In an amicus brief submitted by a “racially diverse group of students and alumni who seek to protect Harvard College’s freedom to consider race in admissions,” one low-income, Mexican American student detailed “the anxiety and self-doubt she often felt walking around campus and entering classrooms, only to find minimal racial diversity.” This student said that she “would ‘take note mentally of the number of people of color’ whenever she walked into a classroom and was far more nervous, and less likely to speak up, when her fellow students were less diverse.”

Such testimony only undermines the case for racial preferences. That a young adult felt so unsure of herself as a result of affirmative action should give advocates pause—not least because the same brief went on to note this student’s “extraordinary achievements across multiple domains, including her top-tier class rank, strong Advanced Placement scores, athletic success, and work as a newspaper editor and volunteer.” She sounds like someone who could have gotten into Harvard on the basis of merit; if she had, perhaps she would not feel “anxiety” and “self-doubt” at school.

The way to make underrepresented minorities feel at ease on college campuses is not to suggest, through racial preferences, that they are inferior to their white and Asian peers and require special help. It’s to treat them equally.

[We can certainly hope so. The extraordinary achievements can now speak for themselves rather than exist under the cloud that set-asides and preferential treatment create. Let’s also not overlook the recent polling cited by Aaron Blake at the WaPo that showed only 19% of black Americans viewing affirmative action favorably, and only 11% citing any personal benefit from it. Even apart from its unconstitutionality, the program has been a miserable failure. — Ed]