Michael wrote:

Racism is racism is racism. It matters not what direction or what
circumstance. I see no difference between those who would put a person in
school based on their being 'the right color' than one who would keep a
person out based on their being 'the wrong color'.

Well, you just aren't looking at the situation realistically. It is not racism
at all, it is rationing.

Fact- there are only so many places for students at colleges.
Fact- students vary *widely* in brainpower, athletic skill, and other
achievements.
Fact- getting a degree is a big step up in future prospects

So, how does one decide which students get in and which ones don't? It might be
fun to simply dump all prospective college applicants into a big pit and let
them fight it out... the survivors get into school. But that would not pick the
smartest, would it?

In the past, colleges have been entirely composed of rich WASP males (except for
the Jewish & Catholic colleges). The main requirement was the ability to pay.

Our society recognizes that people outside this limited circle can make great
contributions, so we like to try and let in students that have some prospect of
making advances in the sciences. Smart & motivated kids, in other words.

Now factor in that all high schools are not created equal, and you might see the
picture... let in kid A who is from a poor school but has great grades, fine
recommendations, and mediocre test scores; or kid B from a whitebread suburban
high school with equally good grades, recommendations slanted by family
connections, and test scores that are the product of a high-dollar seminar on
'How To Maximize Your SAT'? Or should we dump both kids and go with kids C & D
who are both dumb as stumps but are scions of politically powerful & wealthy
families?

There is no level playing field. Some kids are going to get left out. It has
been proven beyond a doubt that without some type of affirmative action
programs, minority students get left out no matter how promising they are...
unless they are football or basketball stars...


It's just another case
of supporting a pesonal definition 'lesser evil' and is, therefore, simply a
case of perpetuating evil

Another illogical and unsupportable statement. Where do you get this stuff?

Higher education is a valuable resource. We have to determine a rational &
positive means of distributing that asset. Nothing "evil" about it... just an
attempt to be fair, but as always, the ones left out are crying foul.

Regards- Doug King