<p>It is good to be among reasonable people :). What is most sickening is that AA, as practiced, focuses on pure race-counting (look, eighteen black people!) without paying attention to which, if any, of these people has ever suffered any disadvantage related to race. Then its advocates turn around and defend it as a way to do justice and compensate for early-childhood inequalities or unrealized potential. Then they accuse Caltech, which actually does pay attention to disadvantage as opposed to color, of being biased. (Though this ridiculous argument is, thankfully, rare.) It boggles the mind.</p>
<p>We at Caltech will never behave as if black people are disadvantaged just because they are black. We will give an equal hearing to anyone who has had to fight adversity, and reward a person’s accomplishment in the context of his opportunities. Not the opportunities of his-race-taken-as-a-whole. We will not assume a person’s race is a proxy for his experiences, which is racism plain and simple. And in this we will retain the moral high ground over our weaker brethren who adopt results-oriented but unfortunately racist expedients.</p>