Nerd, you make excellent points. Right up until you equate creating a diverse student body with "Affirmative Action."

Who loses with Affirmative Action? The priviledged elite? Never! Want to take a guess at how many upper middle class white kids don't get to go to college because of Affirmative Action? I guess zero, personally.

The ones who lose are their economic and social peers that don't happen to be black/female/insert-minority-here. The ones who go to the same underfunded and under performing schools, whether they be poor inner city schools or poor rural schools. Affirmative Action by it's nature marginalizes minorities and reinforces stereotypes, mostly of the "lazy" or "stupid" black man. Often it assumes that neither white "less priviledged" or wealthy/middle class black kids have anything to contribute in that student community.

I've come to believe that Affirmative Action was a crucial step toward civic rights in this country, when it was the only way to improve diversity by getting black kids on campus or in jobs. But I think it's starting to cause more damage than it repairs, even though the intentions are generally nothing but good. I think it's time to move away from it and work harder on giving minorities (and everyone) the tools -- mostly education -- they need to compete fairly instead of continuing to shortchange kids and then patronize the minority community by throwing them a few bones via Affirmative Action.