U.N.C. Admissions Lawsuit Brings Another Attack on Affirmative Action

New York Times ^ | January 18, 2019 | Anemona Hartocollis

[southernnorthcarolina]

This case will be interesting to watch.

As a UNC grad (the New York Times calls it U.N.C., but they are wrong, as usual), I will admit that we do give extra consideration to applicants who are adept at hitting 3-pointers or grabbing rebounds.

That said, I deplore racial preferences. So, to enlarge the point beyond the specific UNC case, my solution has always been a simple one: federal, state, and local governments should stop identifying people by race. We need to be truly color-blind at some point, but when? Now would be good.

As a practical matter, how does the racial preference/affirmative action system work as races become increasingly mixed? If a person is 1/8 black, does he or she qualify as entitled to racial preferences? How 'bout 1/16? What about a person who is 3/16 Asian, 1/8 Hispanic, 1/16 black, and 1/16 Pacific Islander? This way madness lies. Just stop it.