affirmative action

In case you haven't heard about the current Supreme Court case on affirmative action, the University of Michigan currently uses a 150 pt system to determine which applicants get accepted. Their policy is getting challenged because if an applicant is black, he or she receives a 20 pt gain.

But, this policy isn't as racially based as it may initially seem. Here's some food for thought:

But white students can get those 20 points too, if they are socioeconomically disadvantaged or attend a high school where most of the students are black or brown. Furthermore, the black students admitted to Michigan’s law school are in the top 16 percent of those who take the law school admissions test in the nation, Maureen Mahoney, another university lawyer, told the court. (full text)