Plenty of other identity groups have suffered heavy discrimination across US history (Irish, Italians, Japanese, Jews, to name a few). They don't seem to requir

Plenty of other identity groups have suffered heavy discrimination across US history (Irish, Italians, Japanese, Jews, to name a few). They don't seem to require a policy like affirmative action to ensure they obtain a fair proportion of seats at top universities. Plenty of highly impoverished immigrants arrive in the US and have children that academically outperform the kids of very privileged parents. What's needed is not affirmative action but a more honest appraisal about what the real obstacles are for Black and Hispanic students. And perhaps we'll discover that those obstacles cannot in fact be legislated out of existence.