Several weeks ago I commented, generally favorably, on a column by Robyn Blumner, a thoughtful (former ACLU volunteer) liberal, in the St. Petersburg Times. Today she has one that I endorse without the earlier reservations.
Discussing Bakke, she writes:
When choosing between student applicants of relatively equal merit, Powell approved of giving the edge to the minority in order to bring diversity to the campus.
But throughout the educational landscape, the competition has not been between black and white students of equal qualifications. Instead, a whole separate set of admissions criteria has been applied to minorities, with standards set far below those white students must obtain. Schools use quotas in everything but name — just the kind of racially discriminatory benefit distribution the 14th Amendment was designed to prevent.
Unfortunately, the editors of Blumner’s paper apparently failed to read her column before writing their editorial, which also appears today, endorsing racial preferences.
