Report on historically black colleges....

Are you really arguing that race-neutral admissions policies are bigotry?

If racial descrimination is a good thing, then what was wrong with restricting black admissions in the past? If racial discrimination is a bad thing, then why should we support it now?

I don't think that we can rewrite the past and undo wrongs that past generations suffered. That stuff has already happened and that's that. What we can do is address the situation that exists right now.

If we believe that past racism still has a present day effect, presumably that harmful effect reveals itself in visible problems. These might include poverty, poor schools and so on. But these problems have to be observable themselves. If the harmful effects of past racism aren't observable and are only inferrable from observing somebody's skin color, then arguments that skin color is still associated with social problems becomes empty and circular.

So if we think that higher education needs to draw in individuals who might not otherwise get a university education (and leaving aside all the 'dumbing-down' issues), why not create race-neutral policies and programs that address whatever problems exist, instead of obsessing about skin pigment?

That would have two major advantages.

First, it would be consistent with American ideas of individual worth, as opposed to old-style racial descrimination and new-style identity politics. Put another way, race-neutral policies are more consistent with American ideals.

Second, it wouldn't haughtily ignore poor whites and Asians who obviously may suffer from things like poverty and poor schools. And it wouldn't award unnecessary benefits to successful blacks by simply assuming that because their ancestors came from Africa, they must be incompetent losers. In other words, race-neutral policies would lead to a more effective distribution of whatever social remediation we decide to create.