Affirmative Inaction

I used to think that if American bigotry succeeded in banning affirmative action by public universities, the admissions committees would find ways to mitigate the racism. I once sat on an admissions committee, and all sorts of odd things did occur.

More interesting, the effort to keep black people in a second class status has backfired on bigots in a peculiar way. The results at UC-Berkeley came out recently. I don't have the exact statistics in front of me, but next year's new class will be over 40% Asians with Latinos in the high 30s, Whites just below Latinos, and Blacks below 5%. (Don't ask me how they counted Black, Asian or White Latinos or other groups who sometimes do well on tests like Episcopalians.)

When putting together a new class, the idea is to admit students who will succeed and who will constitute a great mix. You want tuba players, preacher's daughters, cowboys, rich kids, humorists, athletes, sculptors, business majors, Catholics, etc. Or maybe you just want those expert at taking standardized tests?