The University of California is in the process of shamelessly rigging the awarding of scholarships under a merit—based system, because certain racial groups (Asians and Caucasians) win too many awards, while certain more—favored minorities do not perform well.

A key faculty committee recommended unanimously Wednesday that the University of California stop giving scholarships to high—achieving students recognized by the prestigious National Merit Scholarship Program.

The committee urged abandonment of the scholarship program because it uses a single test score to select eligible students, saying it is a determination of "merit" that conflicts with UC's "comprehensive review" admissions procedure. Under comprehensive review, merit is determined by evaluating grades and test scores, as well as a student's extracurricular activities and life challenges, said committee chairman Michael Brown.

Any rhetoric about taking into account life experience is simply eyewash to disguise the intent of engineering a racial balance more in keeping with the desires of guilt—ridden mandarins, intent on ensuring that under—performing groups not be left out of those defined as high achievers.

I do not know the statistics about National Merit winners these days, but I do know the stats for admissions to UC Berkeley. Despite the casual assumption that whites must be "over—represented" the fact is that whites at UC Berkeley are actually an "under—represented minority." The reason is that Asian—heritage students outperform all other groups in academics, and occuppy a large share of the coveted slots at the nation's most competitive public university.

Let's be honest: the attempt to racially engineer outcomes in scholarships and admissions is nothing other than attempt to keep Adians "in their place" and limit the rewards of their legitimate achievement.

It is, in other words, racism against a racial minority.

Thomas Lifson   6 18 05