How "race neutrality" can save affirmative action: Americans' surprising commitment to fairness.

• Author: Glaser, James M.
• Position: TEN MILES SQUARE

"... such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) ... [shall] become the Seat of the Government of the United States"

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

With its much-anticipated decision in the case of Fisher v. University of Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that while it wouldn't strike down racial preferences in college admissions, it would raise the standards for their use. If colleges and universities are to diversify their student bodies, the Court ruled, they should adopt race-neutral vehicles with which to do it. Indeed, as Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, "If 'a nonracial approach .., could promote the substantial interest about as well and at tolerable administrative expense, '.., then the university may not consider race."

One might expect the general public to embrace Kennedy's opinion. After all, affirmative action, like many other race-conscious policies, is quite unpopular. Academic studies show that many people see a personal or group interest at stake in these policies--or what's perceived as a zero-sum trade-off. This in turn activates what social scientists call a "group conflict" mentality, where issues are viewed through the lens of fixed pie sizes and group competition. From this perspective, whites and Asians might oppose race-conscious admissions preferences because when more seats are allocated to blacks and Hispanics, it means that fewer seats will go to "people like us."

But what would public support look like if colleges and universities diversified their classes in a "race-neutral" way? Is "race neutrality" merely a rationalization for whites to use in protecting their share of the pie, or is there a genuine concern for the fairness of the process? If a racially neutral policy were to create more seats for blacks and Hispanics, would the public be more supportive-even if the increase came at the expense of whites and Asians? The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is yes.

We gauged the authenticity of the public's commitment to the principle of "race neutrality" with an experiment conducted in California just as that state was adopting a race-neutral approach to diversifying its premier state universities. The University of California system had gone from using race as an explicit "plus factor" to a process whereby the top 4 percent of students at each high school in the state would be guaranteed admission to a UC campus. The beauty of this approach is that it is racially neutral on its face, and yet it assures...