"No society can be simultaneously fair, free, and equal."

Columbia linguist John McWhorter confessed in The New York Times last week that in high school he didn't bother "seeking the academic mountaintop" because, with racial quotas and preferences in place, his grades and test scores "wouldn't affect my future." So eliminating quotas may marginally increase black students' test scores.

The nation has benefited from excellence of various kinds, some more often found in one group, others in others. The National Basketball Association doesn't much "look like America," either, and neither have the creators and performers of great popular music going back far into the American past.