job! You're amazing and very talented. Thanks for sharing.