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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Of all the people focusing on affirmative action I have the following points.

1. The numbers are African americans and Hispanics at elite schools are relatively small, less than the percentage 
in the general population.  For example, there are 88 African amercians in last year's freshman class at Darmouth.  Out of 1152.
2.  Why is it accepted that athletes are okay but seeking other types of diversity is not?  What value does a lacrosse player really add?  I don't agree with this premise.  It gives you an admissions edge even when there are no scholarships attached.  Thus, it becomes a preference based upon your ability to pay for Lacrosse (or fill in the blank) in order to gain an admissions edge.  
3.  Most of you suppose that all  or most of the minority applicants are unqualified.  It presumes that they are nearly always inferior, and therein lies the cruelest of all lies.  First, most minority applicants that are admitted have very high qualifications.  Refusal to acknowledge this devalues these young men and women and is, frankly, insulting.  Look at the Common data sets for school.  Most admitted students meet a very high standard and it is very few who fall below a certain SAT and GPA. 
4.  Pretending that it does the minority no favors and that you feel sorry for the poor minority who cant cut it in the big leagues is also really laughable.  
5.  Scapegoating minorities is not going to make this process any less competitive.

I could go on but you get my points.  [/quote]

The easy answer to minority admissions being given the appropriate respect as opposed to assumptions that they are the result of preferences is to make ALL admissions to be based on merit.

Legacy and sports related preferences don't draw a distinction when it comes to race except to the extent that legacy admissions for historical reasons go more to whites than other races.

If one is going to offer some sort of preference to the disadvantaged then the criteria should be based on socio-economic status. The child of a coal miner in West Virginia is disadvantaged but if he/she is white then there is no preference given to that applicant. Yet, the child of an affluent black or Hispanic parent would get preference just based on race.[/quote]

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