PREFER CHARACTER TO PRIVILEGE:

[T]he Grutter decision failed to recognize that if race is used as a factor to decide whether a person gets into the college of their choice, it will inevitably become the determining factor in at least some cases. The elevation of one group based on their race necessarily means that another group is hindered because of their race. 

The 14th Amendment clearly prohibits such a practice, and the court's decisions on Thursday in cases involving Harvard and the University of North Carolina highlighted that using race as a reason to reject some applications is unconstitutional.

"Respondents' race-based admissions systems also fail to comply with the Equal Protection Clause's twin commands that race may never be used as a 'negative' and that it may not operate as a stereotype," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote. "College admissions are zero-sum, and a benefit provided to some applicants but not to others necessarily advantages the former at the expense of the latter."

The use of affirmative action in college admissions primarily hurt Asian Americans, who at Harvard University have had higher average test scores than any other racial group, yet the lowest rate of admissions.

Race-based admissions was a crude tool that colleges have used to pursue what they are truly after, which is diversity of experience. Eliminating affirmative action will do nothing to hinder diversity of perspective and doesn't preclude racial experience from being considered as one part of an application.

Students can still use their college essays to discuss their experience growing up as a member of a racial group, what challenges that upbringing posed and how they overcame any discrimination that stood in their path. Those topics are compelling expressions of character and perspective and can highlight the value of diversity.

"A benefit to a student who overcame racial discrimination, for example, must be tied to that student's courage and determination," Roberts wrote. "Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant's discussion of how race affected his or her life." 

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