Martese Johnson and other UVa black students are in effect complaining about racial profiling, about singling out black students and treating them differently because of their race. It sounds like a principled argument, but it is not. It is wrong for the state to distribute either benefits (such as preferential admission) or burdens (such as racial profiling by police, stopping or arresting blacks disproportionately for the same offenses committed by others) on the basis of race. If treating black applicants to UVa differently because of their race violates no principle, why does it become a violation once they arrive?
Racial Profiling at the University of Virginia | National Review Online. Maybe because one mode of “treating differently” is legal and the other isn’t? Can Rosenberg really believe that if someone’s race is a factor in his or her admission to a university, then that person has somehow waived the right to protest against unprovoked and unjustified assault by law-enforcement officials? I don’t remember the last time I saw an argument more ridiculous than this.
