Race a “Specialized Talent”? –

Race a “Specialized Talent”? – Joanne Jacobs links to an interesting dialog about elite college admissions at The Atlantic Online between James Fallows and Jacques Steinberg, author of The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College (Viking).

So far there are only two (long) entries, but this is good reading for anyone interested in what goes on behind the closed doors of elite admissions offices. I would, however, like to take issue with Steinberg’s one brief comment (so far) about the lower requirements for minorities:

And I would argue that one can’t criticize the arguably lower standard against which a minority candidate might be judged (especially one whose parents had not attended college, who would be coded as “NCP,” or “non-college parent,” in admissions lingo) without also looking at the standards against which other applicants with specialized talents are held.

Actually, one can, and I will. Race is not a “specialized talent.” Racial discrimination, i.e., distributing benefits or burdens based on race, is not the same as discriminating on the basis of athletic or musical ability or the alumni status of one’s parents. There is no Constitutional prohibition that bars discrimination for or against tight ends or tuba players. All discrimination, in short, is not the same; the fact that preferences for some reasons are acceptable does not mean that preferences for any reason are.