Is Some Level of Racial Discrimination in Admissions Acceptable, or Not?

To the Editor:

Regarding Julie Park’s careful analysis of Harvard admissions practices, she makes the case that any superficial anti-Asian discrimination is inadvertent and a function of other factors, like a relative tendency for Asian students to come from public high schools and the relative tendency of white students to benefit from sports and legacy advantages (“Does Harvard Really Discriminate Against Asian American Students?, The Chronicle Review, March 7). She concludes by defending “[r]ace-conscious admissions” because they promote a more favorable college environment. Her support for race consciousness is paradoxical, however, in that she just denied that Harvard has engaged in racial discrimination, which presumably would have been a bad thing. Why parse the data to disprove direct discrimination if some level of discrimination is apparently desirable in order to create an environment for students that is “preparing them to contribute to a complex, diverse society?”

Robert Hordon
Westport, Conn.