Discrimination is the fundamental goal of college admissions, unless it is a school that accepts everyone who applies.

There are multiple existing bases for such discrimination that don’t make headlines because we’re used to them: grades, test scores, geography, hobbies, interests, national origin, etc. Basically, all the stuff that goes into each kid’s application.

In that context it seems kind of silly to hold up one basis—self-expressed racial identity—as absolutely off-limits for any consideration at all.