The Wall Street Journal has put the full Affirmative Action Backfires online. It's worth reading the whole thing.
In the meantime, a Spencerblog anonymous poster and law school admissions person explains to the thick of head:


"Affirmative action means just what it says: acting affirmatively to assure that minorities are represented in a pool of jobholders, students, etc.

What this generally entails is lowering, or, if you prefer, deemphasizing standard measures, like test scores, so that more minorities make the cut.

For example, in law school admissions, if the school requires students to have an LSAT score of "X" plus a GPA of "Y", if this formula doesn't yield enough black students, then Penn will say, we'll admit all black students with an LSAT of "X" minus 10, and a GPA of "Y" minus 10, and to make up for those 20 points, we'll give them credit for life experience or something like that.

Believe me, I know. I worked in law school admissions.

(I mention black students because enough Latinos always make the cut without affirmative action, or at least enough Cubans and South Americans do; Mexicans and Puerto Ricans don't. Don't call me a racist; this is just a fact. That's why we have affirmative action.)"