Update: This interview with black conservative writer Shelby Steele is a must-read. Sample quote:
“Affirmative action and all of its sundry manifestations should be completely eliminated. It stigmatizes all blacks, and it’s not voluntary. One of the real cruelties of affirmative action is that whether we want it or not, it is imposed on us, simply because of the color of our skin. You don’t get to opt out.”
Steele has a new book coming out in May. I appeared on a panel with him last year (see posts here and here). He’s one of America’s last true gentlemen.
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You may recall Southern Illinois University’s (SIU) “fight” with the Department of Justice (DOJ) about its “minority” fellowships. DOJ sued SIU because the fellowships discriminated against whites, and SIU stopped the practice. (For the time being, that is. I suspect they’ll resurrect it in some other form.)
Other colleges, now running scared, are taking preemptive measures. Many are opening up race- and sex-based scholarships to whites and men. Keep in mind, they’re not doing so out of any sense of decency or remorsefulness for blatantly violating the Constitution. They just don’t want to get sued.
In this case, however, motives matter little. The results are infinitely more important. From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
In January, the State University of New York made white students eligible for $6.8 million of aid in two scholarship programs also previously available just for minorities. Pepperdine University is negotiating with the Education Department over its use of race as a criterion in its programs.
“They’re all trying to minimize their legal exposure,” Susan Sturm, a law professor at Columbia University, said about colleges and universities. “The question is how are they doing that, and are they doing that in a way that’s going to shut down any effort or any successful effort to diversify the student body?”
Well, Professor Sturm, if the goal to diversify the campus is only skin deep, perhaps the administrators ought to rethink it. If the goal is to acquire the best students of any race, I doubt they’ll have much trouble recruiting them, especially if they sweeten the money pot.
May this sound the death knell for all government-mandated skin color preferences and considerations. I’m glad at least one bloated government agency managed to do the job it’s charged to do.
Now if we can only get this one to do its job. 
Related posts:
- Do You Hate Black People?
- White Liberals Support ‘Diversity’ in Theory, Not Practice
- High-Profile Liberal Blogger Favors Merit Over Skin Color Considerations
