[Tax-chick]

There is a place for preferences in higher education -- for those who come from poor homes or tough neighborhoods.

Why? If students from "poor homes or tough neighborhoods" don't have the academic qualifications for a particular college, their results are going to be no better than those of students placed above their level by racial preference.

If the author is talking about need-based financial aid, she needed to have specified that.

[SamuraiScot]

The pursuit of racial justice in education has arguably led to some benefits since its inception in the 1960s.

Name one. Hard cases make bad law—never more true than in this case.

[John O]

Not to mention the fact that due to affirmative action you can NEVER trust a minority to be as good at anything as a white. Did the minority really earn that degree or were they affirmative actioned into it? Would you trust your life to an affirmative action doctor? I wouldn’t.

I’ve found that most intelligent minorities hate affirmative action for this very reason. It has institutionalized racism and has desteroyed their professional reputation even before they graduated from college.

[Enterprise]

"But in the two generations that have elapsed since affirmative action began, evidence of its unintended consequences has accumulated -- "

Thus we have affirmative action's most catastrophic failure - Barack Obama.

[zzwhale]

Just more racial lib entitlement CRAP. Family structure and moral values are the starting point. My parents checked my homeworka and report cards, made sure I went to church and I had respect for my parents. Check out the ghettoes for FAMILY and RESPECT ... for anything, including self respect. Start there. there are plenty of educational facilities and not everyone should go to Harvard. Besides the ivy league has really slipped, become a liberal anti America cesspool of ignorance, and you can get a better education elsewhere.... for a lot less money. You do get “connections” out of the ivy league and maybe that is worth the extra bucks down the line.

[Aetius]

The major injustice of racial preferences is the discrimination against whites. To be fair Mona Charen does mention this in her article, but it’s almost in passing.

It’s pathetic that so many conservatives try to argue against preferences on the grounds that it hurts the very minorities they are designed to help. That argument won’t convince anyone. What, is a lesser qualified non-white student going to read that and turn down a preference-driven acceptance to a selective university? Of course not.

Why can’t conservatives rally against preferences because they hurt whites? It’s as though this reason for opposing preferences isn’t good enough.

Why can’t the GOP actually defend the interests of those who actually vote for them?