A note on affirmative action:

In a competitive system where one person getting a spot means that another person doesn’t, if diversity is the goal (rather than a means to an end), then achieving that goal comes at the expense of pure merit.

I suspect most beneficiaries of affirmative action are qualified in the sense that they still clear a reasonable minimum bar.

But one can clear a minimum bar while still being relatively less qualified than other people who also cleared that minimum bar.

You can be qualified and still not be the best.

Affirmative action does not select for the most qualified applicants. This is not a statement about what ought to be, but what is the case.

I’m open to the argument that this is fine, or even initially was fine, in universities.

The argument would be something like: American universities serve a social role in society such that it’s important that they are ethnically representative of American society, rather than being almost uniformly white, Asian, Jewish, and foreigners, as they would be if purely meritocratic.

But we should be honest about the tradeoffs that entails.

On a separate note, affirmative action doesn’t even properly help who it’s intended to - for example, American black people who have intergenerational trauma from slavery.

50-66% of black students at Harvard in 2004 were immigrants, children of immigrants, or children or biracial couples.

I’m first generation. My parents are from Ghana. I am not an appropriate beneficiary of affirmative action. Yet I was likely treated as one.

Yes I’ve experienced modern racism. It hasn’t been much, and it hasn’t had a significant impact on my life.

I had excellent test scores when I applied and like to think I would have gotten into Harvard no matter what, but I don’t know.

And there will always be a question hanging over my head as to whether I would have gotten in purely on merit.

Affirmative action isn’t even optimally focused who it’s intended to help.

It’s not appropriate for government. We pay for government for a service, and it should be optimally designed for that service, not to serve other agendas.

We should make sure that nepotism, racism, and misogyny aren’t getting in the way of that service.

But not through affirmative action.

Diversity as an end unto itself sacrifices pure efficacy.

Diversity sought as a means to an end supports pure efficacy.