<p>I will proceed to respond to OP’s post as if it was made in good faith. If it was not, then I apologize to the members of this forum for cluttering the feed with more posts.</p>
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<p>There are socioeconomic considerations made in the application process as well, so an individual from a poor neighborhood (let’s remember, admissions offices do have something of a profile of the neighborhood and school quality) does receive additional consideration. It’s in cases like these where I imagine the interview, personal essay, and school profile would come into play.</p>
<p>To answer your question, OP, it is an unfortunate truth that given the mess of categories that we, as a society, have constructed for easier assignments of identity results in your hypothetical situation (where one individual almost automatically receives a bit more consideration in the application process). However, I would urge you to step back and take a more nuanced view of this issue in its abstract form. Group psychology, as applied to African-Americans and other members of the African Diaspora, explains why admissions offices are loath not to give an applicant of African descent additional consideration.</p>