As an academic I know of young minorities from comfortable or affluent backgrounds, kids with good-but-not-outstanding grades and academic skills, who nevertheless gained entrance to elite universities on the basis of race alone. Our president is probably one of these.
Affirmative action based on race may have created as almost as many inequalities as it's ameliorated, as Cynthia Tucker points out in her opinion piece for Yahoo News. As a conservative Supreme Court takes up the proposition of eliminating race as an entrance criterion, Tucker proposes using low family income in lieu of race as a color-blind criterion for preference.
Although generally opposed to preferences based on group membership, I for one would find Tucker's economic-circumstances-based preferences more palatable. Such criteria would fit in with our culture's value of meritocracy and upward mobility.
