"It pains me to say this, but putting down black might help my admissions chances and putting down Asian might hurt it."

A modest "might."

“My mother urges me to put down black to use AA” — African-American — “to get in to the colleges I’m applying to,” [wrote Natasha Scott, pseudonymously, on a college admissions discussion website.] “I sort of want to do this but I’m wondering if this is morally right.”

Within minutes, a commenter had responded, “You’re black. You should own it.” Someone else agreed, “Put black!!!!!!!! Listen to your mom.”

How many applicants go through a moral quandary? Would you? Or would you say whatever is defensibly true that would help you the most? When you help yourself you hurt someone in this zero-sum game, do you not? Proponents of affirmative action say you do not. I won't spell out what the argument is, but if you can't think it up on your own, that might be some indication of its speciousness.

ADDED: Our President "put black." That's the most conspicuous analysis of morality young people have.

ALSO: The NYT inserts "African-American" explaining the statement "My mother urges me to put down black to use AA." Surely, Scott wrote "AA" to abbreviate "affirmative action."

"I hear so much of the pain from students, faculty or staff... People look at me differently because I am x, y or z."

Said Damon Williams, the University of Wisconsin Vice Provost for Diversity and Climate, at last night's Student Town Hall Meeting.

Williams presented issues progressing on campus and others that have remained the same or regressed. One of those issues progressing is the university's undergraduate enrollment of minorities, but Williams will not be happy until UW-Madison is the "national champion."

Nearly a hundred students showed up to hear that and to be put in small groups to come up with specific ideas on assigned diversity subtopics like academic success and campus climate.

Students proposed ideas including giving social action leaders college credit for their volunteer work and changing ethnic studies classes to be purely discussion.

"Setting high expectations for Madison’s often-struggling minority students is the driving force behind an all-male charter school Caire is proposing for the district."

Madison Urban League President Kaleem Caire is one of the 5 Madisonians "to watch in 2012," according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

The school, to be called the Madison Preparatory Academy, would have longer school days, offer a college preparatory curriculum — and require students to wear uniforms.

As the proposal heads for preliminary approval from the School Board early this year and possible final approval in the fall, it already faces opposition from the teachers union, which opposes non-unionized charter schools, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, which opposes single-gender schools.

Why does the State Journal use the term "single-gender" instead of "single-sex" in this context? Anyway, I think the problem is making a special school for males and not having an equivalent one for females. But this isn't a case of training males for elite achievement (as it was in the Supreme Court case dealing with the Virginia Military Institute). Caire seems to be saying that males have a special problem that needs remediation. Actually, he seems to be saying black males have a special problem needing remediation:

Caire views the school as a key step toward building a stronger black middle class in Madison....

An underdeveloped black middle class in Madison means fewer positive role models for youth, Caire said, which partly explains why the city has disproportionately lower graduation rates and higher incarceration rates among minorities. 

But it's not racial discrimination that's being proposed. It's sex discrimination. In equal protection law, race discrimination must be justified — at least theoretically — meeting a higher standard than sex discrimination. But if the government interest to be served by sex discrimination is characterized as racial, does that make the argument for sex discrimination weaker or stronger?

Please discuss. I'll say more later.