Jackson, J., dissenting
A plus, by its nature, can certainly matter to an admissions case. But make no mistake: When an applicant chooses to disclose his or her race, UNC treats that aspect of identity on par with other aspects of applicants’ identity that affect who they are (just like, say, where one grew up, or medical challenges one has faced).[1] And race is considered alongside any other factor that sheds light on what attributes applicants will bring to the campus and whether they are likely to excel once there.[2] A reader of today’s majority opinion could be forgiven for misunderstanding how UNC’s program really works, or for missing that, under UNC’s holistic review process, a White student could receive a diversity plus while a Black student might not.[3]
UNC does not do all this to provide handouts to either John or James. It does this to ascertain who among its tens
- ↑ 2 App. 706, 708; 3 id., at 1415–1416.
- ↑ 2 id., at 706, 708; 3 id., at 1415–1416.
- ↑ A reader might miss this because the majority does not bother to drill down on how UNC’s holistic admissions process operates. Perhaps that explains its failure to apprehend (by reviewing the evidence presented at trial) that everyone, no matter their race, is eligible for a diversity-linked plus. Compare ante, at 5, and n. 1, with 3 App. 1416, and supra, at 17. The majority also repeatedly mischaracterizes UNC’s holistic admissions-review process as a “race-based admissions system,” and insists that UNC’s program involves “separating students on the basis of race” and “pick[ing only certain] races to benefit.” Ante, at 5, and n. 1, 26, 38. These claims would be concerning if they had any basis in the record. The majority appears to have misunderstood (or categorically rejected) the established fact that UNC treats race as merely one of the many aspects of an applicant that, in the real world, matter to understanding the whole person. Moreover, its holistic review process involves reviewing a wide variety of personal criteria, not just race. Every applicant competes against thousands of other applicants, each of whom has personal qualities that are taken into account and that other applicants do not—and could not—have. Thus, the elimination of the race-linked plus would still leave SFFA’s members competing against thousands of other applicants to UNC, each of whom has potentially plus-conferring qualities that a given SFFA member does not.
