Yup, you're right I misread. With that said, a degree from Harvard is a golden ticket to success, anyone would be torn about giving that up. The issue is not th

Yup, you're right I misread. With that said, a degree from Harvard is a golden ticket to success, anyone would be torn about giving that up. The issue is not that the ideals are disagreeable its that they have very real consequences in making it harder for certain demographics to have an equal shot at that ticket. "That statement begs the question that you or OP can and should be defining Harvard's admission criteria in the first place" This argument can then be applied to any school or workplace. Upset that google has started prioritizing White candidates, refer to your argument, who are you to question it? Upset that Princeton suddenly said they had too many minority students, who are you to question it? It doesn't work that way, anyone is free to question anything and blindly accepting things because someone says that these people know better is not a good thing in a free society. "If it's racist to acknowledge these facts, then it is also racist not to" No one is ignoring racism and its history but rather I am arguing that college admissions is not the place to address them. College should provide an equal arena for everyone to compete for admissions based on academic and extra-curricular achievements. Intervention to bring minority applicants up to a competitive level should be done in early childhood up through highschool. The SAT is simply a series of questions that test academic achievement, getting rid of a test because a group does not do well on it is a race to the bottom in much the same way as removing advanced math from a highschool curriculum is. The problem should be fixed at the source, if Harvard wants to make an impact, take a few billion of their endowment and donate it to local school districts that are struggling to provide for their children. "That's an unserious, facile argument that ignores 400+ years of history" I'm going to ignore the insults. Coming to a resolution that helps the affected minority should not be based on punishing one group to raise up another. It should be focused on raising all groups up to an equal stage, that can only happen if work starts with the young. You're right, its Harvard's call to do what ever they want and to spend their endowment however they want but everyone is entitled to an opinion and to proffer a proposal on a message board. Discrimination based on race is the definition of racism, that's not an opinion, its simply the factual definition of the word. From the oxford dictionary, racism is defined as "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized." Note: typical means usually, not always. I appreciate your view point; as a father of young white kids, I disagree with it but I understand how you are likely approaching this from an equal but opposite position. Edit: Harvard's current racial demographics white: 39% Asian: 20% Black: 8% Whites are already underrepresented as a portion of the general population by 50%. Blacks are underrepresented by ~5%