If you were serious about helping blacks and other minorities, you would try to get them some decent education long before they reached the college level. But that would require upsetting the status quo with things like vouchers. More to the point, it would upset the teachers' union that supplies millions of dollars in campaign contributions to the Democrats. Politicians find it more expedient to sacrifice the education of another generation of minority students and offer the symbolism of getting them into the kinds of colleges where their poor preparation almost ensures that most are going to fail. The article Lord Basil linked was published in 1999. Doesn't look like much has changed, does it?