[Townhall] Lawsuits against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina are exposing the crude and dehumanizing racial sorting that goes on in the admissions offices at elite universities.The application form asks young people to check a box identifying themselves as either "(1) Asian, (2) Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, (3) Hispanic, (4) White, (5) African American or (6) Native American." White Hispanics with ancestors from Spain are lumped in with Central American immigrants. The Black child of a Harvard-trained doctor or diplomat checks the same box as a Black applicant living in a homeless shelter. The Asian category absurdly covers 60% of the world's population, from China to Japan to India.
Applicants who mark Hispanic or African American win acceptance with test scores and grades far below what whites or Asians, on average, need to get in, according to data presented to the court.
Broad categories are appropriate for sorting zoo animals -- reptiles over here, mammals over there -- but it's no way to recognize the humanity and individual merit of college applicants.
On Monday, the Supreme Court justices grilled the Harvard and UNC attorneys. The questions indicate the Court is likely to outlaw using race to determine who is accepted.
Universities could still consider the achievements of applicants who convey in their personal essay or interviews that they have overcome hardships related to their race. Patrick Strawbridge, a lawyer for Students for Fair Admissions, which brought the lawsuits, explained what SFFA objects to is the consideration of "race by itself."