Megan McArdle on Affirmative Action:
This is not to make fun of liberals or conservatives who think that more poor kids ought to go to Harvard; that would indeed be nice. But the fact remains that very few kids are going to go to Harvard, no matter how you play around with their admissions formula. Good primary education, on the other hand, could help millions. It requires vigilance to root out the assumption that what’s good for the urban upper middle class, is good for America.
I think this more or less correct. The question then becomes, why is the small handful of minority kids who make to Harvard seen as such a great injustice? Could it be because the debate is less about poor white kids getting a fair shake, and more about better off white kids or their parents fretting about the possibility that their kid might not get into that elite school they have their heart set on and wanting someone to blame for it?