It wasn't that these educators were merely afraid of accusations of racism. They were also afraid of admitting they were wrong. To do so would expose the lie that affirmative action is "just a tie breaker," rather than a deeply racist policy that assumes black inferiority and then uses the assumption to justify admitting unqualified students on the basis of race.
Looks like an honest discussion of race has started... this is worth reading.
Read Michele Obama's vacuous Princeton thesis--her range of intellectual depth goes all the way from a to b.